I am very, very pleased with the tires. I drive A LOT of miles and I run them 2psi over the limit as stated on the tire. I have had no problems at all. They're quiet and I have had great confidence in them in wet weather. I'd get them again with a moment of hesitation.

 

Great to hear that you are happy with them - and that they perform well in wet weather! Thanks!!

 

Any updates? I need to order new tires for my '07. Guess I will order the OEM's if no other feedback.

 

I'll comment that I decided to go with the GoodYear Assurance Fuel Max tires. I've had them on for a couple weeks. My decision was based on them being LRR, all season, and finally - priced right! I normally average 52 mpg. After installing them and psi set at 40/36, I could not break the 50 mpg barrier. This past Sunday I changed to 48/43 psi, and my lost mileage has returned. I have one stretch (3 miles to work) that my previous best FE was 60 mpg on a really good day. But today is my 3rd straight morning of rolling into work at 62+ mpg. They are quiet and have a decent ride (compared to the Dunlop SP31's, these tires are miracles!). I'm happy!

 

Just had Kumho Solus KR21 installed. On the way home, the mileage seemed unaffected, the ride was significantly better than old OEM Dunlops.
Will report how that goes. I did have TSB9-58 done at the same time, so that muddies the water a little bit

 

reagle

I had my 07 hchII Bridgestone replaced with the kr21's. After about 10k the mileage has not changed one little bit. I am very happy with the tires, less then 300.00 delivered and installed.

Brian

 

Mine were about $280 delivered from Tirerack plus installation of around $20 per tire, so I am closer to 380 here

 

A SUV owner here doing research. It looks like many here prefer the Exhalto's but they are not available in the 225/65-17 size needed for the Highlander Hybrid so it looks like my options are limited. The Yoko dB Super E-Spec also looked like a good option but wasn't due to the restriction we had when we got the tredwear credit for the premature Fortera TripleTred's. We ended up getting the Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max @ $124/tire. I realize that I "may" have been able to have gotten a lower price but in order to get the entire $80/tire value for the old ones, we needed to stay with a Goodyear product and these appear to be one of the best at staying quiet and also have the M+S rating so we decided to try these.

After additional research, it appears that neither the Yoko dB nor the Michelin Energy Saver tires are available in the 225/65-17 size so that reduces the options more.

 

I replaced my OEM tires with Nokian i3's about a year ago. I too have a dedicated set of snow tires mounted on extra rims, so only three season driving factors into my experience with them.

After a few years the tread compound on any tire will begin to harden up, resulting in decreased traction in any road condition. On wet roads it had reached a point where even mild acceleration from a stop (is there any other kind in a HCH?) would result in wheel spin. I decided to risk a slight drop in MPG in favor of a tire weighted more toward traction and resistance to hydroplaning.

I was hoping there would be no discernible drop in MPG, but there was; about 1.5 MPG (3.4%), even with comparable tire pressures. The tires may not account for the entire difference, however, since I don't drive for high mileage as avidly as I used to and my wife has become a frequent driver in the interim.

In any case, I feel the improved traction and wet weather properties if the i3 more than compensate for the small sacrifice in MPG. If you are manic about racking up max MPG you will want to make another choice, but if you are willing to make a small concession in fuel efficiency the net improvement in handling and safety is unmistakable.

 

One question about Tires Marketed as fuel efficient.

Considering many variables that go into a mpg figure for a combo of car, driver and environment, how can we accurately obtain the increase in mpg solely attributable to the tire?

Would this work?

Same driver, same car, with the driver attempting drive identically on two different sets of tires.

Assuming 5 yrs tire life per tire tested (and im going with 2 brands tested) it would take at least 10 yrs to get an accurate mpg reading.