Goodyear Viva 3 Review – All-Season Tire

Goodyear Viva 3 Review: The Goodyear Viva 3 tire is the third generation of Goodyear’s Viva tire series. The fact that it is a third-generation means that it’s an improvement on the previous Goodyear Viva generations.

The Viva 3 passenger All-Season comes in a range of 5 different wheel diameters ranging from 14 to 18 inches. It is manufactured to be used on minivans, mid-sized sedans, and other compact cars.

Goodyear Viva 3 Review

Based on its prices which range from 53 dollars and its unique features, this tire is the best option especially for car owners whose pockets are tight, yet want to own a tire from a premium tire manufacturing company like Goodyear.

Despite being relatively cheaper than other Goodyear tires, the company still incorporated modern technology when assembling the tire. The technology is employed to give Viva 3 a unique tread with interwoven features that offers the owner a quiet, stable, safe, easy-to-handle drive all season long.

On the downside, however, the Viva 3 is not built for off-road because its tread’s traction on slippery surfaces is very poor. Attempting to drive off-road more frequently can easily damage the tire’s tread. It comes with a maximum warrant of 60,000 miles-warranty, although some customers have complained that the treads don’t live long to reach Goodyear’s offered warranty.

Is the Viva 3 a good bet? Yes. It is especially if you are looking for a cheaper tire with some premium features from one of the best tire manufacturing companies.

Goodyear VIVA 3 Features

Size

In its Viva third generation, Goodyear designed a passenger all-season tire for customers who own mini-vans, mid-sized sedans, and other compact cars. The tire’s wheel diameter is made in relation to the car’s size to offer the car occupants comfort while steering the car and overall car stability and balance. Its wheel diameter ranges in five different diameters; 14 inches, 15 inches, 16 inches, 17 inches, and 18 inches.

All-Season Capacity

Sometimes it can be a hustle to change your car tires in relation to the specific climatic conditions; i.e, winter or summers. The good thing about Goodyear Viva 3 is that it is an all-season tire that does not need changing to suit a given season.

The tire is fitted with technological features that do not make it lose its grip whether one is driving in rain or mild snow. In addition to that, it is durable all season.

Driving on Dry Surface

Goodyear’s website has labeled the Viva 3’s terrain as highway. Its thread has features that make it favorable for driving on a dry surface. Its stable shoulder has blocks that are geared at improving cornering traction and balance on a road with a dry surface.

The handling is great, while the braking distance is okay as well. On the underside, driving at a higher speed on a dry surface, the tire is likely to lose its strong traction.

Driving on Wet/muddy/Slipper surfaces

As an all-season tire, the Viva 3 is suitable for wet surfaces. They have four circumferential grooves that are tailor-made to aid in evacuating water and mud between the tire tread and the surface to increase traction. The circumferential grooves are very wide and deep as well. This feature is one of Goodyear’s company trademarks, and they incorporated it on the Viva 3.

The circumferential grooves are joined with lateral grooves which aid in expelling the water from the tire’s tread and in return in enhances the hydroplaning resistance and the tire’s grip on the surface when driving in a rainy condition.

Driving on Snow/Ice surfaces

If you are searching for a tire whose traction on the average quantity of snow and ice is good and the tire is relatively cheaper, then Viva 3 is your choice. The tire’s tread blockers are fitted with sipes. The sipes are zigzagged to raise the biting edge numbers to improve traction on snow and ice surfaces. The spikes and the edge offer comfortable driving on the ice and snow surfaces.

The sipes technique used on the all-season Viva 3 is the same that is used on the winter specialized tires. The braking distances on snow or ice are decently shorter.

Driving off-road

Unfortunately, the Goodyear Viva 3 passenger all-season is not made to be driven off-road. Its off-road performance is poor and if used on occasions, the tire’s tread might be destroyed completely. Therefore, keep off-road as much as you can.

Using the tire for competition

Strictly, no. Viva 3 tires are not supposed to be used on the track for sporty driving. The tire does not the specialized feature needed to aid traction on tracks. It is performance is only perfect for the ordinary daily commute use like going to the mall, office, etc.

Tire load index

A tire’s load indexes the maximum amount of weight that the tire can handle safely. The Viva 3’s load index depends on the size of the vehicle. However, depending on the size of the vehicle, its load index should range from 82 on the smallest vehicle to 105 on the biggest sized-Viva-3 tire.

When converted into weight, a load index of 82 translates into 1047 pounds and 105 translates to 2037 pounds.

Speed and Performance

Depending on the size of the Viva 3 diameter, the speed rating of the tire falls on either T or H. The 14-16 inches diameter Viva 3 tires have a speed rating of T whereas the larger diameter, 17 and 18 inches fall on the H speed rating.

This means that the tire can give a safety speed assurance of 118mph for the T rating and 130mph speed for the H rating.

Warranty

A car warranty can be a great determinant of someone’s decision to buy a given type of tire. I understand why. Some owners are greatly bothered by car tires with a short thread lifespan. Remarkably, Goodyear has an offer of 60,000 miles treadwear warranty. In relation to the price range of Viva 3 tires, this is a higher warranty.

If you purchase the tire from a recognized dealer which in this case is Walmart, Goodyear provides a pro-rata replacement of the tire if the tire wears out before it achieves the mileage that is offered by Goodyear, which is 60,000 miles warranty.

What is the Viva-3 Passenger all-season tire price? 

Viva 3 is one of the cheapest Goodyear tire models. Goodyear’s tires are usually expensive. Based on the size of the tire, prices range from 53 dollars and above. The price depends on the size of the wheel’s diameter.

For the features available, the Goodyear Viva 3 prices are very pocket-friendly for someone who is looking for an all-season tire with a long lifespan, comfortable, safe, and quiet.

Treadwear Indicator

A tire’s treadwear indicator is the feature on the tire that detects the tire’s tread depth with ease, then notifies or indicates to the driver that the tire is at the end of its lifespan and should be replaced.

Goodyear uses the tire industry-standard tread wear indicators (TWI’s) which the company employed on the Viva 3.

The more you use a tire, the thinner the tread wears down, the shallower the tire’s grooves grow. This reduces the car’s traction as well as restricting the tire’s hydroplaning abilities.

There a standard limit dept that is considered safe for driving on wet surfaces. When this limit is reached, it is considered unsafe to drive the tire on wet surfaces.

The standard limit is a 2/32-inches threshold, beyond this, kindly replace your car. The Viva-3 has the TWI sign that will show the owner when the tire has reached its limit.

Is Viva 3 Comfortable, safe and refined? 

The Goodyear website defines the Viva 3 as a tire that is built to achieve comfort and reduce the magnitude of noise from the surface into the car’s cabin. The noise level, especial when driving the car at a slower speed, is very low.

The noise reduction is achieved by the tread pattern, which is designed in a Zigzag pattern. These patterns also offer a smooth and comfortable ride. Goodyear Viva 3 also offers the driver confident handling, which is achieved by the stable shoulder blocks.

VIVA 3’s sizes

The Viva 3 comes in 5 based on the length of the wheel’s diameter. Each size comes with different variants, as stated below.

The available variants for a 14″ diameter are; 175/65R14, 185/65R14, 185/70R14, 195/70R14

The available variants for a 15″ diameter are; 185/65R15, 195/60R15, 195/65R15, 205/65R15, 205/70R15, 205/75R15, 215/70R15, 215/75R15

The available variants for a 16″ diameter are 205/55R16, 205/65R16,215/55R16, 215/60R16, 215/65R16, 215/70R16, 225/60R16, 235/60R16, 235/65R16

The available variants for a 17″ diameter are; 215/50R17, 215/55R17, 215/60R17, 215/65R17, 225/55R17, 225/60R17, 225/65R17, 235/60R17, 235/65R17

The available variants for an 18″ diameter are; 235/55R18, 235/60R18, 235/65R18, 245/60R18

The Cons

There have been several online negative reviews on Goodyear Viva 3 passenger all-season tire. Most customers claim that the tire wears out before even it achieves half of the offered mileage warranty.

Some have complained about the tire being unstable when the car is driven at a higher speed.

This being the third generation of the Viva model, Goodyear must have considered all these. The tire has generally received so many great reviews on the internet.

Is a Goodyear Viva 3 passenger all-season a good tire?

Premium tires that come with high-end safety features are expensive. However, if a person’s pocket is limited and is looking for a good tire with some high-end safety and comfort features, then the Goodyear Viva 3 is your tire.

It is affordable with features that offer safety, comfort, and refinement in any weather.