I recently replaced the OEM tires with Bridgestone RE960AS Portenza tires of the recommended size. Wow, what a difference in handling. Our Prius feels a lot more sporty and predictable. I do not know if there is any mileage difference. The tires have only been on for 100 miles. My last tank was 38.6 MPG for over 200 miles. My mileage always varies from 38 to 46 MPG.
Re: Bridgestone Potenza Tires I also have the Potenza RE960AS Pole Position tires and like them. The mpg took a hit for the first 2,000 miles or so, then returned to normal, in the mid-40s.
There were Ultra High Performance Bridgestone Potenza's on the wife's Beetle when we bought it, unfortunately the tire sidewall belts busted on two of them, and another one of them the tread completely seperated from the tire. Had all 4 of them replaced with a new set of Potenza's which handled amazing until this winter when I found out that they accidentally sold us a summer only version of the Potenza. Thankfully Sears stepped up the plate and replaced those with a set of GoodYear Eagles with minimal out of pocket expense.
i'd love to throw some after-market tires on there, too. of course, the financing for the moon-roof is going to come before that for me, though. that and some slap in the trunk. nice pickup, bruh.
Re: Bridgestone Potenza Tires I have a 2008 Prius Pkg 2. After putting 40k on my tires, I was losing traction in heavy rain. I had decided to plan a few trips up into the mountains for some snowboarding, and knew it was time to change tires to be safe. To be extra safe, I chose the same tires - Potenza RE960AS Pole Position tires, and replaced all 4 of the OEM Goodyear Integrities. I noticed that my gas mileage suffered a great deal! I was getting ~400-425 miles on a full tank, and now I'm getting about 325 miles on a full tank, before the empty-tank indicator start blinking and chirping at me. That's about a 25% mpg reduction! What's going on?! On further inspection, each tire weighs 3 pounds more than the OEM (the most significant different I've found), but that should make THAT much of a difference. WOW.. I want my MPG back! If it's really true that mpg gets back to "normal" after 2000k miles, I can't wait. Otherwise, I am thinking about a refund... I mean I love the tires - they do everything they're advertised as doing -, but it's almost pointless to own a Prius at the moment because of the more-frequent gas station visits.
Re: Bridgestone Potenza Tires I think you should rely more upon the MFD mpg indicator, if you are in the habit of resetting it after you purchase fuel. What did the MFD report as your mpg prior to your installation of new tires, and what is it reporting now? The capacity of a "full tank" varies due to ambient temp and the gas station pump being used. There's variation regarding when the first bar starts to blink, and actual mpg also varies depending upon ambient temp. Hence it's difficult to draw a valid conclusion from your observation of 400 mi. vs. 325 mi on a tank. After 40K miles your original equipment tires were probably close to bald, which improves mpg but as you learned, are unsafe in rain. Based on my experience the mpg should improve after you've logged some miles on your new tires, YMMV.
