Energywise tyres

[CR6ZZ]

OK, there have been a heap of ads on TV lately extolling the virtues of "fuel saver" tyres. They apparently have lower rolling resistance and are supposed to save you money.... According to the ads they "meet performance benchmarks for rolling resistance (fuel efficiency) and wet grip (stopping distance in the wet) on top of the safety and construction requirements under New Zealand rules and legislation" but does anyone know how they are for dry grip/road holding? I guess what I'm asking is, is any safety being compromised in the pursuit of fuel efficiency. I have a relatively high performance car (Audi S4) and fit the best tyres I can afford to allow me to utilise the cars performance within legal bounds (Michelin PS3s). The energywsie webpage tells me there are currently no fuel efficient tyres available for my car. I appreciate that 90% of motorists really don't care about how their tyre hold the road and the vast majority won't exploit their cars potential. Any thoughts?

[GravelBen]

I've wondered about them too.

I'm not so worried about outright grip (as long as its at least reasonable), I'm more interested to know what the construction and feel is like - do they have horrible spongy sidewalls or are they reasonably responsive?

[Bull1t]

I too know nothing about them but I can't see how choosing a tyre that deliberately has less grip is anything but a bad thing. Meeting a performance benchmark is pretty meaningless unless you know what that benchmark is. A supercat must meet whatever standard they require to sell them but it doesn't mean I'd put them on my car.

[Dan M]

I've got near-new Bridgestone Ecopias on a Passat I bought recently. Bridgestone claim over 5% savings on fuel - about 0.5 litre per 100km in this car.

The grip is ok but the car itself is a wallowy barge so I don't know if the tyres make it any worse than it would be anyway.

What is noticeably worse is road noise - significantly more than a VW Bora and Audi A4.

I wouldn't buy them. I got Toyos for the Bora and A4.

[Omerta]

Similar to Dan's experience - I've had Ecopias on my diesel commuter Pug for a while and they're now just about due for replacement at 100,000kms (my commute is a 150km round trip) so certainly they are durable. Grip is generally OK - predictable and progressive enough if chucked into a wet roundabout, which is about all the driving fun I get these days, but I wouldn't push them at higher speeds.

I put Ecopias on the family wagon - another barge (sigh) recently and watched fuel consumption closely and did see better fuel consumption. Whether that's the Ecopias or the higher pressure specified by Firestone (34psi) than I was running before I couldn't say.