Tire Wisdom

No point repeating this earlier post about mine.

I'm still very happy with the RT43s. I see that as of that post last year I had not measured their treadwear yet and converted it to a cost per mile, but maybe at my next rotation I should do that. I suspect they will come out a lot lower than the Michelins I had before, and I like the driving experience just as much.

 

As you said, Michelin has a great reputation. I've had a few sets over the years and liked them. But I also really like the Yokohama Avid Ascend GT set I've been running for the last roughly 30k miles. If Costco has them, you might want to look at the reviews and prices. Otherwise, I think I'd prefer the Michelins just based on my own experience with them and lack of experience with Bridgestone.

 

Remember to take into consideration the tire warranty. I've seen tires with a 45k mile warranty selling for more than tires with a 70k mile warranty (same brand). Certainly, there's more to it than that, but it's something to consider.

 

I put the Bridgestones on my C and do NOT like them.
The two main tread groves seem to be just wide enough to pick up and throw a LOT of little rocks into the wheel well.
Noisy and stiff too.
Taking out a little air helped some but not much.

 

I've used both type of tires on my old field service vehicles. Both had great, long term thread wear. The Michelin's were more compliant, smoother ride - probably due to the softer side-walls. The Bridgestone's ride was firmer and took high speed turns much better (traveling in the mountains), work cars are loaded up with tools and equipment.
Both are great tires, but if you travel on any gravel roads - for any length of time, I would go for the Bridgestones - mainly because the Primes don't carry a spare.
Whatever you do, stay away from the Costco Goodyear tires. I've gotten two replaced under warranty - holes in the outer thread edge, due to their soft side-walls. Luckily this was on my other car, that has a spare.

 

Do you have a Discount Tire / America's Tire near you?
They have the best deals during holiday sales (every holiday!) - Labor Day coming up, would be a great time to buy.
IMO, any good-brand, LRR tire, with good specs will be fine. Go with whichever one has the best sale price (usually rebates can be combined with store CC offers too, and easily beat Costco pricing)

Otherwise, Costco w/ their sale/coupon deals is fine. I think the Ecopia are a fine tire if you never get near snow.

 

Thought I throw a curve ball...
Have any of you heard of Nokian tyres?
Specifically Nokian One tires..
I recently came across this brand and did some research because a friend of mine need tires and I recently bought a tire changer to toy around in my garage.
I dove it after installation and found I really like it, quite, smooth, and 80K mile warranty plus 2 year pit hole warranty due to Kevlar material in sidewalls.
so I bought a set for my Lexus and probably will install it before winter...

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I have a pair of their Hakkapeliitta snows in size 700✕35C for my bicycle, that I bought here back when we still occasionally had a winter season, but it has now been years since there has been enough of that kind of weather here to bother putting them on.

 

Nokian is a fine brand from Finland especially noted for their excellent winter tires.

I chose to put Bridgestone DriveGuard run flat tires on our Prime. They’re said to be able to go 50 miles at 50 mph without air (but they’re junk after that.) These are Bridgestone’s 3rd generation run flats, a bit harsher ride & noise & heavier than the thin OE tires, and we’re pleased with them.

There is no industry standard for low rolling resistance tires. They are whatever the tire maker claims they are.

Every tire maker has some very good to excellent tires, some have a few clunkers, and all have some tire lines that are better suited to a particular car model and a particular driver’s preference. I like to use tirerack.com’s tire selection guide as the first cut in choosing new tires. Some drivers want maximum tread life and will give up some max traction, some want max comfort, I want max wet traction. Traction, tread life, and rolling resistance are somewhat mutually exclusive—to maximize one attribute one or two of the others must be lessened. Your choice.

 

I've used the Bridgestone Ecopias on two vehicles before my Prime with no real problems, I had a few flats with my Volt but I think that could be partly due to the smaller sidewall on its relatively large wheels. Never had a flat with them on my e-Golf. My 2021 Prius Prime came with the Bridgestones from the factory and I am happy with them so far.

 

Every other year from 2008 to 2018 we've gotten a new Honda Hybrid (passing them on to our kids and grandchildren), and all had Ecopias as standard equipment. While the wear level wasn't fantastic, overall they were decent tires. I'd have no qualms using them on our Primes (it helps when Costco has one of their great sales!)

 

Isn't there more than one "variety" of the Ecopia's ??
I'm not really happy with the ones I put on my C.......because of the tread pattern.

 

I know at one point in time there were multiple variations, people online advised to stay away from the regular Ecopias but the Ecopia Plus variation was well reviewed. I just checked the Bridgestone website and it looks like the Ecopia is currently available in two variations, both of which have the "Plus" designation. One is for cars and the other is advertised as being suitable for SUVs, CUVs, etc.

Just checked the Tire Rack invoice for the tires I bought for my e-Golf, "EP422 Plus 4 Ribbed Tread Design" is the model listed for the tires I purchased. I initially ordered the 6 ribbed tread version and they were on backorder. My '21 Prime also has the EP422 Plus tires but I am not sure which tread design they have.

 

I think they were all EP422 series... in any event that's what the we got for the last Honda Civic Hybrid:

ECOPIA EP422+ 175/65R15 84H BW GRAND TOURING A/S
Shipped on 12/02/2019
Quantity 4 $399.96

 

I just looked......and I got the 4 ribbed ones, likely same as yours.
They are just fine in almost all respects.
They are a little annoying because the WIDE tread groves tend to pick up small stones from deteriorating pavement and FLING them into the wheel well. On some stretches of road, that gets REALLY annoying. But most of the time, no problem.

I wonder if they could be throwing rocks at vehicles behind too ??
I'm trying not to think about that.

 

Bridgestone Ecopia EP20 is no more I guess?

 

It looks like that is the case after browsing the Bridgestone Tires website, I see a few online retailers still have them in stock though.

 

Bridgestone Issues Voluntary Recall to Recover Eight Affected Passenger Tires

The pinhole in affected tires is visible in the tire’s outward-facing sidewall near the first digit of the TIN Date Code. Should the pinhole penetrate the tire’s inner liner, a slow air loss may occur. If left unaddressed, this slow leak could affect tire performance and, depending upon the particular vehicle and other circumstances, increase the risk of a crash.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestone_and_Ford_tire_controversy