Truck and SUV Tires.

I have a Toyota Land Cruiser that requires 275/65R18 tires which are an unusual size. The tires I want are Michelin LTX M/S2 all-seasons which are highly recommended by Land Cruiser enthusiast's. These Michelins range in price from 230 to 300 dollars each because they are considered premium grade tires. The current tires on the Land Cruiser are Dunlop GrandTreks but I don't like them at all.

I only buy Michelin brand tires, the tires on my Honda Odyssey are Michelin Defenders for the summer and X-Ice 2's for the winter.

The Land Cruiser has one bad front tire on the drivers side. But, I'm not too happy about spending 300 dollars per tire right before Christmas shopping starts this Friday. So, I decided to look on eBay for a good used tire and I found one from a seller named vyc_bestusedtires based out of Allentown PA. I just ordered the tire today but it looked good from the pictures and the seller has over 106,000 feedbacks with a 99.9 percent positive response, that's amazing!

The tire was 55 dollars which included shipping and no sales tax. I'll have to wait till this weekend when I actually get the tire before I can say anything more about them other than the great price.

Good to know. Please be sure to report back when you have received the tire.

Should be a good report with 6+ months testing.

Yes, I admit that I forgot about this post.

I've had the two tires for eight months now and I am very happy!!

I will be buying two more tires soon from the same eBay merchant.

When buying used, its important to know the tread depth of a new tire. They mostly price the used tire based on the tread depth remaining plus the overall condition of the tire. For example, my suv tire when new has 12/32" of an inch tread depth. So, if I buy a used tire with 10/32" remaining the tire will be more expensive than one with 7/32" remaining.

Price example: Tire with 10/32" tread $ 150.00 dollars.

Price example: Tire with 7/32" tread $ 60.00 dollars.

Thanks for the follow-up. I'll add the link to my Car Stuff bookmarks.

I needed a single tire that had been discontinued by Michelin, but could not find it on the site. However, my local tire dealer is part of a chain, and they had several new ones in their warehouse.

I just bought two more Michelin LTX M/S2 all-seasons tires from the same seller on eBay. Here's a photo of the tire which has more tread than the tire I bought last year. This one has about 10/32" seconds of tread and I paid $ 156.00 dollars.

Not only is tread depth important ... but the date code stamped into the side is even more so.

A 10 year old tire with good tread will be downright FRIGHTENING in the snow. As the rubber hardens with age, your traction goes down right with it.

If the code is 3 digits, RUN! The 4 digit code began in the '00 model year. First 2 digits denote the week the tire was cast, and the last 2 denote the year. A tire cast today would read 4214, or somewhere close to that. In the 3 digit code, the first 2 are again the week, but the single last digit is the last digit of the year. Have to use your judgement as to which decade that was ... which is usually easy to do.

And speaking of tires, earlier this year I bought an older truck with junk tires. I used it all summer, putting a few thousand miles on it without a flat. She runs great & should be worth keeping so last Thursday I bought six brand new Bridgestone tires and mounted them. Less than 24 hours later I ran a big screw through a steer tire. If I didn't have bad luck I 'd have no luck at all.

I hear ya top.

Sorry to hear that. Same thing happened on my Honda Odyssey. I bought four brand new tires and a month later, two screws had to be pulled out. They couldn't fix it. I also took a tour in their ruined tire room and saw amazing things. One example was a twig, yes a twig, had gone thru the tires sidewall. Hard to describe in words but it was surreal.

I wanted to make a quick post before I leave work.

I went to my tire guy today because the Land Cruiser had a flat and needs new front tires. He said that the Michelin LTX MS/2 tires are being replaced slowly by the new Michelin DEFENDER LTX family of tires. I'm not too worried, but this tire has a cult-like following and it's too soon to tell if the new LTX is as good or better.

http://www.michelinman.com/US/en/tires/products/d ... x-m-s.html

Anything that says "eco friendly" or "low rolling resistance" rides like a friggin brick on a skateboard down a gravel road, with little to no improvement in MPG's. At least that's what I've experienced.

In this day and age, I'm very leery of the "latest, greatest, internet cult following" - give me something tried and true that WORKS, for a decent price. These days the latest greatest always seems to get me broken down in a ditch someplace ...

Some vehicles actually do get different mileage from different tires, at least from my experience.

I had a 2001 Honda Insight...it got 50 MPG with one brand of tires and 40 MPG from another. And other owners noted this too.

I would think that with other cars a variation of 20% in mileage may not be and unreasonable variance between tire design.

Of course the higher mileage tires I experienced was not any claim that the tire manufacturer made; it was noted by end users, a better measure I think.

Sure you could sue a manufacturer for making false claims ... but you would need to prove it, very hard to do. Complain to your Attorney General's office may be a better option.

I sold my 2001 Honda about 18 months ago for 5K, 1/3rd of what I paid for it ... not too shabby.

Awaiting the new Elio

The owner of the Elio is being somewhat of a prick from what I understand and has caused unneeded delays ... he has investors will to pump $$ into the company but he wants to give them nothing in return. How's that working in the USA ? Not good. And people put deposits down on this car ... they are foolish for doing so IMO.

I got another 18-24 months before I need to purchase a new vehicle. If all-electric ones (Nissan Leaf for example) prices drop like a rock, I may pick one of those up for local hops and save some gas $$. The only thing that really should go wrong with the drivetrain on this is the batteries. (I have had to change my Honda battery ~ cost me $500 with dealer picking up other costs).