Hi Scott;
I had the SP31 Dunlaps and changed brands and am very happy I did. Have a look at Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max or at Wal-Mart G/Y Viva Fuel Max. These are all season LRR tires with 89H wear rating and can be pressed to 51 PSI cold setting. They are very quiet at all speed and most road surfaces. They perform very well on ice and snow, in fact as well as my snow tires ! You will be happy if you decide to go this route!
Cheers;
H

 

I've been a Master tech Honda Technician for the last 30 yr. My Brother and I also won the SCCA autocross 1992 National Championship in DP with a '74 Honda 1200. Reality check says rolling resistance will get you or lose you only a couple MPG. Big differences are almost always due to changes in tire circuference. Worn tires will always get better "MPG" because they are smaller in diameter. Of course the cars MPG never changed but the Odo thinks you went farther so you register more MPG. Bottom line. To compare apples to apples, drive a measured distance using two landmarks. Then change tires and measure the distance between the same landmarks. Drive in the same direction in the same lane of course. In auto rallying this is an odo ck and 10 miles is a good number 20 is better. If your new tire read more miles your computer will show more MPG but your cars real mileage may not have changed at all. If your tires are bigger you'll read fewer miles and the computer will "think" your mileage went down. Life just ain't as simple as some people would like to believe. Consumer Reports Continental Pro-Contact ECO Plus+ is a low rolling resistence tire, 2nd highest rating, 80,000 warranty and it's where I'm going in another 5000 Miles. I've got 28,000mi on my 2010 Insight and have one tire about worn out on inside edge. Hondas usually where tires out there. I've averaged about 45mpg for the life of the car. Also note. My winter mileage is always lower (up to 4 MPG) due to richer fuel settings (engine cold) and longer warm up. Later. BOB

 

What other size of tire can be used on a 2004 HCH? I've been checking around for a bit, and I'm not finding an LRR tire in the size that is specified for my 2004 HCH, 185/70 R14. I'm getting pretty frustrated that the tire mfrs. are producing LRR tires for just about everything but a car that is designed to get good mileage, bought by people who actually give enough of a c**p about gas mileage to actually do something about it.

 

Tire Rack has the Bridgestone B381 which is LRR. Pretty pricey.

 

The other OEM tire for the 2004 HCH was the Dunlop SP20 FE:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....FEV2&tab=Sizes

 

OEM size is nice but not necessary. The LRR Continental ECCOPLUS tires for my 2010 Insight only come in 180x60 vs my OEM SP31 175x65. The difference is 1 mph at 50mph per consumer reports. In this case I'll go 51mph at 50 real mph. My computer will read 51mpg instead of the real world 50mpg. 2% difference. Pretty darn close. Other combinations may work also like a 190x50. Whats important is tire circumferance not cross section. That said you won't find any LRR tires in wide low crosssection tires as they are made for cornering performance not MPG performance. Any tire dealer and a lot of online charts can give up equivelent tire sizes. Just keep it close. BOB

 

My OEM Dunlops are noticeably noisy on my 2010 Insight. The tradeoff for LRR is a harder compound, the reason for my noise, IMO. A softer compound, with more tread to add mileage would be one solution.
I will not be going to the SP31 when new tires are due and will look at the tires mentioned on this thread.