Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max vs Bridgestone Ecopia EP422

I have the Goodyears - I put them on my car about a year ago and have been very happy in general and specifically I thought that they handled well in the rain and snow last winter. As of right now I'd buy them again.

 

This might be of interest:
Eco-Focused All-Season Tires: Do They Deliver on the Promise?

 

I installed G/Y assurance Fuel Max! Wonder-full smooth and FE tire.Never will I purchase another brand. Hal

 

Funny you found that already. I posted in my tire test thread the other day then today I received an email from Woody at Tirerack.com letting me know it was up on their site. I've been talking to them about performing this kind of test and they were very receptive. I really like the company.

If you are interested in the Bridgestone EP422 or the Michelin MXV4 with GreenX be sure to check tirerack.com as well as your local stores like Costco. Those two brands always have a $70 rebate offer. Sometimes Goodyear offers an $80 rebate.

Click this link for more tests relevant to the Prius:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-fuel-economy/98592-new-tire-tests-tirerack-com.html

 

Looking at your choices it seems the unstated desire is LRR as well.

If I went by the bolded text only I'd assume you'd seriously consider the tires below as they both have excellent survey results for wet traction and low noise.

Hankook Optimo H727 (better than average RR, still good pricing and better snow/ice ratings, best rated "Standard Touring All-Season" on tirerack)
Gen II/III 15" choice $74 831 195/65/15 Hankook Optimo H727

Goodyear Assurance ComforTred Touring (not LRR, don't confuse it for the Goodyear Assurance ComforTred (one says Touring the other doesn't). The touring version is the best rated "Grand Touring All-Season" on tirerack.
Gen II/III 15" choice $103 836 195/65/15 Goodyear Assurance ComforTred Touring


If you stick with one of your two LRR choices I'd look at these sizes:

847 205/60/15 Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max or
836 195/65/15 Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max

833 195/65/15 Bridgestone Ecopia EP422

The Fuel Max is nosier than the Optimo H727 or ComforTred Touring.

The EP422 doesn't have survey data on tirerack but it is cheaper than the Fuel Max.

 

D, didn't the H727 get knocked for not having good wet traction in one of the tests?

Y, eahin the following test it ranked last against these other tires known for good wet weather traction.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=152

 

The above has been cut and pasted into a number of threads. I know a "good thought is worth repeating". But, isn't it time to have a NEW thought?

 

It did but that could be sample variance as it gets good survey results.

Also tirerack tests only at recommended PSI of the test vehicle and the H727 responds better at higher than stock PSI from what I've read.

And then there was this post in http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...0-how-your-hankook-h727-tires-holding-up.html

They are made in Korea and China so maybe one factory does better or maybe different batches behave differently. Too much to keep track of but any mass market item you buy is a "sample variance" contender. It's like buying lottery tickets.

That's why I'm still willing to recommend them, hundreds of tirerack users completed their survey and on average it was rated the best "standard touring all-season" tire.

I wouldn't recommend it to someone that runs at 35/33 but if you are willing to up the tire pressure it's worth considering.

 

You may not notice it but if you look through those threads I'm adding and removing tires based on the OP's question/preferences.

Tires I didn't include in this thread that are in my potential list include

General Altimax HP (at several sizes)
Yokohama Avid ENVigor (at several sizes)
Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S (at two sizes)
Michelin Energy Saver A/S (at one size)
Michelin Primacy MXV4 (at one size)
Michelen HydroEdge (at several sizes)

and I always consider tires I find when researching the reply and modify the part above, below, or even including the pasted portions.

Don't let formatting and similar content lull you into assuming I'm saying the same thing in every post that has a line like

Gen II/III 15" choice xxx $xxx xx/xx/15 Company Name Tire Name

 

O, know I remember their ratings in the consumer survey and they did rate high. Higher than the Fuel Max if I remember correctly.

 

Who rates the tires for Tirerack? And here lies the problem. Some of the comments on tires I have owned are not even similar to how the tire performs! Hal

 

Tire Rack performs their own testing. Consumers may add a review to a tire which is usually less than a robust testing procedure but still helpful as they are actual customers using the tire. So it's good to check both sources before a purchase.

 

wejust returned from 1,400mi trip and can confirm the EP422 (in this case 422 Dualies on non-hybrid) produced ~2.6% MPG gain when compared to stock Avid S33.

would be great if Michelin made Saver A/S in right size, as they give honest 4.7% improvement. When Round and Black Becomes Lean and Green

 

In addition to the staff testing and user "reviews" there is an online survey. Not all tires on tirerack have survey data as they don't publish it until they get some minimum number of survey results. Any tire that sells commonly will have survey data.

So if you see tirerack testing it's useful but not all tires are tested by tirerack in fact not even 10% of the tires have test data.

If you see reviews, you are getting customer reviews + any fanboy postings or astroturfing (paid posts by employees to be overly positive or overly negative about a tire). But you might see as little as 1 review for a tire. I don't consder reviews helpful until there are hundreds or until I see reviews for the exact tire size / car combination I'm looking for. A quick check shows

Altimax HP has 1567 reviews
Optimo H727 has 280 reviews
Michelin Hydroedge has 225 reviews
Assurance Fuel Max has 126 reviews
Assurance Comfortred Touring has 121 reviews
Michelin Energy Saver A/S has 45 reviews
Ecopia EP422 has 24 reviews

Now reviews just ask for a free form statement and a rating from 1-10 along with "Miles driven on tires", "Location" (city/state), "Driving Condition" (highway/city), "Driving Style" (easy, average, spirited).

If you see survey data you get much more information including the miles driven but adding

"Would buy again?"
"Hydroplaning resistance"
"Wet Traction"
Dry "Cornering Stability"
"Dry Traction"
Dry "Steering Response"
"Light Snow Traction"
"Deep Snow Traction"
"Ice Traction"
"Ride Comfort"
"Noise Comfort"
"Treadwear"

All subjectively rated from 1 (worst) to 10 (best) and averaged. Tirerack shows the total mileage of the surveys tallied per tire

Altimax HP has 18,091,170 miles reported
Optimo H727 has 2,343,907 miles reported
Michelin Hydroedge has 5,337,378 miles reported
Assurance Fuel Max has 1,009,448 miles reported
Assurance Comfortred Touring has 1,082,617 miles reported
Michelin Energy Saver A/S has 486,005 miles reported
Ecopia EP422 has no survey data

Maybe they have survey data for the Ecopia EP422 but not enough to be considered reliable so they don't publish it? I don't know their policy.

It is pretty clear that the Ecopia EP422 has sold less tires but maybe that is because it's a newer design.

Since the form that asks for survey data makes the end user pick from the drop down duplicate / confusing names like Yokohama AVID (15 choices) and Goodyear eagle (26 choices) could lead to survey data being dumped into a similarly named wrong tire.

It's not terribly different from looking at reviews on newegg.com or amazon.com. Users could put bogus reviews up. Companies can astroturf. But all and all I'd say it's better than not having the information it provides us.

 

Sorry. I thought you worked for Nankook.

 

No problem , I'm not working for any tire or auto related company nor am I getting paid to post here.

Feel free to say I give bad advice if you think so or recommend a different tire.

It's a group think process so every post has a chance to influence me and the others who read it.

 

I think you've done a great job with your posts for tires. You do a lot of research before posting, and when you suggest something for someone, have sound reasoning behind it, with an easy to understand explanation.

 

Just ordered these as well, mostly because the Michelin Energy Saver A/S were nowhere in stock and the EP100s were reportedly soft as a compound and would wear down in snow (they are classified as a summer tire). $434 fitted and balanced.