Tire dilemma

I wish I could try the Continentals, having stumbled on mentions of them in this quest. I'm stuck with either Bridgestone or Michelin. I'm currently thinking about seeing how the Weatherpeaks do on a fairly big road trip I have coming up next week (about 7 hours' driving, total), and maybe also upping the PSI to see if that makes a difference.

That said, I feel skittish enough at this point about the Bridgestone's treadwear that I feel like I might be better off with Michelin T+H, especially since a fair number of people here seem to get better MPG from them than I have from the Ecopias--though I have no idea what else they may be doing to that would affect those numbers.

 

70K is more than I got out of two sets of Ecopias combined--and the short life is a pretty common complaint. I'd love to know what those of you who've managed more are doing differently, because it blows my mind. The MPG is great, but I'm not quite to 68K and this will be my third set of tires.

It sounds like the Michelin Energy Savers were the real winners, but you can't get them anymore.

 

32K for the first set, 35K for the second. I rotate my tires on time and keep them inflated, and always service it on time. I had the TPMS replaced this time because the car is almost nine years old and I suspected at least one was having issues. I live in New Jersey, so it's fairly flat, and we tend to get snow a few times a year (though a few years ago, we got dumped on every single week, so you never know what you're going to get).

 

You're probably right about the TPMS--I just mentioned it because I was trying to think of anything else that might be helpful.

I don't remember what the tread depth was with the first set of tires at 32k--that was five years ago now. With this last set, it was 3/32, with one slightly lower for some reason. I've never work tires to where I can see wear bars, but even if I had, I wouldn't have come anywhere near 60k.

I don't race the car, either, or do any sort of unusual driving. Just the regular suburban commute and occasional road trip.

One other thought--I'd wondered why Costco lists the Ecopia multiple times on its site, and saw here that those tires are made in the US, Japan, and Mexico, and are not the same. When I compared the two Costco currently lists, they are indeed quite different. One has a UTQG of 540 and the other 640, and the warranties are 50k and 70k, respectively. The maximum load PSI is also different. There's no manufacture location given, so I don't know where either was made.

I wonder if I've somehow managed to get the 50K tires each time, and those of you who've done better with them got the 70k?

 

This is (obviously) an accidental post. I can't find a way to delete it, but if someone can tell me how, I will.

 

That would make sense. It makes me wonder if Costco (where I bought the last ones) knows which set they're ordering when they place the order, because it's certainly not abundantly clear on their website, at least not to someone like me. I know they don't use the website for that stuff, but still... when you have two Ecopia 422+ listings showing up, do they just pick one more or less at random? Doesn't seem right--but then it also doesn't seem right that Bridgestone has three different versions of the same tire under the same name in the first place.

 

Quick update: I decided to up the PSI in these tires to see if/how much it helps. Imagine my shock when I discovered that, two weeks after they were installed, my tires--first thing this morning, so as cold as they'll get in August--weren't properly inflated. They were each 3-4 PSI below the 35/33 Toyota recommendation.

Either Costco didn't properly inflate them, which seem odd but is certainly possible, or they're losing an awful lot of air in just two weeks. I've put them up to 38/36 to see how things go.

 

Yes, the 422+. It's infuriating that they would do this and make it essentially invisible to the customer. I don't know if the EP20 is still available, since I'm stuck with Costco for this set of tires.

 

This is exactly what I've been wrestling with. I'm willing to lose a little MPG if it means the tires last as they should and are safer in rain/snow. I'm actually growing more tempted just to keep the Weatherpeaks, though I have a ~350-mile road trip coming up next weekend and at this point, I want to see how they do with that before I make a decision.

Which Michelins do you have? I'm so frustrated with the short lifespan of the Ecopias, and the confusion over their three very different versions of the 422+, that if I do decide to opt for something else, I'm tempted by the Defender T+H.

 

An awful lot of people here seem to like them, and some have managed 60+ MPG with them, which just blows my mind since they're not LRR.

Speaking of tire confusion, this is the other weird thing with Michelin/Costco. Costco has the X-Tour and the Defender T+H. The X-Tour is listed as LRR and EV compatible. The T+H is not. I called Michelin to ask them about the two tires and they insisted to me that they are the same tire.

Putting aside the fact that I can't understand why Costco would bother to have the exact same tire with two different names, how can the specs be different? Everything but the EV/LRR is the same, but even so... it makes no sense to me.