What tires not to get

[BBsGarage]

I can tell everyone what tires you should not get if your looking to help your FE.
I put on a set of General Tire Altimax RT 's and can say with out a doubt that they do not help at all with FE.
In fact they have hurt it.
Pulling out the weeks that I did not drive to work (car pooling) my mileage has dropped to 37.6mpg. This is down from an average of nearly 40mpg!

I do have to be concerned with wet weather and snow traction, so this is the main reason for choosing these tires. And from a performance point of view they are a pretty good tire although a bit on the noisy side.

[MazdaMatt]

I don't know what your weather is like there, but here in Ontario I would never use an all-season tire. I have summer tires with a good rain tread and I have snow tires. Most people here use all-seasons and I think they are nuts. You get year-round non-optimal grip. Next time, buy a set of summers and a set of winters (it doens't cost more, since you wear them each half as fast). Then you can make sure that your summers are good FE-friendly tires.

[nascarnation]

In big highway trucks, the rolling resistance decreases as the tread wears down.
On cars also it might well be that a new tire of a given make might be worse than a worn out one.

Hard to imagine 2.5 mpg difference though, that's a big change.......

[klrv6]

I just put 4 new Michelin Xradial DTs on my sentra. My daily commute is 200 miles right now. Previous mileage was 39-45 depending on driving speed on the highway and mixed city. Old tires were some old, very worn pirellis. The new michelins tires gave me 40-43 on day one. Day two it went up to a new best for FE @ 47.5, and now halfway through day three looks to be the same as day two. I had a fear that FE would be down with these but, at least they are safer. So far it looks like they will pay for themselves over the life of the tires (80K miles).

[klrv6]

technically they will be paid for in 2.5 days as my employer gives me 58.5 cents per mile

[Blue07CivicEX]

If anybody is looking for a recommendation on tires I put the Yoko Avid TRZ's on my Civic about 10-11k miles ago, when I hit my oil change at 6200 miles they didn't need to be rotated. They are an 80k mile tire, my FE got better with them from the stock squishy tires Honda puts on. I have the tires at the 44psi sidewall, ride is a little stiff but the tire seems solid.

[mavinwy]

I put the Bridgestone Touring (Have to look at which model) on both the neon and intrepid this summer. FE was unchanged on the intrepid, but handling was a HUGE im provement over the Goodyears and they were quieter as well. The neon needed tires when I got it, and I was impressed enough with the ones on the intrepid that I bought the same. 80K warranty was pretty nice as well, but not a deal breaker.

They do not really have a good "winter" pattern on them....but we do not really drive either of these vehicles in the snow. We have a Jeep and a truck for that....changing keys is easier than changing tires.....

Jim

[BBsGarage]

The snow we get is usually cleared well within a day, so it isnt often I have to drive in any kind of deep snow. Usually just a nuisance amount that makes things slippery enough that a summer tire would be very bad.

i have used winter tires in the past but they tend to wear a bit faster.

[IndyIan]

Are OEM tires not basically chosen for fuel economy these days? Usually they are bad at everything else so I though they were chosen for their rolling resistence?
Don't get uniroyal tiger paws, these came on my tracker and they are very bad in the wet and snow. At 60,000 miles they look about 1/3 worn so I guess if you live somewhere where it doesn't rain they might be good.

I get used tires now, tires are all dated stamped so you know how old they are and they are 1/2 price compared to new generic brands, never mind michelin or yokahama. All the ones I've got so far have been less than 2 years old and are basically new, with no noticable tread wear.
Ian

[mavinwy]

Wow, most shops here will not sell used tires because of liabailty issues, and there are a couple that will not mount a used tire either.

I don't find good tires that expensive. Since the Jeep is only used in the winter, I am looking at the "green diamond" retreads in a deep lug from treadwright....but all the cars that go on long trips, I tend to buy a major brand from a national seller. Then no matter where I am, I can get them repaired.... Of course, I also still carry a full sized spare in all of them because there are distances here that are further than the temporary spare is supposed to be run.

But that may be more regional....

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted by mavinwy

Wow, most shops here will not sell used tires because of liabailty issues, and there are a couple that will not mount a used tire either.

I don't find good tires that expensive.

I think you are shopping on the wrong side of town, the expensive side of town anyways!
In Canada we get screwed abit on some product prices and tires are one of them. A set of "good" tires from Michelin would be $600+ for my Neon by the time I got out of there. From my used guy, $180 all in... For my $1200 car this makes more sense. I do get to pick the tires as well so I get something decent. I guess the good part about Canada is that almost any shop will repair anyones tires and there is no talk of liability, they will tell you that a plug may fail, and then you get to decide if you want to risk that. Seems like a good system!
It takes a bit of knowledge to go the used route but I've been in their tire lot and there are no old, very worn, or damaged tires so I think even the clueless don't ripped off.
Ian

[tasdrouille]

Originally Posted by nascarnation

In big highway trucks, the rolling resistance decreases as the tread wears down.
On cars also it might well be that a new tire of a given make might be worse than a worn out one.

Hard to imagine 2.5 mpg difference though, that's a big change.......

That works for all tires. The less material there is to flex, the lower the RR. It's just more noticeable in big rigs as rolling resistance at highway speed is still in the 40% of total load, much more than cars.

[mavinwy]

I never realized the price difference was so high. My neon tires were $275 out the door with road hazard and the whole shebang. I would like it if people here sold used tires (we used to when I worked at a shop here in town growing up....but made it clear that there was no warranty on the used tires.) But I have not seen anyone doing it in better than 10 years.

It seems that it is better than them going to the landfill.

Jim