Tire plans

Goodyear fuel max (according to discount tire) weighs 19.8 pounds for a 215/55/17, Nitto invo in 235/45/17 weighs 20.6, I can live with 3/4 of a pound per wheel. Nitto's are also exremely light due to their high nylon content. I am not really hugely concerned about the fuel mileage, I can sacrifice a few MPG (especially with the cost savings for the snows being $100.00) for a tire that, IMO, is inadequate in most ways. Dry performance is OK, wet performance is terrible compared to similar tires, they are noisy and only ride "OK". I guess bottom line I'd rather have better ride and handling and the ability to stop short on a wet road with confidence than the added gas mileage. Also having sold tires at the shop for a few years now I have yet to see a set of these go the full 65,000 miles and most people complain the fuel savings is negligible. Food for thought either way. I am curious to see just how much the MPG would go down though.

NBrehm said:

I've made it no secret that I hate the stock goodyears on the ECO, I was going to get a nice set of new tires but with winter coming I think snows are a better idea first. So anyway, my plan since we have such an oddball tire size and now I have a trifecta tune on the way so later on I can adjust tire size, is to switch to a 235/45/17. They are a little less than an inch smaller in overall diameter which is going to hurt gas mileage a little bit but it opens alot of doors for tires instead of the limited choices we have and the reduced weight of the tire may even cancel it out. For tire selection for snows I'll be going Bridgestone Blizzak WS70's and then in the spring will put Nitto Invo's on.

Opinions?

EDIT: BTW if anyone cares the Blizzak's are about $175 each and the Nittos are $135 each. Compared with the only stock sized snow I could find (Michelin Alpin, $200.00) and the stock tire at $138 they are a fair bargain IMO

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Oddball size?

On Tire Rack, there are 56 different tires in that size...

8 of them are snow tires...

Blizzak WS70 is $133
Winterforce is $99

I've had Winterforce snow tires on my Lumina then my LeSabre (still on the Lumina 16" wheels) for 4 years now, and they've been great! I did not stud mine, but even so, they are pretty good in the ice (much better than any all season, but not quite as good as the Michelin X-Ice)... They are, however, GREAT in deeper snow and packed snow on the roads! Much better than the X-Ice or any of the "performance" snow tires, given the very open tread design...

Mine probably have 1 winter left in them (I'll replace them at about 1/3 -3/8 tread), and they've probably got 30k miles on them... Then again, if it's not snowy or below 15F, I'm usually on the bike, and my commute is 40 miles of highway, so they don't get used in warmer weather, or hard in town or anything...

ETA: Michelin X-Ice Xi2 is a "green X" or "low rolling resistance" tire, and is $144 each with a $70 rebate card if you purchase 4, making it $127 each...

Mike

NBrehm said:

To be honest I didn't look at tire rack, I've bought twice from them and had problems both times so I won't deal with them. I've good luck with the Blizzak's in the past so that is what I am going to stick with. And yes they are an oddball size when you look at the prices they get pretty steep when you get to the better end of the tire spectrum because it isn't that common of a size. If I can find a summer tire I like in the stock size it is good to know there are other snows out there but I get such a good discount from Nitto they are gonna be tough to beat.

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Eh, they're really kind of a "less common" size... An "oddball" size is like 255/85-16, where there are only the BFG KM2 made in that size, or the stock size on the non-R/T Magnum, that, until the last year or 2, only had the OEM Goodyears and the Assurance tripple-tread made in that size...

ETA: I used to buy from them all the time, and never had any problems with them, but they're also in Indiana, so I get charged sales tax... if I buy from Discounttiredirect, I don't get charged sales tax, and they'll match any shipped price, so that's who I go with now...

The only online place I've had problems with was onlinetires.com... The Destination AT tires that I got the for Trailblazer had 1 of them 1 year old, 1 of them 2 years old, 1 4 years old, and 1 5 years old... I called and told them about this, and after 45 minutes on hold (this was every time I called, by the way), the guy said "did you get the make, model, size and qty that you ordered?" I said yes, and he said "Glad you're happy with them, have a good day"... I didn't look until later to find out that they had an "F" BBB grade... Live and learn...

Mike