Tires Vredestein or OEM FORD

Been using my Vredstein HiTracs on my 2018 Rav4 for about 4 years now. I was very pleased with the overall performance of the Vreidsteins especially when they were new, handling was fairly confidence inspiring for what my car is, OK comfort, a bit noisy on the highway but all around were a worthwhile purchase for my needs.

I had Goodyear summer run flats that were extremely rough to ride on. Felt every bump and imperfection in the road. I switched to Vredestein Quatrac Pro+ and it rides very smooth. They're also good for the winter. Would highly recommend

I have vredstein pinza on my GL 550 for 7k miles and are very happy with them.

The Vredesteins def looked noticeably bigger (taller) than the Yoko Geoloanders they replaced, but that could just be a worn vs new tire. So far so good other than not looking forward to cleaning them regularly lol.

Since virtually all of my driving is on pavement, I went the running shoe route with a set of the Vredestein Hypertracs. They've been excellent, in the dry, the wet, and light snow.

If you do get new tires you should consider Vredestein Hi-Tracs. I replaced the oem bridgestones with these and they have been tremendous.

Changed mine to all season Vredesteins (Quatrac). Much better now.

I use Vredstein Hitrac All-season on my 2023 Camry Hybrid. Barely hit my fuel efficiency, maybe .5%. But waaayyyyy better performance is rain and snow compared to my OEM firestones.

Anyway, for what it is worth, I tried the 275/35ZR-21 Vredestein Ultrac Vorti+ XL both on and off track earlier this year. It is still a summer performance tire. Off track, I was seeing slightly improved efficiency over the factory P Zero, but the Ultras were slightly noisy on rougher roads (no foam inserts); on the track, for the first couple of laps, they were decent (plenty good enough for spirited driving), but driving to the max lap after lap they got squirrely and very vocal.

My initial impression of the Vredesteins was, "Holy cow, the rear end is going to swap places with the front." The car wagged and bobbed all over the road. It was scary. After a short 5-mile drive home, I adjusted the tire pressure to 41 psi in the rear (they were at 40 and 45 left/right) and drove around a bit more to break in the tires. Once broken in, they drove much better.

Going straight they're fine and don't notice too much difference between the old EP500s and the new Vredesteins. Maybe the ride is slightly better due to the Vredesteins’ softer sidewall. Noise is about the same—they’re quiet tires.

We get a lot of rain here, and the Vredesteins are great in the wet. They’re better than the stock EP500s, likely due to their less aggressive tread pattern and greater tread depth.

However, corners are where it all falls apart. The initial turn-in is great because the front EP500s, despite their poor tire life, handle well. But there’s a slight delay as the rear wobbles into the corner. You can feel the car load up, and you have to counter-steer slightly to keep the car in line as the rear flops over. While the Vredesteins have good grip, the side/slip angle is so large during aggressive driving that the traction control freaks out in fast corners. When you straighten out, the rear flops back and wobbles a bit.

My wife texted me on her way to work this morning, saying, "The car is wiggling so much I think I might throw up."

Any type of turning has the rear bobbling and wagging around. Bumps in the road will also cause it to bounce around. It's just not a pleasant experience whatsoever.

After driving on them for a while, I’m considering whether running Vredesteins on the front as well might correct some of the handling issues.