# So am I the only one.....



## boats4life (May 28, 2011)

I concur, however, it hasn't been TOO terrible in the rain, just not as nice as expected. I plan on changing everything out anyway, so...


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## CHEVYCRUZE RS (Mar 29, 2011)

On my LTZ RS, if I take off traction control boy oh boy! Slipping all over the road. When traction controls on, the "RS" tires are pretty good if your just "cruzin".


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## Quazar (Apr 28, 2011)

NBrehm said:


> ....who thinks the tires on the ECO suck? They are OK on dry pavement but mine are horrible in the rain. Anybody else had issues with this? Thinking of swapping them out for Nitto NEO-GEN's, I highly doubt there will be much change in gas mileage.


I don't think they suck, I think they perform exactly how low resistance tires should. I do understand where you are coming from though. 

I think a lot of it comes down to what vehicle you are upgrading from. For me its a 96 jeep cherokee with a old old old suspension, this car rides like a dream compared to that.

Though Goodyears estimation is 2600$ worth of saving (in gas) over the life of tire over standard Goodyear assurance tires. Going with even sticker tires would prob change that to in my estimation to $4000 depending on how sticky they are. (this is ovver 65,000 miles, the fuel savings is ~4%) Plus the cost of the tires. looking at $3200-$4600 in (for me) about 3 years and there is a lot of other things I would like to buy or invest in. I perfer my money to go almost anywhere but gas. A stripper IMO is a better investment. LOL


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## limited360 (May 6, 2011)

Quazar said:


> A stripper IMO is a better investment. LOL


AMEN!

I dislike the tires... but they were expected to be sh!t... this is a fuel economy ECO box car...


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## bartonmd (Jun 30, 2011)

Quazar said:


> A stripper IMO is a better investment. LOL


At least the stripper tells you her (made-up) life story( designed to make you feel sorry for her, and give her more money)...

Mike


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## Skilz10179 (Mar 22, 2011)

limited360 said:


> AMEN!
> 
> I dislike the tires... but they were expected to be sh!t... this is a fuel economy ECO box car...


X2

All season tires suck at everything equally...


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## Skilz10179 (Mar 22, 2011)

BTW, the tires that come factory on the Eco are extremely light weight. Adding sticky tires to aid traction you can expect a trade off in other areas of performance.


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## NBrehm (Jun 27, 2011)

I highly doubt in 65,000 miles these tires will save you $2600.00 over a standard tire, not unless gas gets up to $15.00 a gallon (2012? lol). So if the tire is rated for 65,000, assuming 40MPG you will use 1625 Gallons of Gas at $3.80 a gallon means you spend $6175.00. Now if you add the $2600 you "saved" that brings you to $8775. divide that by $3.80 a gallon means you use 2309 gallons of gas, or divided by 65000 miles it would be 28MPG. I highly doubt goodyears tire will give you 12MPG, but that may just be me. I'll sacrifice 3MPG to not get in an accident


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## NBrehm (Jun 27, 2011)

You are correct on the weight though, goodyears weigh 19 apiece, the nitto is 22, but is also a 235/50/17


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## Quazar (Apr 28, 2011)

NBrehm said:


> You are correct on the weight though, goodyears weigh 19 apiece, the nitto is 22, but is also a 235/50/17


So wider, sticker and slightly shorter. My guess, 6% loss in fuel economy, better handling.


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## hitmanc (Sep 13, 2011)

I'm curious as well about running a 235/50 R17 if you do can you please post some pics for all of us. Thank you,


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

hitmanc said:


> I'm curious as well about running a 235/50 R17 if you do can you please post some pics for all of us. Thank you,


I wouldn't recommend it unless you seriously find yourself needing more traction. They will be heavier and wider, which will affect aerodynamics and acceleration, and from my experience, once you run a tire that's notably wider than the rim on which it's being installed, your cornering stability will be compromised as the sidewall will flex and roll more easily.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

The OEM tires on my ECO are the second best set of OEM tires I have ever had. The best were the run-flat OEMs on my Montana. I wanted to replace them with the same tire but couldn't find them aftermarket, even at a Pontiac dealership. The worst OEM tires I have ever had were the Goodyear Eagle GTs on both my Fieros and the Michelins on my wife's Dodge Intrepid. On all three of those cars the OEM tires couldn't grip the road on a cloudy day, much less in rain or snow.


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## Beaker (Mar 21, 2012)

Yeah I'm pretty happy with the tires on mine. They look to have around 12/32nds of tread depth according to the guy at Firestone. Have been fine in the dry and the rain.

Also, wider tires hydroplane easier.

Edit: I have the Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires btw.


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## Vetterin (Mar 27, 2011)

obermd said:


> The OEM tires on my ECO are the second best set of OEM tires I have ever had. The best were the run-flat OEMs on my Montana. I wanted to replace them with the same tire but couldn't find them aftermarket, even at a Pontiac dealership. The worst OEM tires I have ever had were the Goodyear Eagle GTs on both my Fieros and the Michelins on my wife's Dodge Intrepid. On all three of those cars the OEM tires couldn't grip the road on a cloudy day, much less in rain or snow.


I have to agree with you that I also have had a lot worse OEM tires than these. The Firestone's on my TBird and Yokohama's on my Legacy totally sucked! While I did get dedicated winter tires these Goodyears are just fine for the way I drive this car for the rest of the year.


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## cecaa850 (Apr 9, 2012)

Has anyone actually gotten 65,000 miles out of a set of these? I had a set of Goodyear Assurance fuel max tires on my Cavalier and at 38,000 miles, they were ready to be replaced. That's with 5000 mile rotations, new strutts all the way around and constantly checking pressure.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

cecaa850 said:


> Has anyone actually gotten 65,000 miles out of a set of these? I had a set of Goodyear Assurance fuel max tires on my Cavalier and at 38,000 miles, they were ready to be replaced. That's with 5000 mile rotations, new strutts all the way around and constantly checking pressure.


According to Xtreme, the OEM ECO tires don't appear to start with the full 10/32 tread depth, so you may be about right for tire replacement.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

obermd said:


> According to Xtreme, the OEM ECO tires don't appear to start with the full 10/32 tread depth, so you may be about right for tire replacement.


Unless I somehow managed to chew through 3/32" of tread depth in 4,000 miles (highly unlikely), they didn't come with a full 10/32 tread depth. I'll measure my buddy's Eco MT on Sunday this week as he only has about 1500 miles on his, but I'm almost 100% sure that these tires came with only 7/32' of tread life while the "real deal" Goodyears come with 10/32" of tread depth. Now, that doesn't sound like a huge difference, but it's illegal to run them below 2/32" and unsafe to run them below 4/32" according to stopping distance tests done on tirerack.com in wet conditions. Depending on how you look at it, they pretty much sold you a car with tires with half of the safe tread life as the one you'd get retail.


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## cecaa850 (Apr 9, 2012)

obermd said:


> According to Xtreme, the OEM ECO tires don't appear to start with the full 10/32 tread depth, so you may be about right for tire replacement.


I never measured mine when I bought them, guess I should have. If it matters, they were not OEM but replacements. They didn't come stock on '96 J bodies, LOL.


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## Ian_12 (Aug 19, 2011)

The 16" Firejunk tires are horrid. Rain, forget about trying to get down the road. Snow, even light dusting, just park it. On top of that, they like to develop a thump that can't be fixed without getting new tires. This is probably why my car tends to sit quite often. Well other then the engine mounts being insanely compliant and want to keep miles off it.


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## amalmer71 (Apr 5, 2012)

My wife and I were considering the Eco, but she doesn't want a manual, and the automatic seemed to dwindle quickly on MPG, according to the EPA.

Besides, the "low resistance tires" had me a bit concerned. If we lived in a more populated area that had an adequate amount of snow plows, I'd have been less hesitant. We live in a rural area, population of 1,400 ppl., right on the county line. I.E., we're the last area that gets plowed because both counties have more densely populated areas to tend to (basically more traffic). We need tires with a good tread pattern, even if they are all season tires.

We're about 10 miles from any sign of modern civilization. While that may not sound like a long distance to some, on open country roads with high winds and 4-6 inches of snow on the pavement, plus drifts, it's quite a distance.


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## CruzeTech (Mar 23, 2012)

cecaa850 said:


> Has anyone actually gotten 65,000 miles out of a set of these? I had a set of Goodyear Assurance fuel max tires on my Cavalier and at 38,000 miles, they were ready to be replaced. That's with 5000 mile rotations, new strutts all the way around and constantly checking pressure.



There are 2 versions of Goodyear Assurance LRR Tires. The ones that came stock on my Eco are 580 treadwear. The discontinued ones were 500. Not that this will double the life of the tire, but its just something that I noticed. Im fine with the tires. They are cheap compared to what Im used too. I will be paying less when I replace these than I do for 2 tires on one of my other cars.


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## Vetterin (Mar 27, 2011)

amalmer71 said:


> My wife and I were considering the Eco, but she doesn't want a manual, and the automatic seemed to dwindle quickly on MPG, according to the EPA.
> 
> Besides, the "low resistance tires" had me a bit concerned. If we lived in a more populated area that had an adequate amount of snow plows, I'd have been less hesitant. We live in a rural area, population of 1,400 ppl., right on the county line. I.E., we're the last area that gets plowed because both counties have more densely populated areas to tend to (basically more traffic). We need tires with a good tread pattern, even if they are all season tires.
> 
> We're about 10 miles from any sign of modern civilization. While that may not sound like a long distance to some, on open country roads with high winds and 4-6 inches of snow on the pavement, plus drifts, it's quite a distance.


That should be reason enough to consider dedicated snow tires for the winter.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

amalmer71 said:


> My wife and I were considering the Eco, but she doesn't want a manual, and the automatic seemed to dwindle quickly on MPG, according to the EPA.
> 
> Besides, the "low resistance tires" had me a bit concerned. If we lived in a more populated area that had an adequate amount of snow plows, I'd have been less hesitant. We live in a rural area, population of 1,400 ppl., right on the county line. I.E., we're the last area that gets plowed because both counties have more densely populated areas to tend to (basically more traffic). We need tires with a good tread pattern, even if they are all season tires.
> 
> We're about 10 miles from any sign of modern civilization. While that may not sound like a long distance to some, on open country roads with high winds and 4-6 inches of snow on the pavement, plus drifts, it's quite a distance.


In my opinion, the EPA doesn't correctly rate the fuel economy of the Eco Auto. There are too many improvements to merit a mere 1mpg increase in highway fuel economy and no increase in city fuel economy. As for the tires, I didn't have issues this winter with my Cruze Eco. The Eco tires won't be any worse than most all season tires. In fact, being M+S rated, they might be better. However, the guy below me said it perfectly:



Vetterin said:


> That should be reason enough to consider dedicated snow tires for the winter.


There's no such thing as an "all-season" tire. There are 3-season tires renamed as all-season tires, but for the kinds of conditions you're talking about, you're going to want to invest in some winter tires for the winter months on a separate set of wheels.


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## amalmer71 (Apr 5, 2012)

LOL

I don't need snow tires. I've lived here for over 12 yrs, so I know what tires I need. I just know I don't want (<-operative word) "low rolling resistant tires", but thanks anyway.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

The LRR tires on my ECO MT handled the snow extremely well.


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## oasisdeb (Dec 7, 2011)

I also have the 2011 Eco and have driven through two Michigan winters. I have had no problems and don't feel the need to get winter tires.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Unless I somehow managed to chew through 3/32" of tread depth in 4,000 miles (highly unlikely), they didn't come with a full 10/32 tread depth. I'll measure my buddy's Eco MT on Sunday this week as he only has about 1500 miles on his, but I'm almost 100% sure that these tires came with only 7/32' of tread life while the "real deal" Goodyears come with 10/32" of tread depth. Now, that doesn't sound like a huge difference, but it's illegal to run them below 2/32" and unsafe to run them below 4/32" according to stopping distance tests done on tirerack.com in wet conditions. Depending on how you look at it, they pretty much sold you a car with tires with half of the safe tread life as the one you'd get retail.


I'm positive all car manufacturers do this to force the standard 36 month/36,000 miles leases to have relatively new tires when the car is returned. I have never gotten more than 30K on a set of OEM tires.


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