I am pretty close to getting these tires from my local Discount Tire. Looking at the spec sheet on Tire Rack, they are either made in the US or Mexico. So it seems to be a lottery. Any concern with Mexico-made tires? I have always had Japan, US, or Canada made tires only.
JZ, just get the Premier A/S. I have 500 miles on my set now and they are outstanding. Great ride, good dry traction (after the mold release compound finally wore off), excellent straight line stability, and very quiet. MPG is better than my worn Primacy MXM4 - I'm averaging 43 right now...and I was at 41 before.
Good. This is my 2nd choice but do not want to compromise too much in the MPG department. It is encouraging that they are doing better than the worn out OEM MXM4s. So it does not sound like too much compromise. These are 100% US made, as far as I can tell. What kind of pressures are you running? Please keep us posted.
These were the Primacy MXM4 from the ct200h, the H-rated version. Very crisp handling, but noisy for the last 1/3rd of their life and only lasted 32k. Very fun tire to drive on though. The Premier A/S give up a bit of dry traction, but maintain a very good balance of dry traction and handling. Hard driving got me 39-40mpg on one tank, careful driving with some P&G is getting me 43 on this tank so far. I've been running 36/34 for pressures. I actually just pulled a car into the shop tonight that was wearing a brand new set of EP422s. They feel mushy and soft in comparison.
shrug, everytime i drive on brand new or underiflated tires, they feel mushy. crisp starts at 40psi and after 500 miles of breakin for me.
Having the 215/45R17 size, both the Premier A/S and Ecopia EP422 are on my shopping list. Have the Michelin Pilots right now, what the car came with, new. The Premier's are relatively new, as you can from "total miles reported" in the following TireRack survey, but people seem to like them. The only niggle: TireRack doesn't include Rolling Resistance in their survey.
