Found a easy solution to rectify Prius’ biggest weakness

The 2020 Prius Prime came with Toyo.

According to Consumer Reports:

Quietest all-season tires (all have excellent quietness rating):

Kumho Solus TA11
Michelin Defender T+H
Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus

Least-rolling-resistance all-season tires (all have excellent rolling-resistance rating):

Kumho Solus TA11
Firestone Champion Fuel Fighter
Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus

Highest-overall-rated all season tires (overall rating in parentheses):

(70) General Altimax RT43 (T)
(67) Michelin Defender T+H
(66) Continental TrueContact Tour
(66) Falken Sincera SN201 A/S
(66) Falken Sincera SN250 A/S (T)
(66) Nexen Aria AH7 (T)
(65) Yokohama Avid Ascend (T)

There is no headphone law in OP's state:

Headsets - AAA Digest of Motor Laws

The choice is a dilemma between Michelin Defender T+H (unsurpassed brand reliability, highly overall-rated, excellent quietness, but middling rolling resistance) and Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus (excellent quietness, excellent rolling resistance, but middling overall rating (60)).

 

Thanks for the CR quote. Glad to see they agree that the Ecopia Plus tires are very economical. I bought them for our 2009 Prius 6ish years ago, and our Prime came with Ecopias installed.

On the switch to Ecopia 422s from some sort of supposedly-low-rolling-resistance Michelin tires on our 2009, they gave a huge increase in fuel economy — like >5MPG! (Admittedly though, some of that was probably just because they were newer.) On smooth road surfaces the Ecopias are quieter too, but again, on even slightly-rough road surfaces, they can get kinda obnoxious!

Since CR found the Ecopias to be fairly quiet, I will probably not change tire types next time around, since I do first-hand know them to be very economical.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

According to Consumer Reports, Kumho Solus TA11 (overall rating 61) is also a good choice, which has excellent rolling resistance, excellent quietness, but below-average wet braking.

Firestone Champion Fuel Fighter (overall rating 58) has excellent rolling resistance and very good quietness.

 

As someone who came from a 2019 Toyota 4Runner, I think the Prius is ultra-quiet lol.


iPhone ?

 

We tend to ramble...

 

So, I think that’s getting back to the OP’s concern that the Prius is not a super-quiet car, or at least not as quiet as the proverbial “luxury car.” That is, even with what are perceived to be quiet tires, it’s not super-quiet.

The Prius is all about efficiency.

That being said though, at least based upon what I see in our ‘Prime, it’s only particularly noisy with respect to tire and road noise. As I hear it, engine noise is quite low (if it’s even on at all!) except when it has to rev high, and even then it’s still not bad. Wind noise even at high speeds is barely perceptible, unless I’m specifically listening for it. It also does a pretty decent job of muffling engine and road noises from the cars around me. The ventilation fan is a bit loud, but not way bad.

It’s mostly just road noise as far as I can tell.

 

it's not even quiet compared to a 50 mpg camry

 

Hmmm... My friend has a Camry hybrid. He says he sees 42ish MPG on it.

 

gen 3? check out 'camrydriver' thread

 

I think it’s a 2017.

 

that is gen3 i think, he must drive like he stole it.
we get 40 to 44 in our 2013

 

Just asked him: 2018 XLE, and around 46ish.

 

right, only the le gets 50, and is still extremely smooth and quiet

 

New tires will always give one a gas mileage hit. The deeper tread has more squirm, thus more rolling resistance. Plus, that extra tread adds weight, thus a gas mileage hit.

There is no industry standard for what constitutes a low rolling resistance tire. It is whatever the tire maker says it is. From a retired tire engineer: "Most rolling resistance is caused by internal friction of the rubber as the rubber moves through the footprint area. You can measure this in the form of heat generation, but that is difficult to accurately quantify this.

"There are three properties that can be traded off with one another - Tread wear, Traction, and Rolling Resistance. You can maximize one of these properties, but it has to come at the sacrifice of at least one of the others.


"This means that tires with good traction compounds have either sacrificed treadwear or rolling resistance (or both). This also means that tires with high UTQG treadwear ratings have sacrificed traction or rolling resistance."

More: http://www.barrystiretech.com/rrandfe.html Also: Barry's Tire Tech

 

Another factor in road noise is in the name, the road. Road conditions vary but I feel the Prime (and many other vehicles) is very quite on a smooth road.

 

I'm spoiled by my 2020 Prius Prime XLE with SAE 0W-16 oil regularly getting 70+ mpg in the eco mode in both city and highway driving. 50 mpg sounds like a gas-guzzler to me.

 

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m seeing as well: Impressively quiet car as long as the road surface is smooth. It can get surprisingly noisy though, even with not-super-rough road surfaces textures.

What kind of tires do you have on your P.Prime?

From what I’m reading here, this “phenomenon” seems to be not as much a function of the tires as of the car.