Given
76%
while driving a
Renault megane
(205/55 R16 V) on
a combination of roads
for 25,000
easy going miles
I bought these tires (4 new) to replace the factory fitted Continental CP2 that were good but that didn't last very well. I read a lot of reviews on this excellent site and went for these as category/award winning tires in 2010. My opinion? They never let me down once in either the wet or dry and they did last about 20% longer so that's a success, right? Well, yes and no.
I'm not a 'spirited' driver generally and do a fair few motorway miles so maybe others would test them harder than me and for them they'd be a better match. The reason I'm getting rid of them now however (when I could get probably another few thousand out of them) is that the fuel economy has never matched what I got from the Continentals. This could be a problem with my car of course but the drop did happen at exactly the same time I changed the tires and the car is regularly serviced. The fuel economy changes with the time of year of course but it has consistently been about 5% down. This is no German road test, just one person's observation. I've thought about how much fuel I put in my car a year and worked out what this equates to in cash and I've decided to put safety and perhaps money first and change these tires with about 3.5mm tread left ... many recommend this anyway.
So I went for Eco-type tires then? Well, actually, no. I've had these before and in my experience, they last incredibly well (with great fuel economy) but even my sedate driving sometimes tested them. I don't buy tires for Alton Towers experiences. I seriously thought about going back to the Continentals but I now do a lot more cross country winter miles. With winter coming, I've decided to try some Bridgestone A001s. As all-season tires, these clearly will not give me excellent fuel economy either but I doubt they can be much worse (certainly not based on the new labelling system) and they will stop me in half the distance on snow and ice than any pure summer tire. I'll write a review on these when I have done some miles on them.
So basically, a good tire but not right for me. Hope this is helpful and happy motoring :o)