Toyo Extensa HP II Review [2023 Updated]

By Tire Expert, Joe Steffen

Are you looking for your next set of tires? Can’t seem to find unbiased reviews from someone just trying to push products?

Look no further; I have seen and heard it all with over nine-plus years in the tire industry. All of my reviews come from personal experience and my experience with customers just like yourself!

I know what most people want in their next tire choice: traction, warranties, or ride comfort. These are just a few things I will cover in this tire review.

Today we will do an in-depth review of the Toyo Extensa HP II; this tire falls under the ultra-high-performance all-season category, offering a forty-five-thousand-mile treadwear warranty and directional tread pattern.

Keep reading to learn all about what I think of this tire.

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Pros

Cons

Ratings

4.0

3.0

4.0

2.5

3.0

2.5

3.0

Wet Traction:

★★★★★ 4.0/5

Dry Traction:

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Snow Traction:

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Ride Comfort:

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Ride Handling:

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Ride Noise:

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Hydroplaning:

★★★★★ 4.0/5

Tread Life:

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Value For $$$:

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Traction - Toyo Extensa HP II

When it comes to all-season traction, there are three major things I’m looking for, a tire’s ability to accelerate, how quickly it can come to a safe stop, and its ability to maintain traction at steady speeds in certain weather conditions. The weather conditions I’m looking at will be dry, wet, and snow.

Most tires on the market perform well in the dry traction category, and that is because there‘s not a whole lot to get in between the rubber and the road. The Toyo Extensa HP II falls short of its competition regarding smashing down on that gas pedal to get going.

This tire has large-sized rectangular tread blocks on both the inside and outside shoulder, which helps with its stopping capability, but when it comes to giddy-up, those tread blocks don‘t provide the grab on the road.

They also use single-cut, and double-cut tapers in the tire tread block, which help with the tread block’s stiffness; having a stiff tread block will allow the tire to not diminish your braking performance.

Many manufacturers use this technique, like the Sumitomo HTR A/S P03 but call it their own version to make it seem special.

Wet traction will be a different story for this guy; I believe this is where the tire shines. This all-season tire manufactured by Toyo Tires uses a unique tread pattern in today‘s market, a uni directional tread design.

A directional tread design is where the tread blocks on the tire come to a point in the center, pointing in a specific direction. The direction of the tire will be pointing either right/left when looking at the sidewall.

Many manufacturers have steered away from directional tread designs due to their ride noise, but Toyo uses a directional design on many of their products. Compared to the Sumitomo HTR A/S 03, you can‘t come close to the amount of water the Toyo Extensa HP II can evacuate and keep as little water as possible between your tires and the road.

The caveat to having a tire with this type of tread design is it also kicks all of the snow out of the tire just like it does with water. What makes a winter tire so great in the snow, like the Michelin X-ICE XI3, is its ability to pack the snow inside the full-depth multi-wave sipes.

A full-depth multi-wave sipe is when the sipe in a tire goes all the way down to 2/32nds of an inch.

What gives you optimal light snow traction is the snow that packs inside the tread depth, makes contact with the snow on the roads, and gives you optimal light snow traction. That is why I only recommend this tire to anyone who lives in an area that gets less than one inch of snow per year.

Traction Rating: 4.0/5

★★★★★ 4.0/5

Ride Comfort - Toyo Extensa HP II

As with all tires, maintenance is key to ensuring that your tires maintain optimal performance and ride noise; the Toyo Extensa HP II is no exception.

You will no doubt notice how smooth these tires are when first on your vehicle, but miss a rotation or two, and man, these tires will start to shake your car like there’s no tomorrow.

Well, why, you might be asking?

When you fail to rotate your tires, you are not able to move your tires to a different axle of the vehicle, and this is how irregular wear patterns start to set in. Your tires are just rolling along in the position for their entire life until you eventually rotate them.

Yes, some high-performance all-season tires are not as prone to irregular wear patterns, like the Hankook Ventus S1 AS, a comparable option to the Toyo Extensa.

Ride Comfort Rating: 3.0/5

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Ride Handling - Toyo Extensa HP II

I think this tire does an okay job in this category, but there’s definitely room for improvement; however, I felt like this tire does an excellent job with steering responsiveness and maneuvering.

The steering response and maneuvering are achieved by the nice stiff sidewalls that wrap your rims.

When it comes to steering responsiveness, it is dependent upon the sidewall construction. A tire with a softer sidewall, like truck and SUV tires, will provide an almost laggy feeling when trying to get the vehicle to go in the direction you want.

In my experience, a taller sidewall equates to less handling; I recommend that anyone who wants better handling out of their vehicle look for ultra-high-performance tires. UHP tires naturally are designed with an overall lower profile sidewall to achieve better handling than conventional touring all-season tires.

I have found a drawback in this tire’s cornering ability; I have heard multiple customers say, “it feels like the car is skipping sideways when I take a harsh turn.”

It may have just been those few customers that have said this before, but when you hear multiple people say the same thing, you can’t discredit it. I would say the reason they have experienced this is because of the larger shoulder tread blocks.

They do great when going straight; however, they turn them sideways and tend to get skippy.

For this reason, I cannot give it a more robust ride handling score.

Ride Handling Rating: 3.0/5

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Ride Noise - Toyo Extensa HP II

The Toyo Extensa HP II is a reasonably loud tire, and this is due to its directional tread pattern, which is one of the main reasons a lot of manufacturers have veered away from this design.

Toyo Tires, for some reason, is very stuck on this tread design and isn‘t ready to throw in the towel and conform to other tire manufacturing ways. For this reason, they will continue to produce some of the loudest tires on the market today.

As I have said before and will say until I’m blue in the face, “Maintain your tires!” I can’t begin to tell you how many times a customer has walked into the shop and said, “ My tires are louder than all get out. I can’t even hear myself think.”

Lo and behold, the tires have irregular wear, pull up the vehicle history, and not a single tire rotation or rebalance. I can confidently say that most tire complaints could have been solved by just taking care of them according to manufacturers‘ recommendations on tire care.

If you want a UHP all-season tire that offers a quiet ride, I recommend going with the Hankook Ventus S1 AS.

Ride Noise Rating: 3.0/5

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Hydroplaning - Toyo Extensa HP II

Driving on wet roads is scary for many people, and if you are one of the many who fear driving in the rain, I recommend this tire for your vehicle.

I have talked about how directional treads are loud, but now it‘s time to see the give and take. You gain what you lose in road noise in wet conditions, traction, and hydroplaning resistance.

You get one water-savvy tire combining the directional tread design and silica compound in this tire.

Deciding what tire to purchase next is no easy task. I always recommend choosing what you believe is the most critical factor in a tire because, unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all for tires. If there was, we would all be buying the same tire, with only one manufacturer.

I hands down recommend it to anyone who has passenger cars or sports cars looking for an excellent wet weather/hydroplaning resistant tire and lives somewhere like Washington state, where they get a lot of rain, consider this as a new tire option.

Whether you have a BMW coupe or a Toyota sedan, they make the Toyo Extensa HP II in a handful of tire sizes and speed ratings that will surely fit your vehicle.

Hydroplaning Rating: 4.0/5

★★★★★ 4.0/5

Tread Life - Toyo Extensa HP II

I have not personally seen this tire reach its mileage warranty, but on average, most consumers of this tire receive about twenty to thirty thousand miles.

That is a lot less than advertised because of the forty-five thousand mile warranty; it seems the tread compound just can’t hold up.

Throughout my career, I have been asked, “Why don‘t tires ever receive the mileage that they are rated for?”

Simply put, the tires are tested for mileage rating on a track. They are not tested on everyday roads, so the mileage one person would get in Arizona would be very different than in Alaska because of temperature differences.

In terms of rubber compound aging, a typical rubber compound will stay intact for about five years, but anyone who will buy this tire will wear it out within two to three years, so there will be no need for concern about tire aging.

Tread Life Rating: 2.5/5

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Value For Money - Toyo Extensa HP II

Overall I would say your bang for your buck is not very good for this tire; there are quite a few tire options out there that provide better performance for a slightly higher price.

The miles per dollar are pretty good due to its relatively inexpensive cost, but you could purchase a tire like the Sumitomo HTR A/S 03 and get way more miles for your dollar. The miles you will receive from this tire vs. what it‘s rated for vs. what you pay equals your miles per dollar.

Receiving between twenty and thirty-thousand miles out of a forty-five-thousand-mile tire just isn‘t anything to write home about, primarily when other options on the market would provide you with better value.

Value For Money Rating: 3.0/5

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Final Verdict - Toyo Extensa HP II

After comparing the Toyo Extensa HP II tire to its competitors like the Sumitomo HTR A/S 03 and the Hankook Ventus S1 A/S, I gave it an average rating because there just wasn‘t anything that really grabbed my attention other than the wet weather traction.

The Toyo Extensa HP II is offered in various sizes and has a well-designed sport-styling tread design that will fit a wide range of vehicles. You will surely find this tire available for your car if you don‘t drive a truck or SUV.

Toyo Tires manufactures some of the best tires, from their Touring tires like the Toyo Extensa A/S II to the Open Country line, but it just seemed this was very average compared to the market. With this tire‘s poor performance in snow traction and low mileage, I almost would closer compare this to a summer tire.

I recommend anyone looking for an ultra-high performance all-season tire looks at other options before pulling the trigger.

Meet Your Tire Expert

Joe Steffen

Joseph Steffen is a trusted expert in the tire industry, with nine-plus years of experience. He has worked as a tire installer, tire salesman, and more recently a writer for various companies, providing honest feedback and advice to those who need it.

Tire Recall Information

I am happy that I found no recalls on the Toyo Extensa HP II, which is pretty standard with Toyo Tires.

Warranty & Tire Sizes

Warranty Details

Tire Sizes

Warranty Details

Tire Sizes

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Toyo Tires made by Goodyear?

No, Toyo tires are made and owned by Toyo Tires. In fact, Toyo Tires has ownership of Nitto Tire.

Do Toyo Extensa tires do well in the snow?

While Toyo does make multiple tires within the Toyo Extensa lineup, I would not recommend the Toyo Extensa HP II for snow driving.

Where are Toyo Extensa HP II tires made?

While Toyo Tires originally started in Japan, they have opened headquarters and manufacturing plants in the USA, where most of their tires come from.