The tire market has seen exponential growth in the last decade. As the big brands fight to claim their market share with the latest and greatest technologies in their premium offerings, the budget category is getting more and more competitive with cheap alternatives. So, good tires aren’t getting cheap, but cheap tires are getting good — and the Toyo Extensa A/S is a prime example.
Toyo Extensa A/S — Overview
The Toyo Extensa A/S is an affordable touring all-season passenger tire. Sure, it’s Chinese-made and budget-friendly, but that doesn’t mean you should immediately assume bad quality. Tires of this category have offered insane value for money in the last 5 years or so, and it’s getting to a point where you can’t ignore it.
With that said, it’s important to manage your expectations. You won’t find some high-class features from premium touring tires like the Michelin Premier A/S or Bridgestone Turanza QuietTrack here. But many day-to-day drivers on a tight budget only look for one thing in a tire, all-season practicality, and the Toyo Extensa A/S offers that quality at a dirt-cheap price point.
Moreover, the tire’s tread lasts long too, and that’s impressive since tread life is where most cheap tires skimp out on. Toyo seems to have put extra effort into this area to break that stereotype. Rather than focusing on being the best all-weather traction option, the Extensa A/S takes a balanced approach to achieve healthy levels of durability, comfort, performance, and quietness.
If you want to change the old tires on your family car but don’t want to spend the big bucks, this tire might deserve a spot on your shortlist. So, let’s dig into its features and performance in different driving conditions!
Toyo Extensa A/S — Features
Toyo Tires is a Chinese brand, they’ve been around for quite a while — since 1945 to be precise. They’ve made a name for themselves in the high-performance category with brilliant offerings like Proxes Sport. The brand offers some of the best value for money choices you can find in any category such as the Extensa A/S in the all-season touring segment.
It has a symmetric tread pattern, offering decent high-speed stability thanks to an optimized center block arrangement. It also plays a role in sharpening the tire’s steering response, which is always a welcome touch when you’re in the driving seat. For all-weather traction, the tire has variable-pitched angled blocks etched onto its tread. Being an all-season touring tire, the tread design aims to optimize long-distance traveling comfort as well.
The tire also has excellent hydroplaning resistance to deal with damp surfaces through the four wide grooves circling its tread. The variable-pitched channels also help keep the water (and debris) out of the tire’s cavities, so water evacuation shouldn’t be a problem even at higher speeds. Moreover, the tread blocks and multi-wave sipes offer safe levels of traction and cornering grip for city driving in any type of weather.
Toyo claims to have computer-optimized the sipe positioning for optimal tread life and road noise reduction.
Performance on Dry Roads
The Toyo Extensa A/S provides promising levels of traction and stability on dry tarmac, even as you push near the speed limit in the city! Directional stability on the highway is also impressive. However, if you’re planning on maneuvering through tight corners at high speeds with a thrilling steering response, you need something sportier than the Extensa A/S. Again, this tire is all about practicality and high value for money. Its all-season touring rubber isn’t suitable for rash driving.
The faster you go with this tire, the more you’ll feel the need for a sportier alternative. However, for most people looking to get from point A to point B with a safe and stable drive, the Toyo Extensa A/S is impressive on dry tarmac.
Wet Performance
Judging by the tire’s tread design elements focused on improving its hydroplaning resistance, you’d expect extraordinary wet performance from the Toyo Extensa A/S. But again, it’s not anything exceptional. Rather, it strikes a decent balance of traction, stability, and braking performance. The tire’s wet grip is just enough to complement a safe driver, and it starts to show traction loss as soon as you get a bit overly enthusiastic in wet conditions.
Moral of the story — drive safe, especially when it’s raining!
Snow Performance
Being an all-season touring tire, the Toyo Extensa A/S offers impressive traction and stability in the winter. However, that’s limited to light snow conditions. Anything worse than that, and you’ll be testing your luck with the risk of getting your car stuck in deep snow. For an all-season tire at this price point, this level of snow performance is more than impressive!
In fact, it’s even better than the snow traction you get from some more expensive all-season tires. Considering the tire’s price, winter performance is one of the most impressive areas of the Toyo Extensa A/S.
Conclusion – Should You Buy the Toyo Extensa A/S?
So, does the Toyo Extensa A/S fit you? Like all other purchase decisions, this question depends on what you’re looking to get from your new tire. As we’ve stated in this review, this tire isn’t geared towards a petrolhead who loves to drive fast and take on drag races at every red light. For those types of drivers, Toyo has plenty of other high-performance alternatives like their tried and tested Proxes Sport — not the Toyo Extensa A/S.
This tire is designed to be a reliable option to handle everyday city driving with decent comfort, stability, and lasting tread life. The tire even handles challenging conditions like rain and light snow with decent traction and braking performance. From that point of view, you can’t really go wrong with this purchase, especially since it comes in at such a low price. For most people leading practical lives, the tire is one of the best bang for buck choices within the all-season touring category.
