Tire Shopping - Buyer's Remorse

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reemoe23

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I had narrowed my choice of tires down to two, and chose the one that was $60 cheaper. Unfortunately, that tire must have very poor rolling resistance, as MPGs are down over 5%!

Does anyone know if there is a market for "near mint" tires? Mine have only been installed 3 weeks, with about 1,000 miles on them. The date marked on the tires is week 11 of 2010, so just 6 weeks ago.

Would a tire shop be inclined to purchase them from me for say, $400, if I paid $500+ (i.e., about a 20% discount for less than 2% off the mileage rating)?

Thanks in advance!
 
Take them back and tell the shop you are not happy with them. They should be able to credit the purchase back towards the new more expensive tires that you were looking at.
 
Please correct me if I am wrong...

but I thought brand new tires have more rolling resistance than old worn tires ?
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BTW, what brand / size tires did you recently purchase ?
 
I found that Pep Boys COOPER brand performance tire (for an old contour I had) showed incredibly high rolling resistance - I though the E-brake was on! I just got a couple pirelli P4 for my Yaris - they arent GREAT but they have VERY low rolling resistance. I was VERY happy with the 205 65 R 16 P4's I had purchased for the 05 RAV but not so wild about the 185 60 15 I got for the yaris - they hisss loudly and they are Uuugly looking. I didnt like the Yokohama Avid S either I bough last year - they now reside on the back axle
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Falken Zeix are very good 50-70 buck tires. I wanted to try hankook (for no good reason) but couldnt find any locally at a good price. I will never buy tires on a 2 day "get 'r dunn" rush deal again ;(
 
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Tires do take time to break in, plus more tread depth does produce more tread squirm that increases rolling resistance.
I assume you keep track of mileage quite accurately? I do and going up or down 5% isn't unusual. My car wouldn't coast nearly as far with my new snowtires but over the winter they lost a bit of rolling resistance.
 
The new tires are bigger diameter than the ones you took off....if not simply from wear, from design. The odometer isn't reading the same number of miles per tank as it was before.

Maybe not all the difference but, it's a part of the equation at least.

I promise they're not exactly the same diameter anyway.
 
Out of 100s of tires I've bought, I only returned on set of Falkens. RR is pretty esoteric anyway, def not a safety concern.
 
Reemoe23,

I went back and looked at your posting history.

You took 3 hits:

1) You replaced worn out tires with new ones. Everything else being equal, new tires (with lots of tread) are going to consume more fuel than worn out tires (with very little tread).

2) You replaced OE tires with Replacement Market tires. OE tires are designed to specifications issued by the vehicle manufacturers and typically include fuel economy as a major design feature. To get this, traction (especially wet traction), and/or wear are sacrificed.

3) You selected a tire with a good mileage warranty - 70K - and that means more than the usual hit for fuel economy

If you had any concern at all about fuel economy, you could not have picked a worse course of action unless you had selected an All Terrain - or worse and On/Off Road tire.

But there is good news: Cooper has a 45 day satisfaction program - but frankly, short of putting the same OE tire back on, you are not going to change this very much. I'd advise taking the cost savings and then love how long these tires are going to last.
 
Also even if you can replace the tire under the satisfaction program, you still have to pay for mounting which is $20 typically. Not really worth the effort for non-OE low rolling resistance tire.

I'd rather use a little more fuel than driving a death trap with low rolling resistance OE tire. My car got blown 1/2 a lane sideway on a bridge in a storm because of the lack of traction.
 
I went with the Cooper Discoverer CTS and regret not buying the BF Goodrich Long Trail T/A Touring.

The original tires were Bridgestone Dueler H/T 684 II. The consensus opinion on these were that they are pretty inferior. Yes, they did not have very deep tread. I got the full use of them (~41K miles). Definitely glad to get them off.

Are you saying that I would experience similar decreases in fuel economy with almost any non-OE tire? Also, why does a good mileage warranty mean worse fuel economy? I would have guessed the opposite--using 'harder' rubber, thus causing less grab/friction.

Ryan
 
I'm guessing the said tire is a Cooper truck tire (discover). Yeah, the MPGs will go down, but the traction you get is more than worth it. Plus, they eat nails like my wife's Kelly Nav golds do.


Give thenm the chance to break in more, and you should get some of those MPGs back...
 
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Depending on your dealer, you could trade them in.


My neighbors ford explorer tires are both wearing very well (@10k), and his gas milage did go back up too...
 
I can get the BF Goodriches now $60 cheaper thanks to a rebate that wasn't there when I purchased. Even counting installation, I may only be out an additional $150, assuming a can get $350 from the Coopers (I did place them on Craigslist). And that is causing the loss of sleep--a 5% loss in fuel economy would result in ~$100 more annually, which I could potentially recoup by switching.

Re: the 45-day guarantee, I bought them online, so logistically it seems I couldn't take advantage of it--I wouldn't receive the new ones until days after I sent in the old tires. I wonder if I could return them to a Cooper dealer near my home?
 
Originally Posted By: reemoe23

I can get the BF Goodriches now $60 cheaper thanks to a rebate that wasn't there when I purchased. Even counting installation, I may only be out an additional $150, assuming a can get $350 from the Coopers (I did place them on Craigslist). And that is causing the loss of sleep--a 5% loss in fuel economy would result in ~$100 more annually, which I could potentially recoup by switching.

Re: the 45-day guarantee, I bought them online, so logistically it seems I couldn't take advantage of it--I wouldn't receive the new ones until days after I sent in the old tires. I wonder if I could return them to a Cooper dealer near my home?


I think you may have to return to the online store to have credit. You may contact the local Cooper dealer to see if they will take the tires you bought online back, but I doubt they will.
 
Originally Posted By: reemoe23
.........Are you saying that I would experience similar decreases in fuel economy with almost any non-OE tire?.........


Yes, with a few provisos.


Originally Posted By: reemoe23
.........Also, why does a good mileage warranty mean worse fuel economy? I would have guessed the opposite--using 'harder' rubber, thus causing less grab/friction.....


A common misconception. I explain it in detail here:

http://www.barrystiretech.com/rrandfe.html

Short version: Rolling Resistance is caused by the internal friction of the stuff that is being deflected - and most of that is tread rubber.

It turns out that traction, treadwear, and rolling resistance are traded off among each other. There are some other properties that are affected by this relationship, but they sort of come along for the ride.

The problem here is that it is a 3 way - "harder/softer" is 2 dimensions.
 
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