Good-Great Tires for Hybrids: Hankook Kinergy

[Mavster Mechanic]

I found some good, possibly great tires for my hybrid. Quiet. And REALLY HIGH MPG.

Low Price. Long Tread life. Great wet performance. Good all season performance. What else do you need?

I've only had them 500 miles but they exceeded expectations and MPG is a little better than what came from the factory.

Hankook Kinergy ST $144.99
8/32" 24 lbs. 70,000 mile warranty

Hankook Kinergy PT $174.99
11/32" 26 lbs. 90,000 mile warranty

Both come to 0.2 cents per mile.
(5 miles per penny)

So for me; I went with the lighter tire for maximum MPG and was not disappointed when the new tires made my carefully computed MPG go up.

Update after ~1000 miles:

I have a long hill (10+ miles) I traverse every day. I benchmark my fuel use on that hill all the time.

Old (stock) tires nearing end of useful life net 55 to 58 MPG on the downhill side.

New Hankooks give me 59 to 61 MPG.

I MAY have 2-3 psi more in the new tires too. But they are for sure not worse than the old ones!

Old: tanks about 45 MPG
New: tanks about 46.5 MPG

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[Mavster Mechanic]

 

[notfast]

Wow, 8/32" is not a whole lot of tread. Hope they last as long as the warranty suggests.

As a general rule-of-thumb, 3PMSF tires lose winter abilities at around 6/32", M+S tires lose that ability around 4/32", and the legal minimum is 2/32".

If you replace the tires at 4/32", you're looking at 46,000 miles or so, assuming the 70,000 is when the tires hit 2/32".

Even though I don't have a Maverick yet, I'm eyeballing the Cooper Discoverer Road+Trail AT. 3PMSF rated, 13/32" tread and...34 pounds per tire. Definitely gonna be noticeable versus 24 pounds per tire, and not necessarily in a good way.

 

[zen_]

I had the PT's on my Prius for about 50K miles. They were actually made in Hankook's US factory, and a decent 3 season tire, but pretty sketchy in the winter. Ride quality had really dropped off after 3 years too, but I don't expect tires to last forever.

 

[tom_tucker]

I think it's an absolute winner for someone like myself. I run snow tires in the winter so I don't need a ton of tread on the summers. I want it to be 3 season focused, inexpensive and efficient. I will consider these or even a retail set of the OEM Contis. They both look very similar in tread design.

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

Forgot to say I never have snow where I live, and rarely, if ever would travel to a snowy region. So these are all season for me. Winter being 40°F.

 

[Timothyd]

How's the ride with them?

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

Ride feels smooth / normal.

Nothing stands out.

 

[710-oil-614]

If I wasn’t going to an AT shortly I would consider these for sure. But I want to increase my AWD capability.

Just patched a nail in my rear drivers at 7500 on the Goodyear RT territory

 

[jselner77]

Recommendations for the AWD HYBRID with good mpg on and off road?

 

[Surly Old Bill]

Thanks for the tip! I likely have a couple years before I'll need to replace the factory tires, but these sound perfect.
It's refreshing to see a tire post that isn't just some "offroad" cosplay recommendation, or size compensation by trying to fit the largest tires possible on it, that actually limit capability in the process.

 

[Prickly Pear]

I put a set of ST's on my Ranger. Not too many miles but they do great at freeway speeds and I ended up overloading the truck (~1700 lb) and they didn't blow out. Wasn't much of a fun drive though.

 

[Mr.EdzBluMav]

I found some good, possibly great tires for my hybrid. Quiet. And REALLY HIGH MPG.

Low Price. Long Tread life. Great wet performance. Good all season performance. What else do you need?

I've only had them 500 miles but they exceeded expectations and MPG is a little better than what came from the factory.

Hankook Kinergy ST $144.99
8/32" 24 lbs. 70,000 mile warranty

Hankook Kinergy PT $174.99
11/32" 26 lbs. 90,000 mile warranty

Both come to 0.2 cents per mile.
(5 miles per penny)

So for me; I went with the lighter tire for maximum MPG and was not disappointed when the new tires made my carefully computed MPG go up.

I just checked my local tire shop. Discount Tire (who owns The Tire Rack) is at $174 per tire for the ST. Tire Rack is $173.99.

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

I just checked my local tire shop. Discount Tire (who owns The Tire Rack) is at $174 per tire for the ST. Tire Rack is $173.99.

Check again.

Like I said above: Two versions of same tire.

ST 70,000 mile and PT 90,000 mile.

The "thicker" tire costs more.
They quoted you the PT.

Today Prices:

same except more tread

 

[lajlmt]

I found some good, possibly great tires for my hybrid. Quiet. And REALLY HIGH MPG.

Low Price. Long Tread life. Great wet performance. Good all season performance. What else do you need?

I've only had them 500 miles but they exceeded expectations and MPG is a little better than what came from the factory.

Hankook Kinergy ST $144.99
8/32" 24 lbs. 70,000 mile warranty

Hankook Kinergy PT $174.99
11/32" 26 lbs. 90,000 mile warranty

Both come to 0.2 cents per mile.
(5 miles per penny)

So for me; I went with the lighter tire for maximum MPG and was not disappointed when the new tires made my carefully computed MPG go up.

I had Hankook’s on my 18’ Kona. Lasted 40k. Didn’t know they had a long warranty.

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