Fuzion XTi Tire Review

Fuzion XTi Tire ★★★★★★ Priced from $87

The Fuzion XTi is the only tire to my knowledge that has styled sidewalls. On one side is a flame design and on the other is some kind of tribal design.  Fuzion’s sales literature says;

“The Fuzion XTi offers dual sidewall styling options to give enthusiasts the ability to reflect their personality by simply flipping opposite sides of the tire to expose an alternative image.”

Obviously written by some bozo who’s never changed a set of tires before.  You better figure out what mood, tribal or flames that you’re going to be in most of the time because I’m pretty sure 99% of the population isn’t going to be dismounting and flipping these baby’s at the whim of how they feel any particular day.  I suppose you could split the difference and mount them tribal out on one side and flames on the other to save money if you weren’t sure.

Alright, time to get serious.  After seriously analyzing a lot of reviews about this tire, the conclusion I came to is this;

The XTi is a decent all around low cost on-off / road tire. But the major complaint from many users was the short life span.

The one most common positive comment was the XTi’s ability to stick to the road in all types of weather including snow. User’s really raved about its great traction characteristics.

What is note worthy is the XTi is ranked #9 out of 23 tires in Tireracks On-/Off-Road All-Terrain user survey.  I was astonished to see that it out ranked the BFG  All Terrain T/A KO overall but not mileage wise.  A lot of people have said their XTi’s only got around 25000 miles. I know for a fact a lot of people get double that with the BFG’s.

Here’s an example of the true cost of operating the Fuzion XTi’s compared to the BFGoodrich All Terrain T/A KO.

• 325/65R18 $329 BFGoodrich All Terrain T/A KO
• 325/65R18  $254 Fuzion XTi
• You save: $75 per tire. $300 for a set up front cost by purchasing the XTi’s.

But here’s how the cheaper tire costs more in the long run:
The Fuzion’s last 25000 miles and cost $1016 plus installation.
The BFG’s last 50,000 miles and cost $1316 plus installation.

Did you see what happened there? Yep, you would have to buy 2 sets of XTi’s to get the same amount of miles out of them as you would have if you bought a set of BFG’s.  It would cost you an extra $716 more to get the same amount of miles out of the Fuzion’s.  Actually it would be even more because you would have to pay to have them mounted and balanced twice.

As you can see from the example above, cheaper tires almost always cost more money per mile over the long run.

But here’s what the typical “pro” review said about the XTi;

I have 18,000 miles on this set and I would definitely recommend to anyone. Clings to the road on dry pavement and provides a solid feel in the rain. I was in southern Ks this past winter and we had a very cold winter a lot of ice, the tires handled predictably, the heavy snow was no problem for these tires and light snow was almost like driving on dry pavement. The wear on these tires is minimal, the ride is quiet and soft. A great buy.

And here’s what the typical “con” review said;

I’ll start off by admitting that I’m not the easiest on tires. But I definitely am not that abusive. I bought a set of these tires before winter last year, and the tread is almost gone, just over 20,000 miles. The tires performed very well in every area except treadwear. Even with my driving habits, I have never had a set of tires wear this quickly. The compound of the tires seems to be very soft, which I would assume leads to the quick wear.

I will say that the “pros” are about 10 to 1 versus the “cons”.  Which seems to be about average for a decent quality tire with no obvious issues.

Buy or No Buy?

Fuzion XTi Tire Priced from $87

Depending on what your goals are, maybe the XTi is the better tire for you. If you had a truck you were getting ready to sell,  it would be smarter to buy the XTi because you’ll never recoup the extra cost of the BFG’s in the sale of the vehicle.

Having said that, there are many people who love this tire and will purchase them even at the higher overall long term cost. There were only a few who didn’t like the Fuzion XTi at all.
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