Tire Rack Consumer Reviews

Initial Review, 3,500 Miles on Tires
December 16, 2012

2005 Honda Oddessy Touring. Costco tire center's latest and greatest replacement tire, the Defender apparently covers a ton of OEM tire sizes. Replaces The LX4's I've had 3 times previous on the van, which were a good but not great. They wore fast, were always noisy, hard to balance and had very poor wet traction when half worn. Handling was vague and they were pricey. The new Defenders seem to address the issues pretty well. For starters they are cheaper than the LX's, are slightly quieter as far as tread noise, have a very nice highway balance. Wet traction is excellent, probably similar to the LX4 when new. So far no deep snow, but during one icy 1" dump, they pulled fine, similar to the LX4. Don't expect the soft ride of the LX4 with the Defender, It has a FAR firmer ride, and on this van they really wake up the cornering, less roll... which I like. Road feel and tracking seems really improved. Another improvement which confirms the Green X hype...they roll better! My Oddy has the Eco cylinder De-activation, and the dash light comes on sooner compared to the LX4's. Downhill the van seems to roll easier. I swear I'm seeing slightly better mileage. I'm now trying to keep the light on as much as I can now!
So overall, I'm impressed..a definite step up from the old LX4's. But don't expect a soft ride with these tires, they do ride firmer, but offer better control as a trade off, well worth it imop.

Cheers, MC