Best Tires for the Subaru Legacy

I really like these Nokian Encompass AW02s on my Subaru Legacy Touring XT. They handle as well or better and are much quieter than the Yokohamas that came on the car. I had no problem with 12in/30cm snowfalls and were better on ice than the Cross Climate 2s I had before. Too soon to tell about tire wear but I'll update that later.

I left a previous review in 2020 and I’ll start this one, how I finished the last. Quite a few of the poor reviews relate to the run-flat version or BMWs, which are probably running run-flats. Those tires have a separate page on this website and if they were removed from this NON run-flat page, these tires would score higher.

My first review at 3,000 miles was very positive and I’m pleased to say things carried on in a similar vein. My only two concerns were “wear” and given I’m writing this review over 5 years and another 50,000 miles later, answers that one. In fact, most of the tire widths still have 2-3mm left (must be my Jim Clark driving style [I wish]), but my performance estate runs some negative camber and the inner shoulders were shot.

The other was cold temperatures, which I understand afflicted the previous RE040, but not these tires. Sub 5 degrees on damp back roads was not a problem.

In short, dry / wet grip, feedback and handling were all top notch, especially running an extra 2.5psi, which made the car feel even more “planted” and inspired additional confidence. Being 93XL load, compared to the OE 89SL, they needed an extra 0.5psi in any case. Comfort was still reasonable, I didn’t notice any noise and economy was as expected.

Finally, I hardly noticed any deterioration in performance near their end of life, as I was still chasing down faster metal on cold damp back roads with confidence. Perhaps the odd slight twitch through standing water, which is only to be expected, given the loss of tread.

Would I buy again? Without doubt, although Bridgestone no longer make them in my size, so I’ve gone for a set of Kumho Ecsta Sport PS72, as I’m on a budget and these mid-market tires have reviewed well since their launch.

I have them for only 3000km on my Subaru Legacy 2.0 and they are great. They are more than great on the wet surfaces and this is the most crucial of a tire for my opinion as in the dry most of them are perfect. If you want more... I am not so sure yet. I had in my car Falken 310 and Hankook ventus prime 3 and they are better than both of them. I have no say about how they will handle time and wear. The Hankooks were better than Falken in general (even if the falken was more a handling tire). My only problem with tme was that they were V speed rated and I wanted H but the merchandiser in Greece didn't import the V rated version.
I will get back after 15000 km.

Brought these in France 2020 after reading all the tests on them.
Imported the car to New Zealand with them on.
They were amazing tire fantastic in the dry and the wet. Perfect balance and the ability to really push them to their limits. But when they got about 50% wear they would struggle with standing water which is fair enough all tires behave like this.
They are also a very noisy tire on course chip NZ road's.
Then the car developed a pull to the Left at low speeds.
It also developed a wobble a low speeds.
Pulled the Front LH side of to inspect and to my amazement the tire casing had changed shape on the inside.
I had a set of Winter's so I fitted the complete set.
After inspection of all of the Goodyear Asymptotic 5's with about 25k wear 3 had done the same fault.
Total casing shape change and structural failure.
Also interesting that its failed in the same part of the tire on all 3!!
I've never hit a pot hole with these tires.
I would not recommend these tires. Will be buying Continentals or Michelin in the summer.

I've used the AD08R, and the AD08RS on the same car; the difference is night and day. The RS variant starts squealing without much effort. They are very underwhelming, they wear well though. Probably because they're such a hard, not even slightly sticky compound. Just purchased some Goodyear Asymmetric 6's to replace them. Maybe they just aren't scrubbed in yet XD

I bought these over three years ago to put on my Subaru legacy wr ltd. I did a fair bit of research on these at the time and was a choice between these and Uniroyal Rainsports. The federal evolution St1 more that lived up to the review and test results posted here on tirereviews.com So 3years on and lots of ,ahem, "spirited" driving, the tires actually still look new.lots of thread left( these are a harder compound than equivalent tires) unfortunately one tire has a small bubble on the sidewall ( due to a horrific pothole) so I'm going replace them with the exact same tire. The performance in the wet really surprised me- bear in mind my car is symmetrical all wheel drive - dry weather, tires are better than most ,road noise is not an issue,quite quiet. Prices vary, so check around. A great tire at a very reasonable price.

It's the tire I've been using for years. Despite being a winter tire, it had good handling in hot weather. Braking distance was also good. After 4 years, it started to harden and its performance decreased in snowy driving.

The tires were durable for a long time, but after 4 years, hairline cracks appeared. Although the braking distance is not very good, with a proper balance, there would be no vibration even at 200+ km speeds.