Wednesday, May 18, 2011 Advanced Tire Saves Big Bucks for Chevy Cruze Drivers
 With gas prices near or exceeding $1.40 per litre, the efforts of GM engineers to boost fuel efficiency on the Chevrolet Cruze Eco compact are being felt.
GM tire development engineer Chuck Lantz and his team worked with Goodyear to produce a tire as part of the Assurance lineup to increase the Cruze Eco’s overall fuel efficiency. The new tire, along with other enhancements, contributes to an eight per cent improvement of fuel efficiency on the Cruze Eco.
The 215/5R17 93H tire comes with a treadwear/Traction/Temperature rating of 580/A/A.
“This tire is way beyond anything in its category,” said Lantz. The Cruze Eco tires make use of special polymers built into the tread compound to reduce rolling resistance, which means less energy is required to keep the tire moving.
So what makes the tire unique? Typically, improving one facet of tire performance like rolling resistance requires sacrifices in other areas like traction in snow and stopping distance. Not so with the leading-edge Cruze Eco tires.
“Thanks to the high-tech polymers, we were able to create a high-efficiency set of tires without making tradeoffs in other important areas like tire-braking, traction and all-weather handling,” said Lantz. “As far as the ride goes, these tires are as smooth as any tire on the road today.”
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