Energy Saver A/S to be replaced by Defender

Updates with my Energy Saver A/S tires

I've got over 300 miles on this tank and my indicated MPG is 66.5. It is on par with what I was seeing with my heavily worn Yokohamas. Actually, my Yoko had me at an indicated 70 mpg a few times recently, but this tank has been adnormal, with trips to my Mother in Laws and extra trips to my parent's house, in which I don't get as good MPG as I do on my normal commute to work. I'll gas up on Wednesday or so and we'll see what Thursday and Friday have in store.

 

Gary, what pressure are you running your tires at? I'm at 46/44psi cold right now. I added pressure the other day because of colder temps but now that we're back in the 90s and 100s (tomorrow and next week) I am noticing how much easier it is to glide. I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on the ride and handling.

I turned 300miles and was sitting at 66mpg but a couple of bad trips (non-commute) dropped me. I had to struggle to get back up to 64.5. I hope to bring it back up to 66mpg by the end of the tank. It's so tough when you hit 400miles. Those 10ths of a gallon are a struggle sometimes. LOL

 

OK, I filled up this morning. I was at ~570 miles and the HSI read 67.0 mpg (the tires were new when this tank started). Unfortunately, I don't have an accurate calcuated value because the gas tank overfilled and a little fuel spilled out (grumble). So, instead of being around 63+ calculated, it was 61.9 calculated. Assuming my next tank fills "normally", I can average the two (I didn't reset my B trip, just in case). I'm noticing that the car does glide longer and smoother than my worn Yokohamas and that they also tramline worse than my Yokohomas did (I never noticed it with the other tires, but definitely do with these). Fortunately, I don't hit much grooved concrete, so it isn't a big issue for me.

My round trip to work today was 70.2 mpg displayed. After a trip to my mother in law's, the car is at 67+ mpg displayed with a little over 100 miles on this tank. I'm not seeing much of an MPG drop off with these new tires (if any). The car definitely rides smoother and has better grip than with my worn Yokos (no big surprise there).

 

David, what do you have the tires at right now?

 

Currently running 44 PSI fronts and 42 PSI rears. They were initially inflated to 44/42 when it was 100F outside. When temps were in the high 50's/low 60's, I rechecked the pressures and inflated up to 44/42 (they were down about 3 PSI).

 

That is what I am currently running. Or is it 46/44? Wait, I think it is the later. lol

 

Nice.

Make sure to check your oil and ensure they didn't over fill it.

 

Update time:

I've driven 1153.9 miles and used 17.881 gallons on my last two tanks for an average of 64.5 mpg. When I summed up my previous 6 tanks (May 1 - last tank with old tires) my average was 65.0 mpg. I would like at least one more tank to draw some conclusions, because my first tank on the new tires was vastly overfilled, and I'm hoping I had a "normal" fill this time around. Assuming I get a "normal" fill up on my next tank, the overfilled gallonage will have been addressed.

Observations

The ride is smoother with these new tires. I can glide longer. There are roundabouts as I go home and I don't need to get up to the same MPH as I did with the Yoko's to coast through the roundabouts at a safe speed. While the overall average seems to have decreased by 0.5 mpg, I think this is within normal "noise" from different fillups (i.e. the error bars would be larger than the averages).

At this time, I can honestly say there was no significant MPG decrease with these tires, and it is debatable if there is any MPG decrease at all compared to worn Yokohamas.

When my Yokos had ~5,000 miles on them (June 2010) I averaged 59 - 60 mpg on my trips.
28,000 miles (June 2011), I averaged 63 - 64 mpgs on the Yokos.
50,000 miles (May 2012), I averaged 64 - 65 mpgs on the Yokos
1,000 miles (June 2012) I'm averaging between 64 - 65 mpg with my Michelin's.

 

OK, these tires do not suck (gas that is!)

I'm at ~300 miles on this current tank. I've had more short trips on this fill up than I would normally. I started my weekly commuting with ~100 miles on the tank with a displayed value of 65 mpg. I'm now at 300 miles with displayed MPG of 69.0 mpg. Despite having a "bonus" 6 mile drive to the mall....let car sit for 2 hours....and then 6 mile drive home on Monday and a "bonus" 8 mile drive to get my hair cut....let car sit for 1 hour....before going to my parents, I've averaged a displayed value of 71.2 mpg. Cut these two short trips out and you could easily add another 1 - 2 mpg for my current tank.

 

I wish this tire came in 205/55/R16.

 

Final stats for this tank =
671.2 miles on 10.017 gallons of gas for a calculated average of 67.0 MPG.


For the first 3 tanks

1825.1 miles driven
27.898 gallons of gas
65.4 MPG

This is superior to what I was seeing with my worn out Yokohamas. Great tires for MPG's if you can still get them.

 

67,000 miles now on the Energy Saver AS tire, 195x65x15 with 44 psi in all four tires (max sidewall pressure
indicated). I will need to get new tires in about 5,000 miles or so. Tire wear is even
and proper. The Energy Saver tire did increase MPG's about 2-3 mpg over the factory Yokohama Avid
and the warranty of 65,000 miles is pretty close to what you can expect....

 

Aww David. What happened?

 

I chickened out! LOL. I overfilled my first tank with these new tires (stupid pump didn't turn off). When I did my second fill up, I "assumed" it was a normal fill-up and compensated for the overfilled tank, but I couldn't be SURE that this was the case. Since my daily commute is nearly 70 miles, I have to be very sure that I can make it back to the station at home to fill up. I was sitting at 670 miles, so do I push it to 740 miles on a tank that I'm not confident is filled (using 11+ gallons of a 11.9 gallon tank) or do I just cut it "short" at a mere 670 miles and fill up.

I opted for the latter. Besides, I figure I still have 2 months of good, warm weather driving to push it. Even still, as the tires wear, I may even beat this tank quite easily.

For what it's worth, the 70.2 Displayed MPG is my new "high score" for the car. I suspect that this new high score won't last too long, however, but it is a good start.

Also, as I logged onto Fuelly to record my new high score, I saw the 74.5 mpg for MarkAble on the sidebar. It stole my thunder even before I had thunder! LOL

 

Costco is currently running the $70 rebate for Bridgestone tires AND $30 off tire mounting/balancing. This is quite a deal! I think this would make the Ecopia EP422 lower cost per mile to run than the Defender and could put it pretty darn close to the Energy Saver A/S since the Ecopia EP422 and EP100 start off so much cheaper even with the discounts.