Opinions on LRR Crossover Tires?
 

Greetings!
I've got a 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe that I will soon be putting new tires on and I want to make them count when it comes to gas mileage. The size on the car is 235/65/17.
I know I could probably squeeze a bit more out if I went with a narrower tire but I'm not thrilled with how my car brakes as it is and I don't want to lose more grip than I need to.
I'm mainly looking at Mavis Tire, as I get a discount through work. They have three options that are listed as LRR that also have decent ratings on Tire Rack for wet, dry, snow and tread life (and are within my budget) :
-Continental TrueContact
-Continental CrossContact LX20
-General Grabber HTS

Does anyone have experience with any of these? Any recommendations as to what I should look at instead? My only guidelines are that anything that is more than $150 per tire is out, and no Michelins, since the sidewalls rot out if you look at them the wrong way

Thanks!
Joe

First, LRR is a relative term. It means "better rolling resistance than tires with the same traction and wear characteristics." It does NOT mean low rolling resistance by itself.

There is a 3 way technological triangle involving treadwear, traction, and rolling resistance. In order to get great values in one area, one or both of the other areas has to be sacrificed. Car manufacturers take advantage of this by specifying low RR values and they can get away with that because they don't provide a warranty for the tires. That's why lots of folks claim the OE tires are cheap - they generally wear fast because they have low RR.

So if you are replacing OE tires, you should expect a loss in fuel economy unless you are replacing the tires with the same make and model as original.

Even if you are replacing non-OE tires, you should expect some loss in fuel economy, because worn tires getting better RR than full tread tires. New tires will get better RR as they wear, but when you replace them, the same thing will happen.

I recently put Nokian WRG3 on my 2 Rogues, since I don't drive either regularly I don't know the MPG drop. But on the 2015 I'd Rogue with the well worn OEM I could get 34 with a casual warmed up 30 mile drive. Not sure I could get much over 30 now. I have 225-60-17 & 225-60-18's. Great tires for traction and I put more importance on that than MPG. Doubt I'll get the 55,000 rated life but I'm OK with that. I have them on 3 of my 5 cars, will be 4-5 when I need to replace the impalas, I'll continue to run full blown winters on my cobalt.

Drove the 2015 Rogue to Menards today. Inflated the tires to near 40 psi last weekend. Of course it was on empty so I had to fill it. Reset Ave MPG at pump, 20 miles later was at 35 mpg just setting cruise at 55-58. Temps in mid 50's. Did an on the fly reset later after 20 miles right at 30 but the wind really picked up. I'll never understand how my wife can get such bad FE.

Not everyone gets the thrill and science of hypermiling. ;)

Yeah, same here. My wife consistently gets 75% the mileage I get.

I have Cooper Discoverer At3's on my S10 and they are a great tire. Made and designed in USA.

Goodyear still makes some made in the USA tires, have them on my old 911. Long wearing if nothing else.

It's nice that you can research the heck out of anything on the Internet these days.

I'm currently looking in the 255/65/18 size for my wife's traverse. I think I have settled on these.
https://m.tirerack.com/tires/tires.j...omCompare1=yes

I have had Cooper Discoverer HTP's in the past, great tire. Also 2 sets of General Gmax tires. I find the performance per dollar is very good with those brands. As others have said, lrr may save gas but they won't necessarily save you money if you have to replace them more often.