How are the Hankooks working for you, I was looking at these exact tires for my 16 Prius? How did it handle in the rain this past summer (I live in Florida so rain is a concern for me) and how is the road noise? Is MPG decent after you broken them in compared to your previous/original tire? Thanks in advance.
Some discussion found here TireRack's curiously gushing Vredestein Quatrac 5 ratings | PriusChat but no real world reviews yet. I was interested in the tire for its year around All Weather feature but ended up getting dedicated snow Xice3
Has anyone tried Continental ProContact tires. I had some on my Altima and they are very uniform, quiet and long lasting.
Will need to buy new tires also in March. Need highest MPG rating as possible, don't care about tire noise because my music is loud, like mirrors shaking loud while head banging, thanks. Not going to use the search feature either because I want to be normal.
If you want a tire with good LRR just look at what comes on the new cars. You know the manufacturers make it a top priority for bragging rights.
Bought 4 used alloy wheels I really liked, tho the mounted Yokohama GeoLander tires were low on tread. Did mount them on my car, thinking they might give 5000 miles. They still were balanced well, went 12,000 miles & the car handled wonderfully with the worn GeoLanders. Thank you, GeoLanders.
I had 175x65x14 inch Dean (Cooper) tires on my car for a short time, that I liked. At that time tho, I then switched to larger 195x65x15 wheels/tires (kept the smaller wheels/tires) & I love my decision. Later & now, I have some 195x65x15 Cooper tires on the front..... & I like them. They give good handling & braking, like the Michelin, Hankook & Bridgestone tires that I also had. Love the Coopers so much, I MAY in the future, put the smaller Coopers back on the car, just to get some wear from them.
As stated somewhere, lots of my tires are purchased used. Just got a never used spare Goodrich 185x70x14 inch tire for $10. So that means I WILL put the smaller 14 inch Coopers back on the car.....wear them out, so I can use the Goodrich tire, later. Funny, how purchasing only one tire, changes the schedule of use of 4 other tires.
Personally, I think safety should be the biggest concern. You'll be moving 1.5 tons of mass plus people while driving around with a large number of 2 ton SUV's on the road. The original Hankook Optimo tires that came with my 2010 were fear-inducing when wet. Note that if your tires don't grip the road, your ABS will spend more time/distance releasing them to keep from skidding rather than slowing down the car. Also note that you can't avoid another driver who's doing something stupid if you can't grip the road. I swapped out the Optimos for H-rated General Altimax RT43's (currently $83 at TireRack + $50 debit card on 4, rated 91H 600 A A https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=General&tireModel=AltiMAX+RT43+(H-+or+V-Speed+Rated)&partnum=965HR5AMRT43 ) and got about the same gas mileage, around 50 in the summer. Actually I think the Altimax did an mpg or two better. My 2010 was hit and totaled last New Year's Eve, and I just got my replacement 2012 last week, which came to the dealer with snow tires, so they put on a new set of Firestone Affinity tires (currently $125.50 at TireRack https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Firestone&tireModel=Affinity+Touring&partnum=965HR5AFTV2 ). They wouldn't let me put on my Altimax's instead, so after picking it up, I took the car directly home to pick up my set of Altimax's from the garage then straight to my shop and got rid of the Firestones. I said they could keep the tires and give them to some disadvantaged person who needed but couldn't afford new tires. Compare the TireRack ratings. I think a key factor for mpg is to look for H-rated tires which tend to have a stiffer sidewall. In the winter, I have Blizzak WS80 H-rated tires ($98.45 at TireRack https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Blizzak+WS80&partnum=965HR5WS80 ). Best snow tires I've had in decades, if not ever. The Optimos would just spin in place if there was any snow, and couldn't hold the road if it was cold and wet. Note that even all-seasons harden and lose significant wet traction when the temperature drops into the 40's or below. I don't know if the drop in mpg with snows in winter has anything to do with the tires, or just the weather, longer ICE warm-ups, and winter gas. Actually, I had Hankook H-rated snows on the Prius (the Blizzaks were on the Civic; they didn't have H-rated Blizzaks when I got the 2010 Prius) but I didn't get around to changing them until summer last year, and they got around 50 mpg a few times, but I didn't want to wear down the snow tread with the softer compound so I changed to the Altimax. I got upper 40's mpg in winter when I'm doing longer drives that allow the car to be warm for the majority of the time and if it's not windy. The cold, north wind really sucks gas, hmm, no pun intended, but I'll leave it. Maybe things are okay with your tires if you live down south where the whether is always warm and you don't have to deal with precipitation, but don't come north with them. Incidentally, the Accord that hit me on that rainy night had Goodyear Eagle LS-2's, ranked 46 out of 49 on TireRack. I was able stop my car and stay planted; I don't know where he was going, but he couldn't stop, plowed into me, and spun. In summary, I didn't seem lose gas mileage by going for a grippier, safer tire. Also, don't put too much into the idea car manufacturers are going for maximum performance. If they can save $2 per tire on 125,000 vehicles per year, that's $1 million in profit. They already have the bragging rights on mpg. [edits for clarity and a few TireRack links to make it easier to compare]
I second MikeNinMass comment on the General Altimax RT43 tires. You do have to make sure you get the 91H tire as they also make a 91T and it is inferior. I have used both Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max and Bridgestone Ecopia EP20 but never liked the noticeable lack of traction. The Generals are not fancy but they have better tread wear, traction, temperature, and speed ratings against the Goodyear and Bridgestones. Lastly, it sounds crazy, but I get better mileage with these than the previous two sets of LRR tires.
I've been running Michelin Defenders and I like them. I ran a set of Michelin A/S Energy Savers and was quite disappointed in the accelerated wear of the tires. I lose maybe one or two mpg with the Defenders vs the Energy Savers but the cost difference makes it well worth it. With Michelin's $70 rebate (Debit Card) this month the cost got knocked down to $79.41 per tire.
It used to be "Defender" (full stop) and they had the "Green-X" badge. Now they're "Defender T+H", badged "Total Performance". Could be the same, or very close? I think they reduced the tread life warranty slightly. The cynic in me thinks maybe there's no change; they're just trying to reduce warranty payout a bit. The tread pattern looks the same. Michelin likes to keep consumers in disarray, I think.
