Aggressive All Season Tire for winter?

Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

ProContact with EcoPlus looks good. Price is right and the test looks good. MPG is also as good as Fuel Max.

 

Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

Last winter was the first winter I had Goodyear FuelMax tires on my 08 Prius and I was VERY happy with there snow performance combined with the fact that they gave just as good if not better mpg's than the OEM Integrities.

 

Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

My choice is the Nokian WRg2 for bad weather performance and MPG.

JeffD

 

Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

Out of the 52 all-season tires tested by Consumer Reports in its November 2009 issue, the Hankook Optimo H727 was the ONLY all-season tire rated "Very Good" in both snow traction and ice braking.

And as I've noted elsewhere, the Hankook's "Very Good" ratings for snow and ice are equal to or better than the snow and ice ratings of MOST of the winter tires tested by Consumer Reports.

The Hankooks also performed well in the other testing categories.

And at around $75 each (at Gripston.com, TireRack.com, other places), the Hankooks are a good match for my wallet.

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All of that said, there are also other great 4 season tires that are worth considering depending on your personal weighting of test factors.

For instance, I have the Goodyear Assurance TripleTreds on my Prius, which CR rated "Good" on snow and ice (i.e., one notch down from the Hankook's "Very Good" snow and ice ratings).

Yet, in New York's worst winter storm of 2009, I had no problem whatsoever going through the COMPLETELY UNPLOWED parkways of Westchester County (What's up with that? I mean, Westchester County -- one of the wealthiest counties in the US -- doesn't even plow its major highways?) or its unplowed and icy side streets and hills.

* * * * * * *

Anyway, here's a copy of the Consumer Reports November 2009 tests of all-season and winter tires. It's the most recent and comprehensive tests of tires out there right now. And unlike previous years' tests, the individual ratings can be directly compared across all tire categories, e.g., the "Very Good" snow and ice ratings of the Hankooks are indeed better than a "Good" snow and ice rating of other tires no matter what category of tire they may be:

Consumer_Reports_Nov._2009_Tire_Tests-1.doc

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Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

I run Nokian WRG2 tires in the stock size. I highly recommend them.

My previous tires were Micheline MXV4+ Energy tires. They were good too, but not as good as the Nokian WRG2s.

Tom

 

Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

The Nokian WR and WRG2 are very good all-season tires for the Prius which also happen to be very good in the snow. I personally use a set of dedicated Hakkapelitta[sp?] Rs on stock rims during the winter.

 

Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

No, the Hankooks are not made in the Gen II Standard Prius' OEM 185/65R15 size.

But they are made in the 195/60R15 size which cost about $75 each at the best discount places.

Note that if you get the 195/60R15 size, it will throw off (over-read) your speedometer, gas mileage and odometer readings by approximately 1%.

For example, with the 195/60R15 tire size:

-- when your speedometer shows you going 60 mph, you will actually be going 59.4 mph;

-- when your mpg screen shows you getting 50 mpg, you're actually getting 49.5 mpg;

-- when your odometer shows you traveled 50 miles, you actually traveled 49.5 miles.

Relatedly, note that I and others have noticed that with 195/60R15 tires with the same Consumer Reports "Good" rolling resistance rating as the Hankooks (e.g., I and many others have the TripleTreds), we get 1 or 2 fewer mpgs than what we got with the OEM Integrities.

 

Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

Ernie,

I've run Wrg2s for the last 15 months and 30,000 miles and the older WR (even more aggressive tread) before that. Both performed very well on ice, wet, slush and reasonably deep snow (more than 6 inches will challenge the Prius clearance). They handle well (the older WR was noisy) and show a noticeable MPG improvement over the original Goodyear Integrity tires (as well as the Michelin MVX4+ that were my second set of tires). I actually have 178,000 miles on my Prius in CT and tires are averaging about 50k miles per set so far (less for the "lack of integrity" tires from GY).

JeffD

 

Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

And I've been running Nokian WR tires for the last three years (same set). But we don't get a lot of snow here, only 6 months worth.

I didn't even -try- to run the OEM tires in the winter. I threw them away in September of 2007 and put -real- tires on Pearl. I learned with the anti-Prius (2001 Nissan Pathfinder LE AWD). For a few years I thought the anti-lock was set way too sensitive. I'd go buzzing through intersections. Then after the OEM tires on that vehicle were worn enough to justify replacing I put on Nokian WR tires. First time approaching an intersection with snow on the road I stopped so fast items sitting on the passenger seat fell to the floor. I was sold! The anti-lock was fine all along. It was the tires that were junk!

I've had no problems with the WRs in the three years I've had them on Pearl. Got 50,000 km on them now, still lots of tread left. I agree with the above poster that they are a bit noisy. The WRG2 solves that. Can't wait till I get to replace these with the new ones. You'll also find the WRs have a higher load rating than the stock tires in the same size, and can also run much higher pressure. The WRG2 tires are essentially the same, just a different tread (a very odd looking different tread).

I -may- go to 205 size (choose carefully to keep the overall diameter the same) to gain even more traction when I finally have to replace these stock sized ones. I expect that to happen in the next year or two.

Oh, and the warm dry road traction and traction in heavy rain is very good as well.

 

Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

I'm not that Tom (qbee42), but FYI, the lowest price I've heard for Nokian WRg2's was in this post from pr4424:

Originally Posted by pr4424

Yes, [Nokian WRg2] 185/65R15 at Jack Williams Tires....they are a small chain in the Harrisburg, PA area (maybe other area's but I know of at least two in the Harrisburg, PA area). They are $114.95 per tire installed with lifetime balancing and rotations free.

 

Re: Agressive All Season Tire for winter?

Also not Tom but I bought mine locally in CT for about $450 mounted. My WRs came from:
Nokian Tires - Winter Tires, Snow Tires and much more from the Tire Factory
For about $400 (3 years ago so YPMV).

JeffD