I had my left rear shock blow out somewhere around 30,000 km on my '09. It was replaced without drama under warranty. A couple of months ago, I noticed similar oil spotting on the same spot on the driveway. Sure enough, the left rear was gone again. Sitting with over 85,000 km and over 4 years old now, warranty is out, and the right rear was still original. Decided that the Koni Yellow/Sports would be the best replacement for ours, and on sale from Koni they were only $269.40 shipped. Trying to match the stock fronts, I set them to full soft, and installed them in the driveway. At the same time, I installed my new summer tires (Bridgestone Potenza RE 760 - 205/50R17 on the stock rims). Drove the car for a couple of days, and then did an alignment. It only required a slight toe adjustment on left front, and left rear - not bad for it first alignment in 4.5 years. Sold the stock Toyos to a guy for $80 so his car would pass a government safety inspection - they were still sitting at 4/32" tread all around, and no irregular wear.
The following week, we loaded up, hit the road, and drove 2,500+ km to Miami. The car handled well, and at full soft, the rear felt like a good match to the 85,000km old stock fronts. I had been using silicone grease on the rear stabilizer bar bushings yearly since it was about a year old, and the only problem we had on the trip was the front bar bushings finally started to squawk. I will check them out on the next oil change - after the trip it's almost due. Loved the new tires too - on hard hits the stock Toyos always had an over-inflated basketball tone to them which is no longer present. We hit crazy rain in northern Florida, and they handled the deep water on the I-95 through Jacksonville well (almost, but not quite as well as the Yokohama S-Drives on my other car). We even hit snow and hail through the mountains in PA on the way back, and for summer tires they worked surprisingly well. The overall grip from the RE 760s is so much better than the Toyos - really noticable merging into traffic on tight right turns (no more one-wheel-peel).
The following week, we loaded up, hit the road, and drove 2,500+ km to Miami. The car handled well, and at full soft, the rear felt like a good match to the 85,000km old stock fronts. I had been using silicone grease on the rear stabilizer bar bushings yearly since it was about a year old, and the only problem we had on the trip was the front bar bushings finally started to squawk. I will check them out on the next oil change - after the trip it's almost due. Loved the new tires too - on hard hits the stock Toyos always had an over-inflated basketball tone to them which is no longer present. We hit crazy rain in northern Florida, and they handled the deep water on the I-95 through Jacksonville well (almost, but not quite as well as the Yokohama S-Drives on my other car). We even hit snow and hail through the mountains in PA on the way back, and for summer tires they worked surprisingly well. The overall grip from the RE 760s is so much better than the Toyos - really noticable merging into traffic on tight right turns (no more one-wheel-peel).
