One engineer's caveat emptor to anyone looking into LRR tires- yes, they very likely will give you slightly better fuel economy, BUT, they have been proven to drastically increase braking distance in the dry, and are next to useless in REAL snow (not a dusting that wetted the roads, but snow covering the road). I know the OP said snow isn't an issue, but the point stands.
The lower rolling resistance leads to reduced handling limits and braking, which, in my opinion, is NOT worth the couple $$'s you MIGHT save buying them. The one time you NEED max braking, and your tires slip instead of grip, they weren't worth one penny you saved. My thoughts, backed up by fact, with a bit of opinion on the whole not dying/killing someone thing Mark W.

 

So I've been doing more research on new tires (that AREN'T Avid Envigors...) - ones that match the criteria in my original post.

The ones I'm looking at this time around are the Kumho ecowing All Season KH30 in 205/50/16. Tirerack doesn't show this in that size, but Discount Tire does...anyone have any experience or input on these? The few reviews and forum threads I've found all have positive things to say.

Thanks all!

 

I have a few negative things to say about Discount Tire...

 

I think it depends on the local owner/manager. I have had great experience with one of the stores in my town. None with the other location. They are independently managed.

 

Could be, but I saw and experienced systemic problems with Discount Tire.

I watched them install directional tires, the wrong direction, and have to dismount and reinstall them.

After having them a few days, one tire was going flat. When I tried to put air in, the valve stem was damaged (the new stem had been pulled almost in half) and the remaining air was released.

After it was flat, I went to change to the spare, and 2 of 5 studs were stripped, and had to be broken to get the wheel off. I called Discount Tire to have it towed fixed. I wasn't going to ride on 3/5 studs.

Discount Tire doesn't do any mechanical work. They also don't provide towing. They sent me to a sleazy mechanic to have the studs replaced. I had AAA carry it there.

When I got it home (after wasting half a day) I thought I'd better try the lug nuts on the remaining wheels. They ALL had at least one stripped stud. Guess what, so did the one that was just repaired. The lug nuts they used did not match the Honda OEM nuts.

I called discount tire. They sent me back to the same sleazy mechanic. Got home. Checked lug nuts, there were still two or 3 stripped studs.

Went to Discount Tire. I was frothing mad at this point. I walked back in the shop. There was a large bulletin board with their statistics describing how many customers they serviced per hour, and what their goals were.

I spoke to the manager about their slip-shod workmanship. He said it was impossible for them to over torque as they used "torque sticks." I described what I saw when the tires were initially installed (remounts after mounted the wrong way) and pointed to their time constraints for tire installs. I told him either they did not use the torque sticks, they used the wrong ones, or they were ineffective. Either way their tire installers were under too much pressure to install tires quickly and were damaging people's cars. He maintained that all Hondas and Toyotas were prone to stripped studs as the metal "was too soft."

This was the 5th set of tires installed, the Honda had 220,000 miles on it. And every set had rotations performed every 7,500 miles. And it was the first time any studs had been stripped. Prior installs were done by Goodyear, Costco, and NTB.

I paid to have my regular mechanic replace the remaining studs and check the rest.

Having tires installed at NTB I watched how they did it. They would partially tighten nuts using a torque stick, and then torque completely with a torque wrench. They also took about twice as long to do it. They have a full mechanical shop including an alignment rack.

Don't waste your time or money at Discount Tire. You'll pay for it in the long run.

 

I went with 205/50 Hankook Ventus V4 ES H105 and very happy with them. Got them on Tire Rack after rebate for $290 shipped last year then installed at Walmart with lifetime balance/rotation for $50. So only $340 total for a set of V rated tires!

Biggest complaint for most on this tire is winter/snow performance which doesn't matter to us here in SE Texas. Handling is great and wet performance is very good also. With only 5,000 miles on them I can't speak much about wear yet but so far so good. PM me if you want to come by for a test drive.

_

 

As in any business this totally depends on the location. I always use Discount/America's Tire and have never had a problem.

To be honest though. I will stand outside and make sure the techs don't use air tools on the lugnuts, but this goes for any shop I go to, not just America's Tire/Discount Tire. I used to work at America's Tire on the weekends for extra "car money" and cheap wheels and tires for myself and my buddies, and I can say I wouldn't trust half of them to work on my car unsupervised lol

 

As for torque sticks being accurate, they're a "close enough" solution- they're accurate within ~5% usually, which is fine for lug nuts. Whether or not the "tech" (most folks at those places are an insult to the term) used one is obviously debatable, but they're fine for lug nuts usually. Assuming they used the right one.

If the threads are destroyed, they likely misthreaded it, or didn't hand-start it, and just busted it on there with their amazing torque gun of doom Do it yourself, and do it right- Mark W.

 

yeah that tire mounting machine and 100 gallon compressor are just gathering dust in my garage...

NTB mounted the current set and do free rotations or I'd be doing the rotations. I've watched their work and they are careful using torque sticks and then torquing completely with a wrench. Of course this is dependent on the store and mechanic. What they don't do is rush their mechanics.

Any place that offers 30 minute tire installs is asking for trouble.

 

I'm in the same boat as you as far as commuting (in distance and wanting a long-lasting tire). The best I've found are 205/50 Goodyear Assurance FuelMax tires but the tread wear rating is only marginally better than the DSW's. While I approach the wear bars on the stock Dunflops, I, too am looking at replacements. After reading the reviews I'm stuck between the DSW's and the FuelMax's, but because I have to deal with snow, I may go the DSW's (also the DSW's are cheaper by $80 on all four corners!)

 

Just swapped out my Yokohama Avid Envigors for the Kumho Ecowing KH30 in 205/50/16.

I had almost exactly 30,000 miles on them and they were worn down to 2/32" front, 3/32" rear. Discount Tire gave me ~$52/tire on the warranty.

I went out on some backroads and tore around for a bit. Ride seems fine, tires tracked fine, didn't really notice a difference in sound. I did get them to slide a bit on a tight curve, but I'm going to chalk that up (for now) to them being brand new with whatever release compound on them.

I'll try to update in a week or two once I get around 1000 miles on them...

 

I recently got this set from TireRack

BFGoodrich Traction T/A T

BFGoodrich Traction TA, 196/60/15 wear index 620 A B tires for $296 of 4. I have good luck with them in my CRV for their durability and good all season tracking. So far, I am happy with them.