Hi Tim,

You were sort of my hero by going out and replacing your rims and tires based on a desire for upgraded aesthetics. When you say "In all I'm happy with the look so if it costs 1-2 MPG so be it," I'm in 100% agreement. Getting mid-40s MPG, with a car you really like, and with looks that catch the eye -- what's not to like?

My personal feeling is that sometimes there can be a tendency to worship individual MPG, when I believe that our goal should be collective MPG and relative MPG. But that's a subject for another thread, which I will initiate as soon as I muster up the courage. Watch this space. ;-)

And the fact that you chose the wiser path -- very lightweight rims and LRR tires -- was one reason why I decided to go ahead an try out the rims and tires I did. I figured that we already would be getting some data for probably the optimal setup (yours), so I went ahead and chose what I did: moderately "lightweight" rims (for 17"), and non-LRR tires. We can see what the difference is -- my hunch is that if you see a 1-2 MPG difference, then I will see 2-4 overall.

And I agree about the winter: I think that by the end of the summer we will each have some more reliable data with which to compare to our old results.