Have been driving on the new A550V tires and love them. I left the shop and hit the highway only to get a mile and hit Atlanta traffic. I thought the car died when slowing for traffic. Hardly, but was surprised at the difference in noise levels from the old tires.

It was hard to find a dealer in my area who had the tires. Every time a shop did not have them, they would try and sell be something else. Ended up being National Tire and Battery. Good service, however they did not torque the lugs as promised. The tire tech had three torque wrenches at his bay, but I watched him fail use a single one of them. I only live a few miles, it was Friday night so I decided to drive it home and torque myself. The brakes squealed the whole way home (when braking). My torque wrench snapped up to 120ftlbs...way to tight. Total bill out the door $544.86.

Thanks for all the input on tires!

I can say the same for my Bridgestone Potenza's, boy do they grip in the rain, nice and quiet & smooth on the Atlanta highways. I'll be taking them up to Raleigh this week so I get to see how they react to high speeds (I hope). Unfortunately, I spent more than you did, about $625 with no road hazard. But they are "V" rated.
--
Bob Kraushaar '94 945T, '91 940T(back from retirement), '88 240, '84 242Ti, '94 F-150, '89 560 SL, '68 Shelby GT-500 KR

Oh, by the way, same results you got as far as torquing the bolts. Asked them to do it, watched them not do it, did it myself when I got home. They've done (or NOT done) it twice now on both my 940's and they are always too tight and way different. Happily, my son enjoys torquing them correctly so he gets the job once we are home. Check the pressures too, I find they almost always set the pressure at 36 psi no matter what the sticker recommends. The last set had one tire set at 42 psi.
--
Bob Kraushaar '94 945T, '91 940T(back from retirement), '88 240, '84 242Ti, '94 F-150, '89 560 SL, '68 Shelby GT-500 KR

These are not listed at the Yokohama website. Do they have another name? Or is this a dealer-special tire?

That would be the avid 4...or that is a least what was quoted over the phone. The tires are one direction tires with the V-pattern in the middle. Gave $112 each and the rest of the cost was mounting etc.

Found this article.



Just purchased this product from Sears and was not provided any info by Sears on the tire aside from POP info. Contacted Yokohama by Email for further info and that was unable to to retrieve any info on internet about product. Was told by company that this product is sold specifically by Sears and is comparable to a certain degree as to the Avid H4/V4 tire. Requested further info and seem not to be getting much further info. Interested in other purchaser comments. Well, in two days I'm happy with performance but concerned with lack of prior experiences by others!

This scenario (certain type tires made for only one outlet) is true for a number of manufacturers and dealers. I assume a large outlet such as Sears or NTB can strike a cozy deal with a manufacturer because of volume. This way, the manufacturer can undercut the wholesale price to their own dealers since the "different model" is only available to the large volume outlet. Anyway, I know Sears and/or NTB have this type of relationship with Goodyear & Michelin since I tried getting a particular model tire to match the set on the car and had to go to NTB to get one and Sears to get another. It doesn't surprise me Yokohama would do the same as well as most other manufacturers. Sounds like the Harvard Business School has struck again.
--
Bob Kraushaar '94 945T, '91 940T(back from retirement), '88 240, '84 242Ti, '94 F-150, '89 560 SL, '68 Shelby GT-500 KR

I have owned one set of Yokohama's, a precursor to the H4, I believe. They were fast on treadwear which may be one reason why Tire Rack now offers a 45K treadwear warranty with the H4s they sell. Still the rating is only 360. I liked their perfomace, but switched to Bridgestone's that have a bit better wear rating with no decriment in performance, IMO. Tire Rack, by the way sells the H4s for $55 a piece plus shipping...which of course doesn't include mounting and road hazard warranties are not available through them.
--
John Shatzer, '97 V90 @ 98K

Yeah, I think they torque the tires according to how they feel about the customer... or whether it's been a bad day or not.

Seems like there's always one lugnut that gets leveraged up to about 200 foot pounds.

I bring my torque wrench to the tire shop. Straight up, I tell the sales person, if you don't let me torque my own lugs, I'm not buying tires from you.

I go one step further. I put the car up on jackstands and bring them JUST the wheels and tires. That way they don't get any wrenches near my aluminum wheels and I don't have to listen to them drone on about how my shocks and struts and brakes are all worn out (which they never are) to get me to spend another $1000 for work I don't need.
--
Lance '92 965 w/ 180K miles