>>>>>>http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/04/20/honda-appeals-hybrid-mpg-court-award/
>>>>>>
>>>>>>$200 and a coupon towards buying ANOTHER one. The lawyers on both sides are laughing all the way to the bank,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>FWIW A very good friend of mine has a Civic hybrid, and though she really likes the car, she never gets over 40MPG. She is envious of our Prius's (my wife and I each have one) which actually DO get over 50MPG (mine) and 47MPG(my wife).
>>>>>
>>>>>So she's the leadfoot in the family ;-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I'll be kind and mention that her Prius is a 2009 and mine is a 2010, and the 2010 does get better MPG by design.
>>>>
>>>>Yes - she is a leadfoot. The accellerator is basically an on/off switch for her.
>>>>
>>>>FWIW we both were getting better MPG until we both bought new Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires. I lost about 10% (used to average 55 all the time on the oem Yokohamas). Thanks Goodyear.
>>>
>>>
>>>Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires are an interesting topic at my house! I purchased a set just over three years ago, with the warrantee. The warrantee is for 85,000 miles. A few weeks ago we hit a small pot hole. Then we went home and the next morning found that the entire sidewall of one tire had failed. Talk about a flat tire!
>>
>>What I've noticed, aside from the loss in MPG, is the increase in road noise.
>>
>>When I got the tires, I was very impressed at how nice and quiet the ride was.
>>
>>As I realized over the next few weeks that my MPG was down, I tried to console myself by thinking that at least I got a quiet ride.
>>
>>Now 8 months later the ride is much noiser - worse than the ride on the original yokohamas. Same is true on my wife's car.
>>
>>BTW the reason we both got the tires was we got a deal purchasing 2 sets at once. Otherwise we probably wouldn't have put tires on her car for a few months and would have seen the results on mine :(
>>
>>I'm pissed.
>
>The TireRack consumer survey rating for those tires is not bad: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=AS
>
>They have test results at http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=155 .
>
>Personally, if I'm facing a trade-off between fuel efficiency and traction/handling, I'll take the latter every time. With every set of performance tires I've owned, I can think of at least one circumstance where I barely avoided an accident, and I wouldn't have if I hadn't had good tires. "Green" tires might save a few percent in fuel costs, but is it worth it if they can't save you in an emergency?

I've been fairly impressed with the handling of my original Yokohamas and the Goodyears. They've done OK in rain and snow (although I take the truck if snow gets bad).

We've got about 120k miles between the Prius's (Priiiii?) w/o incident. We keep our fingers crossed.

>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>Well, with 30,000 miles of use, I was going to say forget Goodyear, and try another brand. But first I went to Goodyear. They examined the tire and decided all four should be replaced. They were replaced with the same type of tire. Oh yes, I also purchased the extended warrantee. My total cost was less than $200.
>>>
>>>Guess what sports fans? I read the fine print before I left the Goodyear store. There are two minor differences not in the previous warrantee. There is no longer an 85,000 mile limit. It was reduced to 55,000 miles. Also (this is the big one in my book!) there is a time limit of 36 months. There was no time limit on my previous warrantee.
>>>
>>>Consider the average driver puts about 10 to 12 thousand miles a year on his/her car. After three years you should have about 36,000 miles on your tires. When you drive 36,001 miles, your tires will fail, one day after the warrantee expires.
>>>
>>>I pointed this out to the Goodyear store manager and he was emotionless. So?
>>>
>>>When I was in engineering college, one topic we had to take was called “Engineering Economy”. American engineers were the best in the world when it came to designing anything that would fail shortly after the warrantee expired. Companies with quality products often went out of business. You had to design products that would fail and required replacement, just after the warrantee period expired. That helped the economy to keep going.
>>>
>>>Today so many things are made in China, lack quality and nobody cares.
>>>
>>>So everybody, buy Goodyear tires so they can stay in business. Who needs happy customers? Who cares about customers? Do not be self centered. Consider all the companies who need your money. Have fun! :)
>>>
>>>P.S. I worked for Toyota/GM for ten years. Do I have stories! :)