Well, like many people on this forum, I haven't had a great experience with the stock tires. I bought my Mirage used with 13,500 miles. It had two brand new Enasaves in the rear (and the fronts we're original), and after fighting with the dealership they agreed to replace the rear axle due to alignment issues.
So I've had the car nearly 3 years. Two years ago one Enasave went flat, and I had the leak repaired. One year ago another went flat, and I had that one repaired too.
Two weeks ago something sounded funny, and I found this:
I hadn't hit any potholes, and the wheel had no damage only the tire has that sudden, mysterious bulge. So in less than 3 years, that is three of 4 tires either getting leaks or getting a baseball-size sidewall bulge.
Then Tuesday this week I went out to the car and had another flat tire. It was one of the previously repaired tires, but this time it had a hole in the sidewall. Ugh!
Overall I thought the treadwear was okay. The two original tires had 53,000 miles and were near the wear bars, but still hanging in there. The two tires that we're new when I bought the car had around 40,000 and lots of life left. But three of four tires developing leaks and/or sidewall damage within 3 years is unacceptable. I've never owned a set of tires that had this many problems. There's no way i'd feel safe buying another set of these.
The gas mileage was good, but for $115/tire and needing to repair them/replace them so early, how could this be a good value? Realistically, when viewing Tire Rack tests for LRR tires, you could maybe expect 2-3% better fuel economy with a LLR tire, which might save a person $20-30/year in fuel costs. Given how expensive and unreliable this tire has been for me, some of those $50-60 non-LRR value tires with 70,000 mileage ratings seem like an awfully good bargain.
grasshopper
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