MILEAGE, HYPERMILEAGE DRIVING & TIRES
I have a 97 ES 300 with 135K I purchased last year. I am a "hypermileage" driver and do about 70-80% highway at 55-60 MPH (in the slow lane). My overall average is about 26-27mpg. I once did almost strictly highway at conservative speed on a whole tank and got just over 30mpg.
I'm in the process of upgrading from some fairly worn out tires to the high-end Michelin Primacy MXV4 this week and hope to get a quieter ride, better mileage, and an overall much better tire. It is quite expensive, listed on the Costco site at $143.99 (no surprise extra fees though, and total satisfaction guaranteed on all products...I'm a costco junky:), but they have a sale this week that will knock $60, I think, off the price of four tires. I did a lot of research on the ES 300 series and one of the threads showed this was the tire to stick with if at all possible for great performance all around.
A few months ago I read a thread that recommended using a special fuel additive, I think to keep the injectors clean, but I really didn't notice any difference in mileage with that. I also read a thread discussing the advantages of upgrading to synthetic oil, but I decided not to do that after some of the responses suggested problems with gasket seals after doing this.
For those of you thinking to yourselves, "why doesn't this guy just buy a Prius", I would like to keep my wonderfully comfortable and luxurious lexus, and just max out the mileage possible. I will never buy another regular gas vehicle in my life since I figure by the time my ES 300 gets 50-60K more miles, I'll be ready to buy an electric hybrid plug-in. "No plug, no deal" will be my next purchase. I figure the real roadworthy ones are about 3-4 years off.
I'm hoping to be able to report a substantial difference on my ES 300 with the better tires and the continued conservative driving.
Are there any other hypermileage ES300 drivers that have found any differences with tire upgrades?