Given
79%
while driving a
Renault Laguna I
(195/65 R15 H)
on
a combination of roads
for 26,780
average miles
When I bough my car (used) it came fitted with 4 Firestone Firehawk TZ300a (F-C-71dB) tyres with around 50% tread left and drove with them for 21338miles. It was a good all round tyre, although a bit uncomfortable on bad roads due to how hard the sidewalls were, and the fuel consumption was around 54-57 MPG (mixed highway and city).
The first thing I noticed when bough the 4 Bridgestone EP001S was that they came only with ~6mm tread when new, instead of the usual ~8mm. The second thing I noticed was how jello-like and lightweight they were compared to the Firestones.
The EP001S was a very comfortable, silent and grippy tire from new to old. The fuel economy went up to 59-62 MPG (mixed highway and city), and in country roads it was outstanding with 70-78 MPG !!!
The downsides of these tires were related to how soft the sidewalls are, even if inflated more (between 2.5 to 2.7bar) than the car manual recommends. The road feedback becomes reduced (good for confort) but very bad to know how the tyres are doing in the road. The grip was always assuring, although they wore pretty rapidly on the outside due to the sidewalls bending too much. I had to change them because of the high wear (they became slick) on the outside, although there was plenty of meat left in the inside and center of the tyres.
Maybe it it were a smaller and lighter car I wouldn't have this problem, but based on my experience I didn't buy the same tire again, as I enjoy taking turns fast. After these I went for the Bridgestone Turanza T001 (C-B-71dB) and they lasted ~ 43.000 miles without this sidewall problem!
