Michalin Primacy vs Hankook Optimo tires

Even at 38/36, I used to feel I am riding on stone wheels with Integrities or like riding my road bike on a rough patch.

The difference is esp too much when I switch my car, 2007 Kia Rondo V6 with Kumho Solus16 tires which are most comfortable tires. Rondo feels like a luxorious car when compared to my Prius in respect to comfort and noise, of course fuel economy is only half of my Prius.

 

Now I have done 500 mile highway trip, I can confirm that these Hankook H727s are really comfy and quite tires. They track very well (No comparison to my previous stock tires at all, Leave the steering wheel, it kept going strait), and felt very stable even above 85+ MPH(occasional 90+). May be being little wider 195/60/15 might have also helped, even in cross winds it is stable now.

Fuel economy, I am not comparing same route, but it seems I might have lost about 2MPG on Highway only(wider tire I guess), which I think is a good compromise.

I thought I will be tired by non-stop 500 mile drive with all the noise in Prius and was debating to drive prius or my Kia Rondo, but with these tires, I was surprized it is as comfortable as the other car. Lot less vibrations, less noise, lot less buzzing.

Bottom line, I really like these tires. How long these will last, not sure yet... but I am hoping 60-80k.

 

Just found out that at least some Michelin winter tires ARE eligible for the $70 discount. I ordered Michelin X-Ice XI2 winter tires and found during purchase that they are eligible for the rebate.

 

Another update. I drove back from my 1100+ Miles trip( Continuation of above trip). Not sure it is because tires are broken-in somewhat, return trip gave me same fuel economy as my OEM tires. On straight Highway at 75MPH, the display reads 53MPG, and it dropped in several rolling hills upto 4300ft.

The speedometer are also somewhat corrected, may be because of thread. Old tires with 5/32 thread were reading 3-3.5MPH above real speed( at 75MPH, they used to read 78-79), with this new tires, it is only 2-2.5 mph, and total miles traveled seems agree with GPS.

 

In considering tire choices there are big differences between the probable miles you can expect with different models. The cost to mount and balance is the same but there are tires where you are likely to 30K miles and others that are likely to provide 60K, like the Goodyear ComforTreds which has a 80K mileage warranty.

The Hankook Optimo H727 has a high treadwear rating and was highly rated by Consumer Reports in a recent review including a Very Good rating for snow and ice. They are available in a 195/60R15 which would be a good size for your car.

 

CHINNA
What is the latest tire report?
how are the Hankook Optimo H727 tires doing?
have you driven in the snow?

 

Just purchased the Hankook OPTIMO H727 Tire - P205/55R16T from Sears. I'll see how they work out. I had the OEM tires on my 2007 Touring. They were, quite possibly, the worst OEM tires I have had on a vehicle. Terrible in winter weather, good for MPG, though, I must admit. So far, I've gotten 47 mpg average in KCMO over the past 2 1/2 years.

 

***you installed p205/55r/16t tires on your stock prius rims?

Sounds like a very wide tire?

I got the hankook 195/60/15 which are wider than the 185's from factory.

 

205/55R16 is the closest size to the Touring Edition's OEM 195/55R16 size.

[EDIT CORRECTION: 205/50R16 is the closest size. With the 205/50R16 the speedometer will read 1.5% faster. With the 205/55R16 the speedometer will read 1.8% slower.]

Because there are very few tires available in the Touring OEM size that are not run-flats, Touring owners frequently move to the 205/55R16 size in which there is a large variety of tires available.

The Prius wheel wells apparently accommodate the 205/55R16 size easily -- no scraping on turns, etc.

 

One PriusChatter has reported good performance on snow and ice with the Hankook Optimo H727's installed on her/his Buick:

 

I just ordered a set of Hankook Optimo 727s (P195/60R/15T) for my 2005 Prius from sears.com. They were normally priced at $96.96 per tire, but are on sale today (via the website) for $87.26 per tire, plus there is a 10% Friends and Family sale at sears.com that ends today. I ended up getting these tires for basically $78.50 each (tax not included).

If you order from their website, they simply ship your tires to your nearest Sears auto center and then call you when they arrive. Including the cost of the 4 tires, there were fees for disposal, balancing, new stems, tax, and the optional road hazard (which I bought because it gets you 25% off the $69.00 cost of alignment). All total, I paid $434.94 for everything.

The sears.com sale/discounts basically got me one free tire, if you want to think of it that way. Thanks to all of you for helping me to make this decision! I really appreciate all your input and hope that some of you can get the same sale prices I received today!

 

I'm curious about everyone's further experience with the Hankook H727 tires. I just ordered up a set also, which I hesitantly chose over the Nokian WR-g2's for NW weather. Almost all of the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from other users, but it is still relatively new and not stood the test of time yet. The consumer reports article (Nov. '09) seems to have bolstered a frenzy of sorts for this tire, although I do doubt that it would be better than the WR-g2 in snow...the Consumer Reports article had the two tires in different classes, so did not compare them directly.

 

I've had over a week on the Hankook tires so far, couldn't be happier with them. Have been in multiple snow storms, ice storms, deep snow and light snow. They are outstanding in winter conditions, best set of all seasons I have ever had!
Relax, you made a good choice.

MPG dropped about 2 mpg with them, but that is usually to be expected with new tires anyway. My primary motivation for purchasing these was snow traction, price, and long tread life. Hopefully the 100k mile warranty lives up to my expectations.

 

biota,

Please read the Consumer Reports November 2009 article again.

It expressly says that for the first time with these tests, readers can directly compare the ratings of a tire in one class with the ratings of a tire in another class.

So, the "Very Good" snow traction rating for the Hankook Optimo H727 is in fact better than the "Good" snow traction rating of the Nokian WR g2.

And the "Very Good" snow traction and ice braking ratings for the Hankook Optimo H727 are in fact as good or better than the snow traction and ice braking ratings of most of the winter tires tested.

 

Boo, thanks for the clarification. I only had the page that you had scanned and none of the article body, so I was inferring based on out-dated and previous information. That is very helpful that they made it comparable across categories. I'll have to track down the article at the library.

Nonetheless, I ordered the Hankook H727 tires and look forward to having something with any traction, since my Integrities have almost 63k on them. I don't know why these have lasted so long, but I am thusly thankful.

 

Hi biota,

I scanned 2 pages, not 1 page. And the 2 pages I scanned constitute the entire substantive part of the article and ratings. On the 2nd page of my scan, under the heading "How We Test Tires", CR explains their testing protocol and ratings, and says that for the first time with this round of tests, you can compare the ratings across tire categories. Check it out:

Consumer_Reports_Nov._2009_Tire_Tests-1.doc

 

We just had our first snowy trip in Maine with our new Hancook 727s. My wife was totally amazed. On her way to the service place with the original Integritys (2008), the traction control came on a dozen times and traction was terrible. After having the new Hancook tires mounted, it was like night and day. Great control, no traction control intervention. We are very happy!

 

Re: Michelin Primacy vs Hankook Optimo tires

I have now had the Hankook 727s on for around 2 months, and can report that they are really good tires. Much less noisy than the Nokian WR2s that they replaced (which I found to be not as good as the WRs that they replaced). Better snow traction that WR2s (which surprised me). Slightly softer ride. No mileage hit at all (in fact may have improved). Running them at 42/40 (same as Nokians). Very happy.

 

Tom:
I am seriously considering the Primacy over the Hanook. It is true, there is a small hit on snow traction (1/2 good circle instaed of full), but handling, rolling resistance and tread life are better on the Primacy. There is now a $70 rebate on the Primacy, so the price difference is not that much. The Prius is all about gas milage, and the Primacy should do better.

 

FYI- Sears now has a sale on the Hankook H727s. Was just doing research and they are offering 20% off plus there is an additional $30 mail-in-rebate that runs through June. Total cost including installation/balancing is about $400 ($370 after rebate).