Dry grip is the clearest strength of the Yokohama Parada Spec 2, praised by around eight in ten owners, with dry handling and value also drawing favorable comments. Wet grip is the main reservation, criticised by roughly four in ten despite a smaller favorable group. Around one in ten raises aquaplaning concerns, while noise and comfort are divided. Later-use wear accounts are mixed, with short-life complaints alongside reports of satisfactory mileage. Some drivers describe reduced wet confidence with use, but the two repeat reviewers follow different paths, one becoming less positive and the other remaining enthusiastic across successive sets. There is no consistent mileage-based ageing pattern.
What owners mention most counted across 99 reviews
Honestly these tires are unbelievable in the dry it it near impossible to even get the car to slide literally impossible to lose it. in the wet you dont want to be going into corners too fast but who does in the wet? They are quite loud on the road and dont last the longest either buy they are just made purely for dry grip.
I am onto my 4th set now on my mini cooper s works and no1 can believe the grip they have not just round corners but when you put your foot down from lights they grip like the car is 4wd.
On my second set of these on my corsa and had a set on my old golf, Was amazed how good they are in the dry and better than a lot of other summer tires in the wet once warm, They lasted a lot longer than i expected them too!
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
Fitted these to my daily driver 3 months ago and I'm very impressed with them so far. The dry grip is really very good to the point that getting them near the limit requires driving at silly speeds. They surprised me in the wet, having read the negative reviews on here. I live in west Wales so we get a lot of rain and I have only felt nervous in the most extreme conditions when most tires would struggle to clear the water. Pushing the tires performance in these conditions is quite frankly lunacy anyway. My only issue is some road noise when they are cold. Other than that, very impressed.
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Researching the Yokohama Parada Spec 2? Rate the tires you actually drive - and help the next buyer choose.
The original tires were 185/55 so moving to 205/40 meant that the ride suffered but turn in was a lot better. The low profile means more torque steer though. Obviously a lot more grip in the dry.
Now in the wet. Originally I put these on the front and had the original 185/55 on the back so it still was ok, slid at the front but nice and progressive in the wet. Then I bought some Michelin PS3 for the front and moved these to the back. Now the Michelin although a summer tire have a really good wet compound, the Parada's do not, so I now have a very oversteery car which is good fun in a scary "when will it bite me" sort of way. I'm not talking a dab of oppo either, it is a couple of quick armfuls!
Which goes to show how you need to match tires. I will see how they go in the dry, the Parada's have a dry tread pattern but the PS3's are slightly softer in compound. If it is still oversteery will have to buy 2 more PS3's, it is ok in the wet going slowly but oversteer in a crappy old Yaris at speed is not something to wish for.
Had these on my vr6 for just under a year and was mightily impressed to the point where I buy them whenever I can. Dry grip was immense and wet grip was nothing to turn your nose up at. And as for the people saying they're lethal on standing water, they're not brilliant but how often do you drive like you stole it with that amount of standing water. They lasted about as long as any other tire I've had on a powerful fwd car and weren't as noisy as you would expect from a tire of this type. I can't comment on the ride comfort they delivered as I was on coilovers so bounced everywhere as it was. All in all one of the best tires I've bough for enthusiastic driving only coming below the a048r's I currently have on my mini. Just bought another set of these for my civic and would always look into buying them.
I've put two sets of these on my '94 escort RS2000 now and think they're a great tire.
The grip in the dry is amazing, it feels like driving on rails. I've found running a lower tire pressure increases the grip even further as the stiff side walls can deal with the lower pressure without causing any roll.
Wet grip is not as bad as expected, in fact I would say it's pretty good. Once they've warmed up in the wet they're as good as any mid range tire on the market BUT they cannot shift standing water very well, so you do have to slow down to prevent aquaplaning. I cirtainly wouldn't say they are dangerous.
Driving in the snow with these on is suprisingly good. The unique chunky tread pattern shifts snow better than any other summer tire I know and makes you feel quite confident driving in those conditions.
I would say the wear on these tires is good for the grip you get. I do about 13k hard miles a year which is enough time to turn the fronts into slicks
If you're looking for a slightly harder wearing tire for a similar price, I would recommend the toyos but you do loose a bit of grip.
Parada is an excellent tire.. Dry grip is pretty phenominal, ride is pretty good and the road noise is pretty subdued. Love how it looks compared to the directional designed by robot stuff... :)
I imagine that used hard and in anger the wear rate would rise since even on a UK hot-day motorway run you can see the tread getting sticky-hot.. but mine seem to be lasting well.
I don't agree with the comments about wet grip... but maybe my car just has good balance. I was surprised by how good the wet grip actually is, especially when you look at the tread pattern.. but you do have to understand that this is a summer tire and so it needs to be warmed up before you can sling it around in the wet.
It's very progressive though so you can work out when you can lean on it and when you should dial in a bit more opposite lock.. :D
Good tire, good price and I would have another set.. :
In the dry they are incredible no matter how much I throw at these tires they stick to the road. I can easily take corners putting on the power extremely early and I have trusted them fully in every corner.
However in the wet these tires are abysmal rarely am I amble to pull away without wheel spinning and looking like a complete idiot. On hill starts they are even worse with literally having to wheel spin to get any forward movement. Under steer is shocking in all corners and if I do boot it the lack of traction is horrific. It got to the point where I disliked driving my car in the wet due to my lack of confidence I these tires.
Wear rate is pretty impressive having done about 8/9 thousand miles there is still plenty of tread left (Over 5mm) and the tire walls really do respond well to my chemical boys tire gel.
The ride is rather ‘crashy' but that said I am on coilovers running 17s on a 40 profile so I can't complain.
Overall I realise these tires are not developed for the UK climate. Takes a lot to warm them up but when they are it's also embarrassing how good they are compared to their wet performance. Would I buy again? no not in England. A warm climate with lower precipitation? Yes, defiantly.
Fabulous alternative to Track day tires at double the price!
Excellent dry grip and good wet grip but LETHAL in standing water over 30mm!
not that we get alot of that ;)
But very good buy!
Excellent grip in the dry, not too bad in the wet, however if I were most of the people posting reviews saying that the wet grip is appalling I'd have one piece of advice...slow down in the wet. Noise is not bad, no worse than on any other directional tire, wear rates are a little higher than most, however that's a small price to pay for high grip levels. As previously stated the grip gets better when pushed, they obviously need high heat levels to perform at there best. As to only handling 82 bhp per wheel or what ever it was, there's alot more too it than that, the weight of a car and the suspension set up means that a tire that's good on one car is not always good on another. I had them on a highly tuned Mazda 6 MPS and the grip levels far exceeded the Bridgestone RE050A's that it came with.
I am underwhealmed by these tires. A 330bhp AWD car means that these tires only have 82bhp each to handle. I am struggling to see where all the grip is that I read about. Outside of summer trackdays, these tires perform worse than the all-weather Geolanders on my SUV on dry roads, let alone wet roads. I will make no comment on winter/ice/snow grip as summer tires by definition are not designed to be used below 8 C - more fool to anyone that tries to do so and comes a cropper.
We need to be realistic in that the UK will present wet, cool, and imperfectly surfaced roads to drive on. Again, the Geolanders on my SUV grip massively better than these, are more progressive on breakaway, and are a greater joy to use therein.
Yes, Paradas are cheap - the reason is that they have a very narrow application and trail the market significantly outside the narrow context of 20 C+ track days. My previous Bridgestone RE050As grip better than these tires in 99% of British driving conditions - and these are not the best or most expensive tires out there by a long shot.
If you are fitting these to a hobby car that is used 6-8 weeks per year, no problem at all. You'll probably have an SUV/Transit and a trailer and won't mind having to flat bed your track-car to and from the circuit. Similarly, if you are an experienced driver that understands about tire compounds and tread patterns, sees a bargain and understand what you are getting yourself into, then go right ahead. Just watch out for every man and his dog in front heavy, oil-burning rep-mobiles humilating you on roundabouts.
Would not recommend for anything other than hobby car use. Would not buy again.
