OKC12TL

I am looking for tire recommendations for my 12 TL.

My priorities are quiet, fuel economy and steering response.

With so few choices, it's harder than not to find the proper tire.

I currently have Vredestein 235/55/17. They are a very quiet tire, but I lost a little grip and a whole lot of gas mileage. My gas mileage is about 3-4 mpg lower than it was with the Yokohama Avid Ascend tires I had on it before.

The Avids are okay tires, but don't particularly excel in any category. As the tires wore they got noisier and handling deteriorated slightly. Steering response on them was fine but not exceptional. The ride was a little jouncy, but not horrible.

Due to the fact I drive this car 25k mi per year, I need to switch back to something more economical than the incorrectly sized vredestein tires.

I cannot really afford anything over $200 per tire at the moment.

BROlando

You probably didn't lose 3-4mpg due to the tires. That's a LOT for just tires

Your speedometer is off by about 5% due to your larger tire diameter.

Meaning if your odometer shows you drove 100 miles, you actually drove 105.

The error in calculation is likely the cause for your "lost" MPG. Calculate out the error and you'll probably find a much smaller MPG impact as compared to your previous tires.

Hopefully you're able to swap tires for free. Because if you're paying for tires twice, that will take a WHOLE lot of gas in order to make up for it.

You haven't mentioned the type of driving you do or what region you are in or what else is important to you besides MPG.

Making a worthwhile tire recommendation isn't possible without that info. Otherwise, people are just gonna rattle off names of tires. I'm sure you can already name a few...so that won't be helpful.

OKC12TL

On the tire size calculators, the overall diameter of the wheel/tire increased by around 0.6" The 235/55 17 has a 2.2% larger diameter than the 245/50/17 tires.
A 2.2% difference in tire diameter amounts to a 2.2% speedometer error. If fuel economy is 25 mpg overall, it would display 24.45 for a difference of about 0.55 mpg.

I am expereinceing an indicated 3 - 4 mpg fuel economy loss at highway speeds. I used to get around 26-27. Now it's around 22-23. Give or take a mpg. Still, it's pretty significant. Worst case is a 2.5 mpg difference, not counting the speedometer error.

What I would do in this case is take the old tires off and get maybe $150 for them since they are pretty new and are in good shape. That would make up for part of the difference.

I got convinced by Tirerack that these Vredestein tires were good, and they are, but operational costs are too high.

If I can't get the deal I want, I will just wait a bit longer. No big deal.

I am a heavy footed high mileage highway driver, so I have some conflicting needs on the road. I need longevity, fuel economy, high ride comfort and low noise factor and adequate handling. Sports car handling is down, but not out on the list. My operating speeds are usually between 70 and 100 mph depending on highway conditions. If I was to rank my priorities, I would say noise factor, fuel economy, handling and ride comfort.

I had Yokohama Avid Ascend GT tires for about 25 or 30k miles (I don't remember). Because I forgot to rotate the tires, the rear tires became feathered unbeknownst to me. The tires had a decent ride, reasonable noise factor, and maintained fuel efficiency. Unfortunately, they lost the longevity contest due to inadequate maintenance. I'm open to these tires, but am also wanting to try something new.

I don't want to buy a slug of a tire and having to got through removing the tires again because of gas mileage.

I'm patient enough to wait for a decent deal and then put them on later. I will probably see if I can get $150-200 out of the Vredestein's to defray the costs of the tires dinvr they are in excellent shape.

In any case, thanks for responding and for your input.

dregsfan

Higher rolling resistance, and weight, can certainly affect gas mileage. Tire Rack used to list a tire's weight - do they still do that?

OKC12TL

Tire rack does list tire weight. I am looking at that a lot more carefully. Gas is still selling at elevated prices, so mileage becomes more important as I drive a lot.

Ultimately, I am going to get a tire that weighs about 25-26 lbs. No more.

in the case of these Vredesteins, the weight isn't bad. It's listed at 25 lb, but the manufacturer used a bubble gum compound in the tire They didn't get it right either.

The best tires I've ever put on a car were the Pirelli P7 Cinturato. The steering and cornering were very good. No loss of fuel economy, and extremely high levels of road and noise comfort. (although they were put on a different car).

I wish they made them in the 245/50/17 size

dregsfan

The Pirelli P7 Cinturato. are OEM on my '19 A4 Quattro with the Sport package. They are very quiet, and I can coast much farther from a given speed that I could in my TL with Pirelli P Zero A/S, though I'm sure the Audi having a 7 DCT has something to do with the greater coasting distance also. But the P Zero is a UHP all season, and the P7 is a Grand Touring all season. I don't know how much cornering speeds would improve, as on a freeway entrance ramp, with the P Zero, but I suspect they would be noisier and have higher rolling resistance. The P7s grip pretty well (I can double the "suggested" on ramp speeds and they don't screech), but the car does have a fair amount of understeer at that point. On twisty roads though understeer in the A4 is minimal in my experience.