# I May Have Purchased the Wrong Tires!



## uwphotog (11 mo ago)

I have a 2019 Cruze RS sedan I bought in February, 2019 and love it. After 78K miles, one of the tires hit an object the punctured a hole in the side of the tire, therefore the tire could not be repaired. Since I had 78K miles on the tires, I decided to purchase a new set of 4. I bought from Discount Tire 4 Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires because of a high treadlife warranty, good reviews, and a reasonable price. After a couple tanks of gas, I noticed that my overall mileage dropped a whopping 6 MPG (now even worse in the winter with colder weather). I spoke to my service advisor about this and right away he said I bought the wrong tires after asking me if I replaced them with the exact make and model of tire that was originally on the car. I remember they were Firestone Firehawk tires, but can't recall if they were A/S or GT type tires. I believe they were GT, but if anyone out there can verify that with their 2019 Cruze RS sedan, that would be great. My service advisor said that what I was experiencing was "Rolling Resistance". Apparently these Falken tires I purchased may have great gripping and handling ability, but because of that, mileage will suffer because of poor Rolling Resistance. He further explained that GM put the best tire on the Cruze RS that was engineered to give the car the best mileage and handling ability possible, and that is why they chose the Firestone Firehawk.

So, now I have to wear these tires out and then purchase Firestone Firehawk tires, provided they're still available when the time comes - unless anyone out there has any other suggestions. Again, if anybody else has a 2019 Cruze RS sedan with original Firestone Firehawk tires, please let me know if they are either A/S or GT type tires.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

I would consider the Firestone Firehawk GTs to be more performance oriented than those Falkens, which look more like a standard all-season. Given the Firehawks have a 460 treadwear and the Falkens have 720, I would be willing to expect the Falkens to have _less_ rolling resistance.

What was the tire pressure before and after. Are the tire sizes the exact same? There are a lot of factors that could cause the drop.


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## Chad20101 (Jul 23, 2019)




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## Strawberry644 (Oct 10, 2020)

the firestone firehawk gt was what was on my 2019 RS when i bought it, i replaced them with firehawk indy 500 soon after. if your interested in gas milage mostly then i would have recommend a different model (*Michelin Energy Saver A/S* ) as your buying performance tires, when designing these gas milage is the last thing on anyones mind. i cant comment much on the gas part since im tuned and a decent amount of mods


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## Johnny B (Jun 4, 2019)

uwphotog said:


> I have a 2019 Cruze RS sedan I bought in February, 2019 and love it.


I have a 2015, and it is a great car also. 



uwphotog said:


> I bought from Discount Tire 4 Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires because of a high treadlife warranty, good reviews, and a reasonable price


Yup, all that is true from what I can tell.

But here is the rub, all tires are compromise. It is probably true the stock tires had a low rolling resistance, but that isn't bad to a degree. My stock Firestone tires were so useless in the snow, I had to replace them early. When I looked at replacement tires I looked into "fuel saving" tires, and what I found were tires had poor traction and cost such a premium that it was doubtful I would recover the purchase price in fuel savings.

Also consider two facts. #1 All tires get their worst mpgs when new. All tires take about 600 miles just to break in, also tires at the very end of tread life will get the best mpgs.
#2 Most everyone experiences about a 15% drop in mpgs during the winter.



https://www.falkentire.com/tires/passenger-car-tires/sincera-sn250/s-tire



Your tires were not designed for fuel efficiency, but considering the cost I would keep them if you are happy otherwise. Running them at 40 psi will recover most of the mpgs. 😉


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## uwphotog (11 mo ago)

Thanks for all the info and suggestions. To answer the questions that came up, the Falken's I bought are the exact size as the Firestone's. As for tire pressure, I always keep them a few pounds above the recommended pressure (which is 35 psi) but never above 40.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

Chad20101 said:


> View attachment 295893


 looks like there's no rush to buy those tires. According to the arrival date.🤣


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## Chad20101 (Jul 23, 2019)

Old screen shot before I traded it in 🤣


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

I lost ~2 MPG switching from my Michelin MXM4 to a PureContact LS.

The PureContact LS is so much better in every other way that I don't care. 6 mpg is a lot, though.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

jblackburn said:


> The PureContact LS is so much better in every other way that I don't care. 6 mpg is a lot, though.


Which is what surprises me, given that Falken appears to be bit less performance-oriented than a Firehawk GT.


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## mwswarrior (Jul 3, 2015)

I highly doubt the tires alone are the cause of a change in mileage that significant unless there is a major difference in the weight per tire. As long as the size is correct, you should be good with the tires. I'd look elsewhere for the change in mileage.


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## blink (Feb 10, 2019)

uwphotog said:


> I have a 2019 Cruze RS sedan I bought in February, 2019 and love it. After 78K miles, one of the tires hit an object the punctured a hole in the side of the tire, therefore the tire could not be repaired. Since I had 78K miles on the tires, I decided to purchase a new set of 4. I bought from Discount Tire 4 Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires because of a high treadlife warranty, good reviews, and a reasonable price. After a couple tanks of gas, I noticed that my overall mileage dropped a whopping 6 MPG (now even worse in the winter with colder weather). I spoke to my service advisor about this and right away he said I bought the wrong tires after asking me if I replaced them with the exact make and model of tire that was originally on the car. I remember they were Firestone Firehawk tires, but can't recall if they were A/S or GT type tires. I believe they were GT, but if anyone out there can verify that with their 2019 Cruze RS sedan, that would be great. My service advisor said that what I was experiencing was "Rolling Resistance". Apparently these Falken tires I purchased may have great gripping and handling ability, but because of that, mileage will suffer because of poor Rolling Resistance. He further explained that GM put the best tire on the Cruze RS that was engineered to give the car the best mileage and handling ability possible, and that is why they chose the Firestone Firehawk.
> 
> So, now I have to wear these tires out and then purchase Firestone Firehawk tires, provided they're still available when the time comes - unless anyone out there has any other suggestions. Again, if anybody else has a 2019 Cruze RS sedan with original Firestone Firehawk tires, please let me know if they are either A/S or GT type tires.


I have a 2019 Diesel Cruze RS, it came with Michelin X tires. Not sure if that helps.


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## Nickgmc (Aug 19, 2021)

uwphotog said:


> I have a 2019 Cruze RS sedan I bought in February, 2019 and love it. After 78K miles, one of the tires hit an object the punctured a hole in the side of the tire, therefore the tire could not be repaired. Since I had 78K miles on the tires, I decided to purchase a new set of 4. I bought from Discount Tire 4 Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires because of a high treadlife warranty, good reviews, and a reasonable price. After a couple tanks of gas, I noticed that my overall mileage dropped a whopping 6 MPG (now even worse in the winter with colder weather). I spoke to my service advisor about this and right away he said I bought the wrong tires after asking me if I replaced them with the exact make and model of tire that was originally on the car. I remember they were Firestone Firehawk tires, but can't recall if they were A/S or GT type tires. I believe they were GT, but if anyone out there can verify that with their 2019 Cruze RS sedan, that would be great. My service advisor said that what I was experiencing was "Rolling Resistance". Apparently these Falken tires I purchased may have great gripping and handling ability, but because of that, mileage will suffer because of poor Rolling Resistance. He further explained that GM put the best tire on the Cruze RS that was engineered to give the car the best mileage and handling ability possible, and that is why they chose the Firestone Firehawk.
> 
> So, now I have to wear these tires out and then purchase Firestone Firehawk tires, provided they're still available when the time comes - unless anyone out there has any other suggestions. Again, if anybody else has a 2019 Cruze RS sedan with original Firestone Firehawk tires, please let me know if they are either A/S or GT type tires.


I have a 2018 RS Hatchback and it came with Goodyear Assurance.


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## loraleewilliams2 (11 mo ago)

uwphotog said:


> I have a 2019 Cruze RS sedan I bought in February, 2019 and love it. After 78K miles, one of the tires hit an object the punctured a hole in the side of the tire, therefore the tire could not be repaired. Since I had 78K miles on the tires, I decided to purchase a new set of 4. I bought from Discount Tire 4 Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires because of a high treadlife warranty, good reviews, and a reasonable price. After a couple tanks of gas, I noticed that my overall mileage dropped a whopping 6 MPG (now even worse in the winter with colder weather). I spoke to my service advisor about this and right away he said I bought the wrong tires after asking me if I replaced them with the exact make and model of tire that was originally on the car. I remember they were Firestone Firehawk tires, but can't recall if they were A/S or GT type tires. I believe they were GT, but if anyone out there can verify that with their 2019 Cruze RS sedan, that would be great. My service advisor said that what I was experiencing was "Rolling Resistance". Apparently these Falken tires I purchased may have great gripping and handling ability, but because of that, mileage will suffer because of poor Rolling Resistance. He further explained that GM put the best tire on the Cruze RS that was engineered to give the car the best mileage and handling ability possible, and that is why they chose the Firestone Firehawk.
> 
> So, now I have to wear these tires out and then purchase Firestone Firehawk tires, provided they're still available when the time comes - unless anyone out there has any other suggestions. Again, if anybody else has a 2019 Cruze RS sedan with original Firestone Firehawk tires, please let me know if they are either A/S or GT type tires.


Just curious, but did you have any other maintenance done at the same time?


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## Cruzer4326 (Jan 22, 2017)

On my 2017 Hatchback, I also lost at least 4 mph when I replaced the original Goodyears with BFG's that have a 75k mi treadwear life. The goodyears were in need of balancing at about 20k mi. The tire technician called me back to the balancer and showed me that the Goodyears were out of round (original tires!). 
The BFG Advantages that I put on have a terriffic ride and traction but I don't like that I lostv 10% mpg. I hope that after a few thousand miles, that the 40-42 mpg normal returns.


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