What tires did your Prime come with?

I switch over to Michelin X-Ice (mounted on 15" steel Corolla rims) every winter. Basically any time temps are below 7C the snow tires will grip better, and obviously in snow there's no contest.

I'd be reluctant to put a "4 season" tire on, but I guess it depends on climate. We're very temperate (well usually, last winter was exceptionally snowy) and have the snows on approximately 4 months out of the year.

 

Based on my dealing with them professionally as their customer at an Auto company I bet they will say that their dealers can recommend the right tire for your vehicle. The dealer will want to sell you a 91H which is a different load rating and speed rating, rather than the 89 S of Toyota specified construction since they will probably not be able to get the correct load, speed rating, and construction code as came from the factory.
I hope you get a more favorable response from Bridgestone and that we can get the original light weight, low rolling resistance tires for our Prius' and Primes when we need tire replacements.

 

1. My experience in snow with my 2010 Prius and 2015 Prius was good with the factory tires. My only note worthy experience was driving in a very steep parking lot that had not been plowed with 12 inches of fresh snow. I got down the hill OK going forward. No parking spots so I went to drive up the hill. The snow was too deep and the front tires spun. So I backed up to a level spot turned the car around 180 degrees and approached the steep hill going backwards. Transferring the weight to the front tires, while going backwards, made the hill easy to climb. No snow experience with the Prime yet.

2. Question: Are you saying simply that tires get gradually worse as they age relative to their starting point. Answer: Yes happens to all tires. Always buy tires with the latest week and year code on the side wall possible, ie 1017 means 10th week of 2017. One time my local friendly auto shop ordered special Yokahama tires I wanted. When I looked at them prior to mounting they were 5 years old. My shop sent them back and was able to get the tires I wanted 1 year old. The 5 year old ones would have their compounds dried out and would be weather cracked before I could wear out the tread.

 

Tom, Do you still have these tires? How many miles on them? Enasave 01 A/S P195/65R15 89S? I live in South Jersey. Thanks, Steve

 

Toyo nano energy A29, on Prime Advanced

 

Dunlop Enasave on mine.

 

Long gone, I had the dealer throw them away.

 

Mendel,
You may remember I purchased two different tread pattern EP422Plus about a year and half ago from local Walmart. They are probably the same tires as the 4 rib version with 640AA and the 5 rib version with 540AA sold at TireRack shown above in your post. At the time, I only needed two new tires. 4 rib version was Made in USA, and 5 rib version was Made in Mexico. After talking to a guy at Walmart, I was able to exchange the 4 rib version (Made in USA) with 5 rib version (Made in Mexico) to have matching 5 rib version tires on my car. I liked the idea of having more rubber contact with road. I had those two EP422Plus on my Prius with two original OEM EP20 last year. By last fall, EP 20 on front were mostly gone only with 25K miles, so I put a new set of 4 Xice3 for the winter. I ended up buying a set of new Conti Truecontact for my Prius last month, so that's what I have on my Prius, however, my other older car (as you may remember, that's HCHII my son drives) happens to be needing a new set of tires to replace its 5 year old Yokohama Avid Ascend, which was worn too much and tire place refused to put them back on. Well, since I had two EP422Plus I took off from Prius that had only 14K miles driven on them, I decided to purchase two additional EP422Plus to put them on the HCHII. As it turned out the two EP422Plus I picked up again at local Walmart were 4 rib version with 640AA, but unlike last time they were Made in Mexico. I have found this answer from Bridgestone web site and talking to a tech person at BS about two 4 rib version vs 5 rib version 195/656r/15 91H tire difference. 4 rib version has model # 006036, and according to Bridgestone Tech guy I talked with on the phone, they are after market replacement tires and comes with 70K tread warranty, whereas 5 rib version has model # 001667 and they are OEM tires that has no tread warranty. He confirmed that they are different tires, but should perform fairly similar, and should not pose problem if I have two OEM (5 ribs) and two after market (4 ribs) on a vehicle as long as they are on the same axle. I decided to keep the newly purchased 4 rib version, since they come with 70K tread warranty. On BS web site Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 PLUS | Bridgestone Tires (click on tire ditales) there is another tire with P195/65R15 89S, since this tire also have no tread warranty, they are OEM tires.

 

Thanks!

 

My Euro Plugin 2017 has Bridgestone Ecopia tyres. Seems like more road noise than on my Gen2 which had Michelin CrossClimate s but that may be because the car is so quiet that road noise is more apparent.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I was so worried that I'd receive the Toyo "nanocrappers" that have been reported to come with some Primes. After my horrible Toyo experiences in my Gen3, I had some anxieties as I approached my new car.

And behold:


Happy

I had instructed the dealer to keep the plastic frisbees in the pouches on the rear deck and to not even think about installing them onto the painted stock wheels. I had my wheel center caps with me as my salesperson watched me pop them in there. Took just seconds. I can understand covering them for a possible mileage advantage beyond 150 miles per hour or something, or, no... I can't. The stock wheels look so much nicer anyway. Salesperson agreed when I placed one of the frisbees in front of a wheel, "Oh, so now I understand why you wanted them off."

Yup.

 

I don’t think the wheels without cover look very good. They look smaller than 15” due to the large rim and inner portion.

Also my car came with nano energy tires. I really only buy Michelin or Goodyear, do you think there’s a market to sell these nanos?

 

Yeah, same here, but I'm trying not to step on toes. The only decent 15" rims I've seen on a prius were 2012~2015 Plug-In.

 

I love my Pizza Hubcaps. (With new Michelin Premier All Season - Total Performance Tires). Good riddens Toyo! Tire shop offered me 20 bucks for each Toyo... SOLD!

(My Prius is "Un-Primed", but thought I would jump in here to defend my Pizza wheel covers, and put in a plug for the great Michelin Premier's. Ok, back to my poor guy's world...)

 

Here is some information about original equipment tires written by a retired tire engineer: Barry's Tire Tech

The tire site above also has information about how tires of the same make and model might be different from the tires the factory put on the car. Not bad, just different. And, because everything is a compromise, I likely want some different factors maximized in the tires I buy than in the tires the manufacturer chooses. I value wet traction above ride comfort. To sell a new car, ride comfort is at the top of the list. Maximizing wet traction might also result in a sliver less gas mileage. Gas mileage sells cars, so that's at the top of the OE factors.

If I was offered tires with a higher load rating and higher speed rating, I'd be happy to get them. One thing mentioned in the tire site above is the value of a cap ply to reduce the standing wave as the tire rolls. A nylon cap ply is a big help here to reduce tire stresses and internal heat. Usually a speed range of H is needed to get the cap ply...look on the fine print on the sidewall and check for "1 nylon ply" in the tread section. That's usually the cap ply. I've had S speed rated snows with the cap ply.
Barry's Tire Tech

Our Toyo Nanoenergy tires continue to serve us well. When they wear out (or in the unlikely event of failure), I'll check tirerack.com's list of suitable tires for the one that best meets our needs. Or maybe get something else like the Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring, 70k tread warranty, 91H, 640AA. By the time we wear out the Toyos, there will be newer tires on the market to choose from.

 

Thanks for the info; I too removed my wheel covers on my Advanced when I purchased my new Michelins and thanks to your or someone else's post used the part# to order the wheel center caps, which fit perfectly! They were a little over $77, free shipping + tax from Valencia,CA Toyota dealer on Amazon!
Today, 07-22-17, just got my $100 debit card from America's Tire for the Michelin Tire purchase. This turned out to be a very good deal!!

.

 

I just noticed the toyo tires track rain grooves. I’ve always had Michelins on my last Prius as I hate eco tires so I’ve never experienced anything like this. It’s very disconcerting. Has anyone experienced anything similar yet on the toyos?

 

My Prime Premium came with Dunlop Enasave 01 A/S. I don't have experience with this tires, but I am glad it wasn't Ecopia. What do people inflate this tire at? So far (3 days all on dry pavement) it is very quiet and comfortable tires. I just hope it will last more than 20K I got out of OEM Ecopia from gen3 Prius.

 

regardless of actual tire, I have always inflated all my Prius incl the Prime to ~42-44 front and 40-42 rear

 

Why lower in rear vs front? I wonder how the battery messes with the inflation balance.