New Hankook Ventus Prime 2 K115S Fitted

[Stuart Aspey]

New tyres are fitted to my new 17" Lexus alloys. They will be fitted to the car around the start of April. Considering it's started snowing in South Wales today!?!

[Stuart Aspey]

The tyres and alloys were fitted to the car last Tuesday and I have my first weeks MPG through . . Not as happy as I would like to have been. 64.04 litres used to travel 401.4 miles. 28.5mpg.

Have I made a monumental miscalculation here? I've gone from 16" alloys with 205/55/r16 winter tyres, aerodynamically, they are smaller than the new set. The 17" alloys should be lighter, less metal is used in creating them and the 215/45/r17 are classed as eco tyres, but as the are a cm wider and a larger total radius (tyre and wheel) will that create more resistance, should I have purchased eco tyres for the 16" instead?

I will copy and paste this message to Hankook and ask for their response, which I will repost here.

I will continue to monitor this, as one weeks worth of driving cannot be comparable to the previous 8 weeks, though I was expecting to clear 30mpg without an issue, so 28.5mpg is a dissapointment.

Stuart.

[J Henderson]

205/55R16 is slightly larger in diameter than a 215/45R17 (632mm vs 625mm), so that will be having some effect.

[Stuart Aspey]

Really? So even on smaller alloys, the total size of the 16"s is larger than the 17"s? Okay . . But the eco summer tyres should be better for mpg than the winter tyres surely?

Thank you for your response.

Stuart.

[lexus loon]

Stuart ,thats not bad mpg really mate,also i used to have 16" wheels on mine and yes the ride was better but the car handles better on 17"s .Plus i think most will agree that a lexus is200 looks better with its proper wheels on ,i cant see that much difference mpg really with 16s on ,i didnt , YOU KNOW IT LOOKS BETTER.

[J Henderson]

Those Hankooks are proper low resistance tyres then? I had always assumed they were high performance tyres and a successor to the K110 V12 Evo which I used to have on my car.

I seen an old episode of 5th Gear on Dave the other week where they tested Eco tyres on a small hatchback. The test was pretty limited since they only filled the car with one gallon of fuel and then ran it dry, but the tyres seemingly made very little difference.

What pressure are you running in them? Increasing the PSI to somewhere near the "high speed/fully-loaded" settings might help you claw back a MPG or two.

[Stuart Aspey]

I'm running the same psi as I was on the 205/55/r16. 34psi. I agree that the possible increase in MPG would be quite small, especially as I'm somehow getting much higher than a lot of others here on the forum.

Yes. The 17"s look brilliant on the car. The car does feel much more assured and confident in the corners, though I'm driving carefully to get good economy.

You're all thinking it, if I wanted an economical car, I shouldn't have purchased a Lexus is200. You could be right, I was looking for an estate with isofix points. They were the main two thing. Economical was third and yes, I was looking at a Ford Focus and a Vauxhall Astra, both diesels, initially, but when I saw the SportCross, I thought 'Sod it!' And bought it.

I think I'm really lucky to be getting nearly 30mpg each week, as my fuelly says, my average since I purchased the car, is 29.3mpg. But I was hoping for more from the Ventus Prime 2 K115s. There possibly are more economical Hankook tyres, but I think there are other evo v12 tyres by Hankook.

[Stuart Aspey]

Following my email to Hankook on 25/03/2013, I received a telephone call today to discuss my issue. The gentleman asked why I wanted to carry out such an in depth review of the tyre and why the mpg rating interested me so much. He asked if I was writing an article for a vehicle magazine. I explained, no, I'm just quite anal about this and while I have been told by many members on this site that my MPG is good, I was hoping for an improvement as my last tyres were on 16" alloys and shod with Goodyear Eagle Winter tyres and I was getting 27-30 MPG.

The caller explained that all HanKooks official figures from testing come from track testing and simulations in Korea and that he would be interested to review my findings of the tyre in the real world.

Yay. Someone who is as interested in the boring stuff as me!!!!!

[matt-c]

But in reality he just wanted to get you off the phone....

[Stuart Aspey]

Hehehe. That did cross my mind when I was on the phone. But then again, every company has a small number of staff who are genuinely interest in what the company does. I can't imagine everyone at Lexus feeling the way many of us, here at the Owners Club, feel.

[matt-c]

;)

All I can add to this is I ran my IS for 4 months on K110's (215/45 17) and then 3 months on UniRoyal +66 winter tyres (205/50 17) and didn't notice any difference in MPG, plus or minus...

[Stuart Aspey]

Hmmm. . . I think if I'm driving at the limit close to official figures set by Lexus on relativley flat surfaces, then I may not see an increase in MPG, even if the tyres are eco tyres. This is slightly dissapointing as I thought that they would help me to increase my MPG.

Still, very nice of Hankook to ring me.

[matt-c]

I'd guess most companies wouldn't even bother

[lexus loon]

Stu, now get the hammer down and give it some wellie,

[Stuart Aspey]

Ian. . . No. Thats not the ethos of the eco driver.

We have a mantra as well.

'Go on then ***, overtake me. I'm driving at the speed limit, but if you think I'm going to slow, I ain't gonna stop you'

Okay, this may only be my mantra. . .

[lexus loon]

I dont tend to drive fast myself mate, i just meant to vent your disappointment

[Stuart Aspey]

Lol. I know. Sorry. . . The post wasn't directed at you. :-)

[IHgs300]

If you decide to go back to the 16's Stuart, I'll look after the 17's for you....

[Stuart Aspey]

I kerbed the nearside rear going through a ticket booth at the car park last weekend. I am still deciding on whether to put the spare, or keep the kerbed wheel on encase I kerb it again?

[IHgs300]

Wife re-modeled one of mine last week, and tried to knock one of my front spoilers off. Leave the spare until summer Stuart.

[matt-c]

Leave it on. It's done now. I kerbed one of mine the very same day I switched from my scabby winter wheels to my mint summer ones. A month later I spun it on a roundabout and punted the same wheel if previously kerbed. If I'd have switched to the spare or had it repaired and THEN damaged it again, I'd be SERIOUSLY pi$$ed...