New tires = bad gas mileage?
 

So a friend of mine drives a Honda Civic Hybrid. For the first, oh 30.000 miles of the car it got great gas mileage. Somewhere in the realm of like 45-50MPG. When she needed new tires, she didn't go for the factory authorized hybrid, she just got whatever her local Firestone shop reccomended.

Now shes lucky if shes getting 25-30MPG on the Hybrid. She took it too the dealer and they didn't really have a clue what was wrong with except to suggest it might have something to do with the tires. Apparently hybrids use some kind of specially weighted tires you need to get through the dealer or some such thing.

But it's kind of a big gamble to throw on an entirely new set of tires on the whim of a few mechanics.

So does anyone have any experience with this problem with HCHs? Any experience with tires? Has anyone else had such a signifigant loss of gas mileage from something as simple as tire choice? I'm kind of dubious, but I wanted to put this out there to see if anyone has some insights.

Re: New tires = bad gas mileage?
 

Do some searching and reading on this board and others. LRR tires do make a difference in increasing mileage as much as high performance "sticky" tires lower your mileage. You do not need to go to the dealer for decent tires. Generally LRR tires use a higher concentration of silicon and less carbon black than conventional tires with a trade off of lower tread life.

Re: New tires = bad gas mileage?
 

Afaik, LRR tires do increase mileage of about 10 or maximum 15% but in her case the difference is too much and that makes me think there may be a different problem too. Maybe I'm wrong?

Re: New tires = bad gas mileage?
 

Dealership Brigestone tires wore out at 24,000. MPG had been 41 max not the 50 on the EPA sticker. Researched effect of tires on MPG and best estimate was 6%. Purchased good ($100 each) ordinary tires from our family's tire guy - who we trust. Mileage dropped immediately to 31 MPG and then regular tires wore out at 31,000. Assuming cost of gas at $4 and taking into account the difference between 24,000 and 31,000 mile tire life - the decreased mileage cost me $570.72. NOW the Honda dealership service department says there is no such thing as a special tire for this car. Thanks for info on LRR tires.