I’ve changed out the Perfinzas for Yokohama Advan Sports .
After my Kolhapur trip, on August 16th, I was getting a routine Wheel Alignment and Road Force Balancing done. I felt that the tread depth on the front tyres was a bit less. Measured it and the front two tyres had just 3mm of life and the rear two tyres were between 4 and 4.5 mm.
Front Left
Front Right
Rear Right
Rear Left
If I had swapped the two fronts to the rear, I could have run for another 5000 kms. However, as you know, I’m not shy about trying new tyres and given that tyres are my favourite part of the car, I decided to swap it then and there.
The Michelin PS4 was obviously a great choice but it was quite common on vRS’s. So, I wanted to try something different and decided to try the Yokohama Advan Sport.
Before I dive into the Yokos, here is a summary of my experience with the MRF Perfinzas.
TLDR version: They are absolutely BRILLIANT! I love them and they did everything I expected from them and more. They never lost grip except for a couple of instances of extremely hard cornering in the wet on concrete roads (the slightly hilly stretch after Belgaum). The ride comfort was quite decent, the tyre was strong and survived a couple of very bad hits. My wheels got bent but the tyres were in perfect shape.
The noise level on the MRFs were also acceptable. I have done a few drives with colleagues and those times, the music was switched off but even at high speeds, we didn’t have any major tyre noise to speak off. The wind noise had a bigger impact at those speeds.
What could have been better on the Perfinzas? Honestly, I can always go on asking for more grip, but it doesn’t matter. Except for a couple of really hard moments, the Perfinzas rose the occasion every time. I had a couple of moments on the highways where I had to brake hard and suddenly and the car stopped without any drama.
Yes, the Michelin PS4 or the Yokohama Advan Sport may be better, but it’s like saying the Mercedes Benz C63 S is faster than the regular C63. Most normal people wouldn’t be able to use the regular C63 itself to it’s fullest, so any performance increment is kinda useless.
I feel the same with the Perfinza. It will be a lovely option for people who want a good all-round tyre. The pricing in 17” is too close to the PS4 to justify it in this size. However, in it’s other sizes, 15” and 16”, it is a FANTASTIC option.
The tyre life is something to keep in mind. I got 27k kms, maybe pushed to 30k if I had rotated the tyres properly…. However, this was with a lot of fast driving in a 230 bhp 350NM heavy car. On regular sedans using 15” and 16” sizes, I expect the tyres to last 35-40k kms. Don’t hold me on this though! These are new tyres and until we get more long term ownership reports, no conclusion can be drawn on this.
As of now, I have kept aside the Perfinzas and plan on using it for any trackday that I plan on attending. Will test these on the track to see how they handle extreme abuse and heat. I am not too sure of how they will behave on track. They have a Temperature rating of B. Compared to A for the PS4 and the Advan Sports. That means that the grip reduces as the temperature increases beyond a point. On the roads this is not a problem but on track, this could be a factor.
Anyway, to sum up, I absolutely loved the Perfinzas. They blew my mind. Maybe I expected too little but honestly, given that this is MRF’s FIRST attempt at making a luxury tyre, it is beyond impressive.
A few more iterations and I honestly believe, given MRF’s strength in R&D and quality, they can really take the fight to the Multinational giants like Yokohama, Michelin and Continental.
This is a good sign of Indian companies upping their game and taking on the big guys head on. Tata is doing it with the Tiago, Tigor, etc, Apollo is doing it in the entry level scene (their Alnacs are almost as good as the Michelin XM2s, Earth 1s) and so on.
Let me remind you that The Perfinzas by MRF is the first Indian tyre to be given an MO rating by Mercedes-Benz. If that doesn’t give you confidence, nothing will.
Anyway, coming to the Yokohama Advan Sports.
Initial impressions after driving about a 1000 kms:
Do keep in mind that I am compring 27,000 kms run Perfinzas with brand new Yokohamas. I’m not going to keep talking about that. My view will definitely be biased but that cant be helped. Unless I tested both tyres back to back when both are brand new.
The ride comfort is superb. Definitely better than the Perfinzas. They feel much softer and the ride is far more pliant. The sharpness in the ride over potholes, broken roads, expansion joints has totally disappeared. The car feels even more pleasurable to drive now.
I honestly don’t remember my car feeling this comfortable. I am now looking forward to every drive, even if it’s through the war ravaged roads of Bangalore. Every pothole or piece of broken road is now muted and there’s a silent thump, but that’s it. While the car does move around, it doesn’t feel like I’m being thrown around.
The flipside of such a lovely ride is that I am a bit worried of how this tyre will handle high speed pothole hits. The MRFs survived hits that bent my BBS wheel. Only time will tell.
When it comes to road noise, again, there’s a marked improvement. The MRFs were not noisy but the Advans seem to be a notch more silent. At highway cruising speeds, I feel like there’s a bit more silence now compared to earlier.
The grip: Oh dear god, this is the party piece of the Advan series. It is ABSOLUTELY phenomenal. The entire drive to Jog Falls and back, the roads were mostly wet and the tyres were simply phenomenal. Again, while the MRFs didn’t leave anything to be desired, these are in a different league. The braking feels sharper, cornering feels sharper and while throwing my car around some of the tight curves (on the State highway between Ranebennur and Jog Falls), there was barely a chirp from the tyres.
It was wet and honestly, I was really hammering on the car. The MRFs would have surely been at the limit (a slight chirp or a squeal) but the Yokohamas were as silent as they could be. It was almost as if they were taunting me…. “Is that the best you can do, you noob?” Well, yes, it was the best I could do. It was raining, the road condition was patchy and I didn’t have the confidence to push more. Unless I’m in an absolutely controlled circumstance, I don’t believe in driving with a low margin for error.
I honestly did not think that I would experience this much of a difference whne I got the new Advans. I thought they would be better but marginally.
Frankly, the difference is not marginal. It’s reasonable. Of course, keep in mind that Yokohama is a world leader in high performance tyres. They have a lead of a couple of decades over MRF in making performance tyres. So, it’s not fair to compare them to the Perfinzas. Unfortunately, since I’ve used the Perfinzas earlier, I have to.
Also, the Advans are high performance tyres. The Perfinza is a luxury mainstream tyre. The Perfinza’s real comparison is to the Michelin Primacy 3 ST and Yokohama Earth 1/BluEarth.
The superb grip of the Yokohama Advans also seem to have had a direct impact on the straightline speed of my car. Earlier, there would be some wheelspin before the tyres dug in and launched the car forward. That has reduced a lot now and the car just rockets forward whenever I aggressively step on the A pedal. The car feels a lot lighter and more eager to move.
The feel of the car has changed and boy oh boy! I’m loving it.
Another point to note is that the Yokohama Advan we get are the same that is sold the world over. The Michelin PS4 ST is what is sold in India and there are minor changes to make it more suitable for Indian and South Asian conditions. The Advans on the other hand are identical.
This is just for your information. Not that it makes any difference in the real world. Probably the Michelins will handle our roads better as the carcass is a bit stronger.
You do pay a price though. The Yokohamas are priced at 13k or so for a tyre.
However, after a 1000 kms and 4 days, I am mighty impressed. Absolutely loving the feel of the tyres.