Best Alternatives to Michelin Energy Saver A/S ?

Thanks for the posts F8L. I find myself in the market after just passing 50k on my OEM Bridgestones. Not the best set of tires but I guess I could have had worse.

For me, I do tons of highway driving. Absolute max MPG is not my primary concern. As tread wear took its toll, I found the Bridgestones to become very noisy. It has definitely made me value low noise more than economy. Honestly, I could care less about how much gas I'm saving if constant road noise ever contributes to eventual hearing loss. Note: the wear has been very even and I have not had any vibration issues. They were just noisy.

I'm leaning towards the Continentals right now but I would like to know if you or anyone else has a comparison of road noise between the top contenders.

Thanks in advance.

 

Based on your needs I would suggest one of the following:

Michelin Primacy MXV4
Continental ProContact with EcoPlus
Goodyear Assurance Comfortread

My first choice would probably be the ProContact with EcoPlus because it does just about everything well and is inexpensive. The next choice would be the Primacy MXV4 for its overall good performance and milder hit on mpg compared to the Goodyear. The Goodyear is just a Caddilac of a tire with high treawear warranty but is not LRR so expect a larger hit on mpg. If overall comfort if your goal, not mpg, then I may have to do a bit more research. I usually ignore non-LRR tires.

See my Tire Test thread for details on each tire.
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-fuel-economy/98592-new-tire-tests-tirerack-com.html

 

it really depends on where you live. In some areas pavement is very abrasive. We squeezed 50K out of fronts, worn to the bars, rears at 76K are still going.

 

I never said I 'wore them out'. I never .... EVER ..... 'wear tires out'.

When a tire stops performing as it should, I get rid of it. That's usually around the 4/32 depth. Worn tires perform very poorly in the rain. I'm sure I could have legally and within parameters of the wear bars go up to around 40K, but it's simply not worth it to me. I like riding on good rubber, not eking out every possible mile from a set of tires.

I'm sure at one time or another you've realized that your tires weren't as good from 30K to 40K. Whether they spun from a stop in the rain on occasion, or maybe just a touch of hydroplaning was noticed, or maybe worried you a little when you turned and they hesitated slightly when it was wet.

If that happens ONCE to me when it shouldn't ... I replace my tires (as long as I wasn't overdriving them a little).

I don't risk a $20K car for $400 worth of rubber every year and a half. I love the feel of good tires, and I don't mind one bit paying for it. You're welcome to my cast-offs at any time, free of charge, and I think I even noticed that you're in PA.

REV

 

I've got a feeling that Cyclopathic drives his car slow and easy judging by his mpg therefore he would be less likely to eat up tires. It could be that he lives in Prius utopia and 60mpg is easy, tires last forever, and girls in bikinis pump your gas and wash your windows for you.

 

Could be !!!

Even with the Prius, I like to have a little fun.


REV

 

shhh dont blow my cover

Actually the avg per tank/oil change is in 32-35MPH, not many freeway miles. And the highest speed limit in metropolitan area is 55.

 

Uhh huh... Well just keep it safe uhh Rev?

I knew it!

My average per tank is between 43-49mph depending on how many rural road trips I make while going to preserves. If it is just my commute then I am closer to 55mph average since I only get about 4 trips to work before I have to refill and I drive 65mph on the freeway.

 

I took a long 500mi each way trip in march last year and the worse MPG was ~46 indicated. This is with 65mph limit driving like yahoo flooring to 90 to pass trucks. Was 51 on the way back, with avg 61MPH both ways.

yeah I prefer to use rural roads, it actually saves time vs gridlock

 

In 50 degree temp, my OEM s33 averaged 44mpg at 75mph cruise control. 41 to 42 from ecoplus and 40 from altimax

 

I drove mine for another 1000 miles, fuel mileage around the same (41-42 indicated at 75 cruise). Noise is definitely on par with stock A033. I even took it to an autox, I can say they perform slightly better than the Yoko despite how noisy they are when pushed.

 

they are good tires but not the most efficient.

In tirerack report they score lower then Avid TRZ in dry, which is surprising since TRZ isn't that great handling tire.

Eco-Focused All-Season Tires: Do They Deliver on the Promise?

 

Tire Rack availability update!!
Just ordered a set of Energy Saver A/S in OEM size. I called because the site said "in stock" but the recent posts here said weeks, maybe months. They are IN STOCK in Delaware and South Bend as of YESTERDAY (just in time to get the $70 rebate card!!!).

Other locations still waiting. The service guy said they are expected 1st-2nd week of April but they have no confirmation so he isn't promising those dates. He did say that they were back ordered a long time and seeing them come in to the two locations gives him some confidence that the 'next week or two' for the other warehouses is probably good.

 

I read through all the posts, thanks for the informative thoughts.

I chose the Energy Saver A/S over the ProContact EcoPlus for several reasons:
1) I'm only driving about 12K miles a year and half of that is on winter tires. With 120K miles on the car, I think the 65K mile warranty should suffice. Oddly, the TireRack customer surveys put the tread life of the A/S at Superior(9.0) and the ProContacts at Excellent (7.9) but the Continentals have a 15K longer tread warranty..
2) The cost of gas is going straight up. The presumably better MPG of the A/S should help with the cost differential
3) The $70 rebate (only until April 1!!!!) brings the differential down to $30.
4) I'm sneaking up on 50 MPG lifetime. Wouldn't want to endanger that!!! Of course, if we didn't have winter snow and cold in Vermont, I'd be mid to high 50's lifetime.

I'm not sure I'll be able to provide much in the way of "how much MPG improvement" unless it is AMAZING. Just changing from winter tires (and winter cold and snow) to summer tires and temps usually makes a ~10 MPG difference.

Plus, my driving has changed since last summer so I don't know that it is reasonable to compare MPG with the old OEMs. They were shot at about 25K miles, most of them put on the last 2 summers. They were ripped off the car when it was less than 3 months old and royally sucked in 1/4" of snow. I had better traction with the brand new Goodyear TripleTreads with the plastic sticker still attached. I ran the TTs year round for 4 years then got snow tires and saved the TTs for summer. They were noisy, louder even than the winter tires, but they were great tires.

As a testament to the "quality" of the (lack of) Integrity tires, those on my wife's '06 came off last spring (replaced with Ecopia 100s) worn out with about 25K miles on them. REALLY sad excuse for a tire.

 

I now have more miles on my Ecoplus, fuel mileage picked up slightly (now only 1-2mpg of the OEM Yoko). Wet traction is fairly good. No weird noises and ride is similar to stock tires.

 

Exactly why they're going to be gone between 25K and 30K ... they currently have 26.5K on them.

Not sure why you'd stop driving the car instead of just getting new tires ....

REV