Goodyear's "next generation" AquaTred
Written: Jul 17 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent wet pavement handling, also excellent on dry pavement, and quiet too! 80,000 mile warranty.
Cons: Price, as you'd expect, top of the line tires, come with a price to match.
The Bottom Line: Once again, outstanding wet pavement traction, equally as good on dry pavement. 80,000 mile warranty and a pretty cool looking tire as well.
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| mskvarenina's Full Review: Goodyear Assurance TripleTred Tire |
Well, it was that time again. I needed to get new tires for my Honda Accord. My last tires were Goodyear AquaTreds, I was thrilled with them (see my review of the AquaTred here on Epinions) and I had every intention on getting another set. To my surprise, when I arrived at the dealer I was informed the AquaTred had been replaced by the Assurance TripleTred.
Visually, the Assurance TripleTred was a very impressive looking tire but I was very concerned over how it would handle in the rain. My main reason for purchasing the AquaTreds was that I do alot of high speed highway driving. Regular tires always seemed to hydroplane and that was too much of a safety risk.
So having no option, I purchased a set of 4 Assurance TripleTreds and gave them a try (Incidentally, they are offered with a 30 day or 3,000 mile trial period for which you can return them and trade/upgrade to another Goodyear tire if you're not satisfied).
So how'd they do? Actually, excellent! During our first rain storm I took them for a ride to see how they'd perform. Thankfully, they held on tight to the road as I purposely drove them through the water tracks left behind by years and years of road wear.
What about in dry weather? No problems there either. If you visit the Goodyear Assurance website (http://www.goodyearassurance.com/") you'll learn about the "triple tred" design, one for wet roadways, one for dry, and one for ice. Without going into alot of detail here, Goodyear claims that this tire was designed and performs well on all 3 roadways, mainly because there's a "zone" of the tire for each condition. For ice for example, the tire has this 1" "ice zone" straight down the middle of the tire that in addition to being very different looking than any other tire on the market, is said to contain volcanic sand. According to Goodyear, the volcanic sand "grit" creates microscopic cavities that work as tiny traction edges for better grip on slick surfaces.
Noise you ask? All tires make some noise that you as the driver become accustom to and block out. I remember when I put my first set of AquaTreds on how "loud" they sounded as I drove down the road. A few days later however, and I was used to the sound and really couldn't hear it anymore. Well the good news is the Assurance tires are actually quieter that the old AquaTreds. Not that it really matters much as you do block it out, but these tires really are quite quiet.
So what's the bottom line? I think Goodyear has a real winner here. Not only do the TripleTreds handle wet roadways with excellence, but they also do very well on drive pavement and don't make any noise. For icy pavement, time will tell (as winter approaches). Realistically I don't think there's much anyone can do when faced with a sheet of ice, but the volcanic sand, creating a sandpaper like "grit" just may do the trick to give you a little extra traction.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): Around $600
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Epinions.com ID:
mskvarenina
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Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 0 members
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