[99LeCouch]

I noticed a 10-15% drop in MPG with the Generals on my old LeSabre. They were an excellent snow tire, letting that car claw through anything in its way. Highway driving was stable and sure-footed. I'm glad I had them, despite the MPG drop.

With the Cruze, I'm tempted to get them again. However, given some of the reports for LRR snows on here, I'm also leaning toward getting a set of LRR snows such as Nokian R's or Michelin X-Ice XI2's.

Based on my math of driving about 7k miles during the winter and gas at $4/gallon, a set of LRR snow tires giving a 5% drop in summer FE of 40 MPG would cost $737 in fuel. A set of non-LRR snow tires giving a 15% drop in FE would cost $821 in fuel. So one would save $84 in fuel in 1 year by getting a LRR snow tire compared to a non-LRR snow tire. At the current price difference between the Generals and the Michelins, the payback would be 2 years for getting the LRR Michelins over the non-LRR Generals.