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Last updated 7/15/2024 - Originally published 7/15/2024
Written by SimpleTire
All-season tires are the do-all, go-to solution for tires on American highways, and for good reason. All-season tires present a great one-stop-shopping choice for most drivers; you can count on them for a quiet and composed ride, handling that’s direct, responsive, and predictable, year-round traction in about every kind of weather conditions other than heavy snow, long service with a generous treadwear warranty and durable construction.
Premium all-season tires are so prevalent that they’re often the OEM tire of choice for many high-end sedans, SUVs and crossovers, and the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus and Cooper ProControl are both perfect examples of what to expect with these kinds of all-season tires. They’re both capable and competent tires that bring with them their own unique sets of strengths and weaknesses, which we’re going to compare and contrast in this head-to-head matchup.
In the course of this comparison, you’ll see us make frequent reference to SimpleScore; if you’re not familiar, SimpleScore is the rating system that the SimpleTire team developed to give you an at-a-glance idea of a tire’s performance and capability. We look at a tire’s specs, reviews, and other data points, then take that info and process all of it into a numerical value between 1 and 10 for the categories of traction, handling, and longevity for any given tire. For the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 and Yokohama Avid Ascend GT, the SimpleScore numbers are as follows:
Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus:
- Traction: 9.3
- Handling: 9.2
- Longevity: 9.4
- Overall average SimpleScore: 9.3
Yokohama Avid Ascend GT:
- Traction: 8.7
- Handling: 8.7
- Longevity: 8.5
- Overall average SimpleScore: 8.6
As you can see from their SimpleScore numbers, the Yokohama and the Bridgestone are both strong performers with good ratings, but with their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. SimpleScore is designed as an overview, but it’s also a 30,000 foot view that doesn’t really give a comprehensive picture of what a tire is about. Let’s compare and contrast:
Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus tires
When Bridgestone’s design team took on the Ecopia EP422 Plus, their goals were not only for capable year-round performance but also for reduced rolling resistance that can make an appreciable difference in emissions and fuel consumption over the life of the tire. The all-season tread compound of the Ecopia EP422 Plus is designed around Bridgestone’s Nano Pro-Tech blend of polymers, silica and carbon black to help cut rolling resistance while also ensuring great wear properties and reliable traction on wet or dry pavement.
The Ecopia EP422 Plus is designed for all-season traction, with a symmetric tread with notched shoulders, center blocks, and intermediate ribs for consistent grip on dry pavement. For wet conditions, four circumferential grooves and a set of angled and lateral grooves work as a system to evacuate water from the tire’s contact patch and mitigate hydroplaning. Winter traction gets a boost from a network of notches and sipes that slice through snow and slush with hundreds of hair-thin biting edges.
The sidewalls utilize Bridgestone’s Fuel Saver tread compound for enhanced rolling efficiency, and the internal construction of the Ecopia EP422 Plus is designed with a polyester casing with twin steel belts and a nylon cap ply layer for a cushioned ride and long-term durability. Bridgestone covers the Ecopia EP422 Plus with a 70,000 mile manufacturer’s treadwear warranty. SimpleTire’s price on the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus starts at $139.49 per tire.
Yokohama Avid Ascend GT tires
Yokohama designed the Avid Ascend GT from the ground up with their TriBlend rubber formulation, a silica-rich tread compound that helps the Avid Ascend GT ensure long, even wear and superb performance on wet or dry pavement. Its asymmetric all-season tread is designed to resist hydroplaning in wet weather with deep circumferential grooves to route standing water away from the tire’s contact patch. Winter traction gets a boost from angled/lateral grooves and full-depth 3D sipes that multiply the tire’s surface area and traction to slice through snow and slush with hundreds of extra biting edges.
Yokohama’s noise/vibration/harshness team put a lot of time into ensuring a quiet ride with the Avid Ascend LX, and its adaptive shoulder and variable-pitch tread design help neutralize certain frequencies and overtones to keep road noise to a minimum. The Avid Ascend GT is covered by the factory with a 65,000 mile manufacturer’s treadwear warranty. Braking and handling performance are superb thanks to the Avid Ascend GT’s redesigned footprint; its contact patch has been optimized to a square shape that also helps with improved wear properties and weight distribution. The Yokohama Avid Ascend GT starts at $111.99 per tire (SimpleTire price).
Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus vs Yokohama Avid Ascend GT tires on traction
In the traction category, it’s not much of a contest, to be honest. The Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus gets a superb SimpleScore of 9.3 vs 8.7 for the Yokohama. So why the disparity between the two? The Nano-Pro tread compound and design of the sipe pattern of the Bridgestone help it deliver dependable traction in just about every kind of situation other than heavy snow, slush, and ice (the kind of winter weather where just about no all-season tire does well). On the surface, it’d seem like the Yokohama Avid Ascend GT has a similar set of features for traction, but reviews, testing, and real-world results point to the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus having a definite edge. Our decision:
ADVANTAGE: Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus
Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus vs Yokohama Avid Ascend GT tires on handling
Considering that Bridgestone and Yokohama both have extensive experience in the motorsports world, you’d expect both these tires to be better than just competent when it comes to handling. You’d be right since the Bridgestone comes in with a SimpleScore of 9.2 and the Yokohama with a SimpleScore of 8.7. Still, that’s a spread of 0.5 points between the two, with the advantage going to the Bridgestone. When a vehicle starts rounding a corner, its weight and inertia try to keep it moving in a straight line. As the front wheels turn to guide it in a different direction, the momentum can cause the tire’s tread to distort and deform, leading to “tread squirm” and a reduction in control and traction. The reinforced shoulder blocks of the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus help control tread squirm by keeping the tread face rigid even during hard maneuvers and higher-speed cornering, and the solid, continuous center rib gives it a steering response that’s direct and quick without being oversensitive. Our decision:
ADVANTAGE: Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus
Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus vs Yokohama Avid Ascend GT tires on longevity
When it comes to longevity, in one way it’s a tougher call since the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus registers a SimpleScore of 9.4 vs 8.5 for the Yokohama Avid Ascend GT. In a sense, though, it’s an easier decision, as the Bridgestone is covered by a 70,000 mile manufacturer’s treadwear warranty vs 65,000 miles for the Yokohama. Both treadwear warranties are quite good, but the numbers don’t lie and you can’t really argue with the mileage guarantees. Our decision:
ADVANTAGE: Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus
When to use each
First off, let’s just note here that the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus and Yokohama Avid Ascend GT are both excellent performance-oriented all-season tires; any tire with an overall SimpleScore in the upper 8s or lower 9s is going to be a strong performer. It’s our experience that either the Bridgestone or the Yokohama would make a great choice for year-round traction, great road manners, and a quiet, comfortable ride, with the Bridgestone offering handling that’s a bit more responsive and controlled. The only situations where these tires wouldn’t be a great option would be for deep snow, and to be real honest most all-season tires can’t get the job done in those situations unless they’re designated with the 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service. For most sedans, coupes, minivans, or crossovers where you’re looking for those qualities in a tire, you can’t go wrong with either the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus or Yokohama Avid Ascend GT.
Which one should you choose?
Both the Bridgestone and the Yokohama offer similar performance and value for drivers. Both tires score well when it comes to SimpleScore rankings and continue to look pretty good as you go in for a closer look at the specifics of each tire. The Bridgestone is more expensive than the Yokohama by a considerable margin, but it offers great value and performance for that price, including a treadwear warranty that’s 5,000 miles longer in its coverage. While we think that both tires would be a great choice for most drivers, if we were to pick between the two for a sedan, coupe, minivan, or crossover we’d have to go with the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus.
Still not sure which tire to buy? Fortunately, SimpleTire is here to help as our helpful agents are more than happy to assist you in selecting the right tire for your ride and budget.