Best tires for the Prius?

After a duplicate pair og OEM tires we switched to Bridgestone Ecopia in Feb and saw an immediate increase in gas mileage. They are worth a look.

 

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I have the Michelin X Radial bought at BJ's. If there's an X, it means it is sold by one of the club stores: Costco, Sam's Club, BJs. It also means that it's made differently, to their specs, not like regular Michelin tires.

I've had these tires for 4 years and 41K miles. They have an 80K miles warranty. Today I took them back because there is 2mm of tread left on two of them, 3 mm and 4 mm on two others. That is half the wear they were supposed to provide. I need new tires. Not X Radials! Luckily, BJs is refunding me about half my money.

 

if you need summer tires i would suggest Michelin energysaver plus. they are since 01/2013 on the market in Europe and are the best. i'm thinking of buying after my old energy savers are done.

a good review site on these tires you can find here

 

They appear to be great tires. In North America we have the Energy Saver (summer tire) and the Energy Saver A/S (all-season). The top choice here is the Energy Saver A/S which is more efficient and longer lasting than the summer version.

 

The European energy saver + tyres are very good for wet grip rated (A) but not so great for fuel economy rated (C) they are also only rated fare for noise at 70db. They may be very good for longevity but you will lose any gains in fuel costs, this is for gen 2 size 195/55/16.

The 205/55/16's are rated better at (B) economy (A) wet grip, noise 70db
The 195/65/15's are rated (C) eco, except XL tyre rated (B)eco (A) wet/g noise 70db
Figures from Michelin's own web site.

John (Britprius)

 

Hey John,

thanks for replying

they also quote that there's a 60 liter improvement on fuel consumption on average considering the previous energy saver.

If your priority would be fuel economy on a gen 2 prius.. what tire would you suggest?

 

What size of wheels do you have 15 or 16 inch.

John (Britprius)

 

16 inch (I live in Belgium)

 

If you like the Michelin tyres, go with the "energy saver plus" but go up one size to 205/55/16. Make sure you buy the tyres with (B) (A) ratings as there are lots of energy savers with ratings below these.

The only down side to this is that your oddo will under read by about 2.8%, so when it says you have gone 100 km you will have gone 102.8 km. If you calculate your fuel consumption remember to add 2.8% to your oddo reading but as noted below the MFD reading becomes quite accurate.

The plus side :-
Lower rolling resistance tyres rated (B) for economy (A) wet grip
This size is cheaper than the 195's, (in the UK by about 20%)
The MFD fuel calculator will be much more accurate.
The road holding is improved (greatly) and car is more stable in a strait line.
The Speedo will be more accurate, but will still over read read slightly.

Other tyres to consider:-
Goodyear Efficientgrip rated (B) (A) 68db (very quite at a good price)
Hankook Kinergy Eco rated (B) (B) 70db (the tyres I am running, again tyres at a good price)
Dunlop sport blue response rated (B) (A) 68db (untried but good on paper same ratings as Goodyear)

There are no tyres rated higher than (B) for economy in 16 inch size, and only one tyre rated (A) in any other sizes and that is a 195/65/15 Bridgestone.

Hope this is of help.

John (Britprius)

 

This helps a lot thank you! i'm going to check belgian law with putting other tires to the rims of the prius. If i remember correctly there's a little margin.

 

Yes it's interesting that the 195/55/65's are rated "C" while the 205/55/65's are rated "B". But to be honest I'd be cautious about reading too much into that.

For one thing, with this type of categorical (non numerical, non absolute) rating, for all we know the difference between "B" and "C" could be something insignificant. Like for example a Crr of 0.0089 versus 0.009, or something tiny like that in the boundary case.

Secondly, as these ratings are "non absolute", they may even be relative to other tyres in the same class. In other words, there's not any real guaranty that "B/C" in the 195 class even means exactly the same thing as "B/C" in the 205 class. For all we know the actual Crr thresholds for the different grades could be different in different size categories.

Having said that, psychologically I know I'd prefer to see a "B" rating than a "C", but just putting it out there that we don't know for certain how comparable those ratings are. Did you know for example, the 0W specification in a 0W40 oil means something altogether different than the 0W in either a 0W20 or 0W30 oil! Again it's (oil is) just a categorical rating system, dispute it's use or arbitrary numerals like 0, 5, 10, 20 etc.

 

I do not profess to be an expert in tyre technology, but it could also be that with a 5% increase in footprint carrying the same load the tread is deformed less giving lower rolling resistance. It does seem however on a fairly constant basis with different makes of tyres the 205 section has a lower RR than the same tyre in 195 section.

John (Britprius)

 

To add to the corporate knowledge on this thread, I'll add my 2 cents worth....

My OEM 195/55R16 Bridgestones were almost bald and had cracks, so.....

I installed a set of Michelin Premiers A/S (205/55R16s) 10 days ago and am now patiently waiting to "break them in" over the next 1000-1500 km's or so.

Build date of the tire set is 07/14, so they are only 10 weeks old and they were made in the states.

I'm running 42/38 for pressures.

My Scan Gauge II tells me that initial fuel use from stand-still has markedly increased.

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I know I'm taking about a 10% hit in town right now, but steady state at 80 kph (50 mph) seems to indicate historical fuel flows.

My correction factor for fuel economy computations will now be 1.53% (based on GPS speed/distance versus speedometer speed/odometer distance).

Tires are much quieter on the highway and they feel much more planted than the OEMs they replaced.

I'll update once I have about 1500 kms worth of data points with the new tires.

Cheers

Mike

 

Just got a flyer from local dealer for buy 3 get 1 free. Can get Michelin Defenders for $489 out the door. It says it's a national deal, so may wanna check locally. They also had integrities for $349 and fuel max for $369. I think I'm going with the defenders, as that price is before the $70 rebate.


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Don't get mastercraft. I'm regretting my recent purchase of avenger touring lsr's (t)


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LOL I'm about 9000 miles away but coincidentally I just got a local flyer for the same deal last week. Picked up a set of Ecopia EP100's for $389 (au) fitted and balanced.

My previous set were also EP100's and I've been pretty happy with them. Definitely good for picking up guaranteed couple of extra MPG over stock tires. Longevity was fair, I got 45,000 miles out of them and they still had a little bit left. I'm guessing they probably would have made 47k or 48k miles, maybe 50k at a stretch if I ran them right down to the tread limit. I had to let those extra 2 or 3 kmiles go though, so I could jump on the 4 for 3 deal.

 

I highly recommend the Defenders. They are not quite as good for fuel as say the Energy Saver A/S, but the performance is exceptional. Just did a 54mpg tank with them, and between snow/wet/dry the performance is exemplary. These tires got me through a bad winter this year

 

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna get them installed Tuesday.


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Just got the Defenders installed today. Big positive difference from the Tiger Paws they replaced.


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