Quote:
Originally Posted by cbaber
I tend to stay away from the LRR tire hype. Is it really economical to spend extra money on a tire that adds 5% to your fuel economy? The additional cost that comes with most LRR tires, and the reduced performance and tread life all but doom these tires in my opinion.
Pick a tire that has a long lifespan, 60,000+ miles. Go to tirerack.com and read the reviews. Pick a tire that will do what you need it to do, in the conditions that you drive in.
I chose the Kumho Solus KR21's. Not only did I get them at a great price, they are rated at 80,000 miles. If you pick a set of LRR tires that last 40,000 miles you paid more than me, plus you will need to buy 2 sets in the same time I bought 1. There is no way the 5% fuel savings is going to make up for that price difference.
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5% would make a difference
tire rack thinks you would have 185/65/14s, so im going with that.
in that size there are the bridgestone b381, goodyear fuelmax, and michelin defenders.
the b381s have no treadlife warranty and have poor ratings on tire rack, so its hard to make a case for them
the michelins are ranked #1 in the same category that the KR21 is ranked #8, and are rated for 90k mi, so a case could be made w/o even including the fact that they are LRR
so i think the best comparison would be between the goodyear fuelmax (rated 10 of 24 on tirerack) and the kumho kr21's(rated 8 of 22 on tirerack)
make a few assumptions and plug in the numbers....
assuming you get 5% better fuel economy with LRR tires (40 vs 42mpg)
assuming the tires last exactly as long as warrantied (65k fuelmax, 80k kr21)
assuming fuel is $3.50/gal
assuming $50 mount+balance
assuming todays price on tire rack
4 kr21's ($61 = 244)plus mount 294
4 fuelmax ($92 = 368)plus mount 418
fuel for 80k at 40mpg w/3.50/gal = 7000
fuel for 65k at 42mpg w/3.50/gal = 5417
294+7000=7294 /80 = $91.18 per 1k mi for tires and fuel for kr21
418+5417=5835 /65 = $89.77 per 1k mi for tires and fuel for fuelmax