This may be a bit premature as the Energy A/S has just exited and the Defender has just (?) arrived. I was on the Michelin LLR site yesterday and all of their offerings are there with bar charts noting what they have found for each tire .... mpg, tread life, comfort, etc. each with a 1-10 bar number. I noted that the Defender had several 10's, a 9 and the mpg was the lowest at 8. Not sure what "lowest" emplies with their scaling process. I added my comment when requested, I replied they need to give some realtime driving data (aka TireRack) on another tech site to show what their comparisons were and what, if any, how dramatic they were. I also noted that the Prius crowd was disapponted with the demise of the A/S. The Defender does seem to give more road control with a small loss of mpg. That's only my opinion with their scale #'s. Has anyone had the opportunity to try these Defenders out or maybe even had compared them to the A/S in real-time driving? I suspect it is too early for this to happen .... Regards, radmangto
Interesting you say the Energy Saver A/S is gone. TireRack lists it as available. Michelin still lists it on its website and all of the emails we have received from Michelin deny the discontinuation of the ESAS in the 195/65/15. As for the Defender, it will likely not get the same fuel economy as the ESAS. There are test report that are on the verge of being published by TireRack and Consumer Reports. I would expect them to be out at any time.
FL8 .... Interesting comment about their web site ... They do list an Energy Saver ... but not with the designations of A/S ... so I took that to mean they really did do away with the A/S ... you inside news is quite welcome ... that will give folks an additional choice as mpg vs more control ... each tire seems to excel in one and less in the other ... nothing like choices ... :>)) I did see that the TireRack still had it advertised but thought it was only clearing their inventory .... I wonder why Costco is not supplying them? As a quick update, I just did the Michelin site and did the search for my tires with specific parameters, economy, ride, etc. to choose from. Amazing using those same parameters as yesterday, only two pop up .... Energy A/S and Defender ... !!! Different from yesterday's search as at least 5 diff tires popped up ... !!! So the A/S lives ... !!! thanks for your informed reply, radmangto -------------------------------
Please post the results when they are released. I'm still trying to make up my mind on which tire to get. If the MPG hit isn't too bad on the Defender then I might consider it since it is such a good value.
After searching for Michelin ESAS for many months and all stores came up with back ordered with no delivery date, I gave up and bought Goodyear assurance fuelmax and have had them in storage for 6 months to age harden the rubber as I get the last miles out of the original Yokohama Avid S33's that came with the car. (25,000) Last week I gave in and changed tires. The S33's were down on the wear bars, with the RR cupping and getting very noisy. I dont know if that RR has a defect / damage or if it was imbalance damage from the wad of mud I found packed between the cheesy plastic wheel cover and the RR rim. IMO the wheels look better than the wheel covers, and no place for dirt / mud to hide. Got the Fuel max installed and WOW,what a huge reduction in ride harshness and interior noise on rough roads, at the same 40 psi. I thought my Prius had become a Lexus with the new quiet, smooth ride. The only downside, I suspect I lost a couple mpg. Less than 100 miles on them, so too early to tell for sure, but makes driving much more plesant in a car with little sound absorbing material under the carpet.
You likely lost mileage because they are new. I suspect you may only lose 1-2mpg initially but as they break in and wear down you may eventually surpass the mpg of the worn S33Ds. The Yokohamas are not a comfortable nor quiet tire.
