Product Review – Yokohama S.drive – Back in business!

Vermont is known for having multiple seasons (Winter, mud season, black flies, one week of summer, and foliage) and as such, we are blessed with a twice a year ritual for auto enthusiasts- tire swap day. The spring time version is the time when we ditch the steelies or crappy old alloys and snow tires for our nice stylish, and usually over-sized alloys wearing some great tires.

In the case of our B7 A4, the great tires are Yokohama’s S.drive high performance summer tires. It’s remarkable how much quieter and smoother the S.drive tires are than our old mostly worn out snow tires. This is not surprising in all honesty, but a true relief nonetheless.

As we found when we first mounted the S.drives up on our A4, these tires are really great all around tires, that also happen to have a very high threshold for spirited driving. Unlike softer all season tires, when you decide to push a little harder in the corners, the S.drive tires are at their best, with chunky tread blocks that don’t deflect all over the place, and rubber compound that are more than up to the challenge of even the most aggressive cloverleaf bombardment.

The best part of the S.drive tires though, there is no sacrifice in ride quality or noise. Since new, we have truly enjoyed the comfortable ride and quiet operation from these tires, but marveled at how much fun they make our daily commute over a twisty mountain road.