Tire: iceGUARD iG52c
Category: Studless Ice & Snow
UTQG (treadwear): Not Rated
This might be the first instance in a tire review where I copied the name of the tire and just pasted every time I have to bring it up. While the Yokohama iceGUARD iG52c name rolls off the tongue pretty easily, it's kind of a pain to type and my fingers are not fans. However on the plus side is that drivers are fans of this tire and it's winter traction abilities. This is an all around tire for winter weather and it can be fitted to a wide variety of vehicles. The iceGUARD iG52c features Yokohama's best cold weather winter tire technology, and also uses their BluEarth branding, which signifies that this tire is ecologically friendly. Some of the stuff they've incorporated into this tire is pretty cool, like the Absorptive Silica, Resin-Coated Shelled Microbubbles, and Multi-Layer Carbon. All of these little engineering marvels help this tire stay in contact with the road surface under the harshest winter conditions. Yokohama recommends only installing these tires in sets of four due to their traction abilities.
Even with all of this cool (and functional) technology, this tire only ranks midpack among other studless ice and snow tires. But I guess that doesn't really surprise me as this is a very competitive segment with a number of well established tires on the market that have had great track records over the years. With all that said, it's not as if drivers don't think this is a high quality tire. In fact there are a lot of positives I hear from people who have run the iceGUARD iG52c for multiple winter seasons. The grip really is superb in ice/snow/sleet including going off pavement...on rock and mud as well. I've had two people tell me that they would use these on their 2 wheel drive family sedan on slush county roads in winter and traction was never an issue. You'll likely get about 40,000 miles out of a set, and that's about average for the segment. So overall I find these tires to be a nice option and should be worth considering if you can find them for a lot less than the competition.
