Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus as replacement for OEM tires?

Last set I bought were from Costco. Bridgestone Turanza Serenity. Bought them when Costco was running a sale on Bridgestones for $360 out the door with 80000 mile warranty. I have had them on for 20 k miles now and are nice and quiet and have been getting around 50 mpg.

There are a lot of factors with improving mpg. I leave mine at 35 psi , so there is more available mph increase.

My main factors were longevity, quietness, then mpg. The Serenity tire was a good choice for those order of options. The EP422 is a good choice though.

Costco gives the free rotation and balancing every 5 k miles. I will be doing that this morning along with getting some brownie points from the wife by saving her a trip to Costco.

IMO Costco and the EP422 would be a good choice.

 

There's two variants of the Ecopia EP422 plus, in 195/45R15: 4-Rib and 5-Rib. One's manufactured in the 'States, one in Mexico. There's also two different wear indexes. And different max sidewall pressures. In 215/45R17 there are also some variations: the wear index, country of origin.There's no mention of different rib number, but tread width is different, not sure what that means.

TireRack screen grab:




My 2 cents: Bridgestone is playing silly beggars with this tire. You can see the specific variations by going to tirerack, and selecting the two variations for a comparison.

There was someone here who even managed to be give two of one variant, two of the other. And the tire shop first dug in their heels, didn't see the problem.

Consider also the Bridgestone Ecopia EP20. It only comes in 195/65R15, so any published pictures reflect the actual tread pattern. I've bought these a couple of times for another car. My take: they're very good for LRR, decent traction, stable/planted feel. They are not that long lasting, maybe about the same as your Yoko's. They're a menace in any kind of snow once worn, and also get a bit noisy as they wear.

But all considered I'd buy them again.

Costco is good for price, and when there's mail-in discounts, Costco takes that off at the till. This means reduced sales tax, and no hassle/delay. If you don't want green valve caps, or in any event, take the caps off your current tires before going in. Also, up to you, but I would decline the "TPMS refurb kit" or whatever they're pushing. Also, and they're pretty good about this, but verify: they should be using hidden weights, nothing clipped on the outer rim. And assume they will only put in the spec'd air pressure (well nitrogen, lol), plan accordingly if you want more. There is no harm in adding regular gas station air.

 

When buying items in Costco, we always get taxed for the full amount and then discount is taken. There's no savings in tax

 

Just liking that to say interesting to know. Maybe always the case in the 'States?

 

More likely the tires? No smell to nitrogen, it's 4/5 of atmosphere btw. I've noticed slight "new tire" smell,but barely noticeable. Mainly when you walk into the tire shop, where they're surrounded by tires, lol.

The only time I've noticed objectionable off-gassing is with obscure made-in-East rubber items, some wheel chocks for one. Clears up in a while.

But strange to me, to have strong smell from new tires. We're garage stored too, btw.