LOL. You should, because John's assessment is spot-on. It would be foolish to think you would get the the same ride and handling qualities from a tire costing $72 (EcoPlus) as one costing $127 (Alenza) (TireRack prices same size). In fact, of all the tires TireRack sells that its system indicates is appropriate for the Hybrid in the stock size, the Eco is the second cheapest. While I still have the Eco's on my 06, my 02 V-6 came with Conti's (Not Ecos). I replaced those with Goodyear Forteras and then the Forteras with Alenzas. It took a while to sell my 02, so I had both vehicles...the 02 with the Alenzas and the 06 Hybrid with the Ecos for a couple of months. In warm climate highway driving the Alenzas are the superior tire in every objective and subjective way one can measure tires EXCEPT two: treadwear and fuel mileage.

John has the benefit of comparing the two tires as I did, apparently you don't. If you would like to learn, go to TireRack and read the reviews of customers and the tests conducted by TireRack itself. I can assure you after using TireRack as a tool to assist me in the purchase of over a dozen sets of tires for my various vehicles over the last few years, TireRack customer surveyors are not shy about blasting a poorly performing tire.

I gave considerable thought to swapping the Alenzas over to my new Hybrid as the Ecos are much more of a compromise tire. On balance, however, the only reason I was replacing the 02 was due to its abysmal gas mileage (16-17 MPG in my driving mix) and I made the decision to trade off some ride comfort, noise comfort, braking ability and handling for better fuel mileage.

 

Obviously, all tires are a compromise to some extent & I am on no way trying to convince anybody to change their tires just because I like mine.

If you are interested in squeezing out every drop of mpg like some posters here (& that's fine as long as you use the SAFE techniques for fuel savings) then clearly the ECO + tires are the best choice (what's kind of odd is, I saw an new 08 FEH a few days ago & it DID NOT have ECO + tires on it??)

I am not all that worried about losing a tiny bit of mpg myself, I could lose 10 mpg & I would still be way ahead of the last truck I drove mpg wise. My last truck got 15 mpg or so & was killing me, I have been getting 30-33 mpg or more in the FEH lately -if that dropped to 29 mpg & gave a significantly more pleasant/smooth/quiet/comfortable ride then I will be ecstatically happy & that seems to be the case (I haven't put on enough miles to really evaluate the new mpg, but last night my Scanguage II was still reading 31 mpg average for the current tank, so it doesn't seem to have changed enough to really worry about IMHO)

I already knew what to expect from the ECO's, I had an 05 4WD FEH originally & hated the tires but lived with them for 36,000 miles anyway. I didn't want to do that with this 06, I plan to keep this truck for a VERY long time as I really don't like some of the changes Ford made to the 08's & ride comfort is very important to me.

As far as people not believing my claims, I am not exaggerating & have absolutely no reason to lie about it. I am not one of those guys that praises anything they have purchased no matter what. If I was not happy with the swap, I would be the very first one to say so in no uncertain terms. I have bashed many products I have purchased over the years, & warned other posters to steer clear of the product. I have put more than one item on ebay over the years that seemed like a good idea at the time (or another Internet poster raved about it) & it just didn't work out as well as I had expected at the time.

I am extremely happy with the swap at this point. What is kinda funny is that my Wife (who is way more frugal than I am) was not totally thrilled that I bought the wheels/tires at first thinking, it was a silly unnecessary expense. After riding in the truck for about 40 miles last night, she said "If I had realized the new tires where going to make such a dramatic difference in ride quality (she thought I did it just for looks), I would have encouraged you to make the swap the first week we had the vehicle"

My Wife noticed last night that we where playing the stereo at a consistently lower numerical volume than before as now we don't have to overpower the tire hum........

~John

 

~ January 16th to March 15th
Michelin Ice-X Latitudes, Winter Fuel, Lower Ave. Temps, Headlights:
4,481 miles, 138.2gal of fuel > 32.4mpg

~March 16th to May 15th
Conti's Installed, Normal Fuel, Higher Ave. Temps:
4,758 miles, 143.1gal of fuel > 33.2mpg

0.8mpg better 3/16 to 5/15 with the Conti's, Regular Fuel, Higher Ave. Tempertures, Lack of Headlights.
'
Our '94 f150 gets a full 1mpg better on regualr fuel vs winter fuel alone.


2-3mpg with Conti's, er, uh...LRR tires...huh?

 

Just a quick update, I have now run 2 full tanks of gas through this thing with the new wheels/tires.

I am not a fanatic on gas mileage, but I do keep an eye on the average mpg that my Scanguage II is reporting. I seem to be getting around 1 mpg less than I did with the ECO + tires which is WELL worth it to me.

I'm actually not even sure it dropped that much, as right after I installed the new setup the weather went up to over 90º here & I have had the A/C on 100% of the time.

The total lack of road noise with these tires is amazing, I always knew the ECO's where ridiculously harsh & noisy, but I have never had a tire swap make such a profound difference before. I would HIGHLY recommend the Alenza's to anybody.

~John