Hi All clever ones (do search German meaning of the name!) Recently, I joined the ranks of happy owners of Kluger 4wd (lets drop awd nonsense) in the Grande dress-up. Bought it with 36K on the clock after 10 months of use. All is fine, but two tyres require changing for roadworthy after just 40K. As some have already noted, Toyota in their wisdom, selected a very rare tyre size for this car (245/55/19) - no one else did so far. Why??? Bridgestone go the corporate blessing to implement this scam, as no one else is making this size of tyre. So, would anyone happily part with $500+ per tyre? A puncture may become a $500 job if a sidewall is damaged!!! This clever scam almost mirrors the “inventiveness” of Microsoft with their linking of IE to the Windows platform, and other market restrictive practices, for which they were happy to pay millions in fines to the EU Big Brother. If I were a lawyer, I would consider taking this matter to an appropriate legal venue claiming restrictive trade practices! But why bother – lets make them pay for this scam. There are a few options to evade this entrapment, and let Bridgestone choke on the stock pile of this rare rubber. The costly one – change wheels (to 18 (Lexus) or 20 inch) and tyres for a more popular and cheaper size. Cheaper but bit complicated – change tyre size to 255/50/19 or 255/55/19 – each within legal limit (2.5%) and much more popular thus cheaper! The second will offer better fuel economy and faster acceleration as a bonus! Complication! For constant 4wd cars – all wheels must be the same size to maintain the same rolling diameter as not to cause problems with differential – so all tyres must be changed at the same time if changing from a different size. (large one off cost!) Any experiences or suggestions? Dan
