Don't know if this has been posted yet, but TireRack is adding two new ratings to its site:
- LRR categorization
- "a "vehicle fuel economy" component to its tire testing regimen"
( Source: Tulsa World -
Tester rolls out ratings for tire efficiency | Tulsa World )
And see TireRack blog post:
Tire Rack - We're focusing on fuel efficiency.
Nice to see, but of course the value of the "LRR" badge on its own is debatable, since it comes from the manufacturers and could be more about marketing than efficiency. Without standardized measurement for comparison purposes (across brands), its utility is limited.
On that topic, there is a LRR ratings system proposed by the US feds & California for 2012.
Tire Rack has done some LRR comparos already. I believe this one has been mentioned on EM before:
When Round and Black Becomes Lean and Green
When Round and Black Becomes Lean and Green
... where they compared 7 different tires on the 2nd gen Prius, including measuring for fuel consumption differences in somewhat controlled testing.
