Michelin Energy Saver

Replaced some old goodyear eco tyres with these, and my comments are as follows. First of all, the fuel economy of the car improved slightly from about 9.9l/100km to 9.3l/100km (this is the real life value calculated from amount of fuel put in at the pump, and tripmeter reading - averaged over the 3 months prior to buyng and the 3 months after buying the tyres). Same air pressure in both cases. Car also feels like it has less rolling resistance - the same press on the gas pedal now results in slightly more acceleration than before.

The dry grip is quite good. Not perfect, it's quite easy to get the car to understeer or skid if you try. But the grip under braking is phenomenal. Goes from 80km/h to zero in under 3 seconds in a car with no ABS. The wet grip is good - the grip limit is almost identical to the dry grip in fact (I only got into a tiny skid in the wet going round a sharp corner on a steep hill - it was more of a shimmy than a skid actually).

Road feedback. Hmm, the steering gets quite soft and non-feedback-ey under certain conditions (ultra heavy rain with puddles), but the grip is still there. When skidding there's enough feedback to let you feel your way out of the skid. Even in the wet (which is the only time I got into an unintended skid - but managed to arrest it within a second and didn't even get out of my lane; similar skid with my old tyres and the car oscillated 3 times before it stopped moving).

Progressiveness is ok. You can feel them starting to lose traction, and if you keep pushing a skid gradually develops, but it's quite predictable.

Wear - haven't driven enough to say, but so far no discernible difference in tread depth

Comfort - no different to my other tyres. What's different is that since eco tyres use silica instead of carbon black, so the skid marks are much less visible, and when you feed in too much power and spin the wheels, they make a scraping noise instead of a screech. I might buy them again, but they cost me €97 each (total €388) compared to something like the Dunlop Sport 01 being at about €70 each. But with my low mileage I will probably change the car before the tyres get worn out.

Tyres are excellent in first two years, but after that they get completly plastic and have no grip at colder and wet weather

Good performance last 3 years with my Polo.Highly recommended.

Got a pair of these for my really old Vectra sri. It's the much more expensive than its rivals but i know its wear rate is brilliant and it's one of the best tyres for this class. Makes the car much more confident at wet braking.

Got sold a pair of Firehawk by the Vauxhall dealer for almost the same price as the Michelins. Gutted.

Really impressed with these tyres, road noise quieter, and the wear is superb, I changed these tyres after 33,000 miles and they were still legal! Worth paying that bit extra.

Superb. I changed a to full set of these tyres on my A Class and its like I'm driving a different car. They are so much more comfortable, grippy and quieter than my previous Kumho/Semperit combination.

As for the energy saving characteristics - I would estimate that I'm getting c.3% better fuel consumption and as evidence, the car will rolls from stationary on even the slightest incline that it did not do before.

You will pay more for these tyres by Michelin claim that between the fuel saving and the extra road life they will cost in. I have no doubt that this is true.

Here in South Africa the roads aren’t always well maintained and you might find yourself needing to replace tires more often than you would expect elsewhere, due to potholes. I have driven through some nasty potholes and was impressed with the Michelin Energy Saver’s durability. I have never ended up with any damage to the sidewall. What impressed me even more was the wear. I have been driving with these tires for just over 100,000km (66,600 miles), mostly on motorways and at relatively low speed (approximately 110km/h or 73mph). I would suggest these tires to anyone. Only negative in my books is the cost. In South Africa the cost of the Michelin Energy Savers is in the region of R1,400 per tire, where you would expect to pay around R900 per tire for Goodyear EfficientGrip.