Looking for Tire recommendations for my 2020 Prime

There are numerous tire selection threads with a variety of recommendations by others. I've never used Continental Pro Contact but had now discontinued TrueContact on my Gen3 after OEM Ecopia was replaced. It was a very good tire, I believe better priced than Ecopia 422Pus or Michelin eco tires. No mpg hit and very quiet and smooth ride. But I did not keep the car very long to see the tread-life. Tires are always some compromise in that if you want the best fuel efficiency then you may have to sacrifice tread life or ride comfort or road grips or performance. There is no perfect tire for everyone.

Besides the recommendations (or opinions) posted here, you may want to check and study the reviews posted at TireRack. https://www.tirerack.com/content/tirerack/desktop/en/tire_decision_guide.html

It will give you more choices than you may want. In the end, if you are going to buy and install the tire locally, the final decision will largely depend on what is available and the local market price in your area. Good luck.

 

Tirerack.com is an excellent resource. Look at their Tire Decision Guide. You can rank your preference for best braking, best handling, most comfort, snow traction, and other criteria. You will see a list of possible choices, then select what tire rack calls eco-focus. This will offer some better choices that just what the dealership offers…as determined by the wholesalers they do business with.

Some tire criteria are somewhat mutually exclusive—you cannot maximize longest tread life, best riding comfort, best traction, and best mpg; maximize one at some loss to one or two of the others. The choice is yours.

Why shop for tires at the dealer? If they have a great price, sure, but otherwise most tire shops will have a great selection. Even Costco, which sells the Michelin & Bridgestone families of brands, is a very good option.

 

hello sablerock, I agree about using tirerack.com, especially for initial shopping around, even if you decide to actually buy tires. mounting, balance and/or road hazard insurance from a local tire shop or dealer.
tire ratings have changed.
I'll link to
tires-easy.com
I think they give a short easy to read description of the tire ratings you'll encounter on most tire selling web sites as well as local tire sales companies.
UTOG - includes treadlife estimate 300 to 800 - traction AA A B C - and temperature A B C
The Uniform Tire Quality Grading System (UTQG) Explained | Tires-Easy.com
Service Description - includes Max Load how heavy a car the tire can handle - speed rating how fast the tires can be driven
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How Fast Do Your Tires Go?

I replaced our OEM Toyos with Michelin Defenders and like them a lot better than the Toyos. Even noticing a small MPG decrease.

At tirerack it's easy to compare however many tires you;d like to. There is a [ ] compare box just below the pic of the tire which will save that tire at the bottom of the page to look at after sifting through all the different makes and models available at tirerack, here are a few I saved to look up

Tire size - 195 65R15 tirerack includes 2 year road hazard with purchase
Mounting, balancing, valves, lifetime road hazard fees are added in at checkout if you add them to your purchase.

Toyo NanoEnergy A41 $98.60
Toyo NanoEnergy A29 $110.62
Cooper CS5 Grand Touring $89.37
Cooper Endeavor $90.99
Pirelli P4 4 Season Plus $113.40
Michelin Defender T+H $125.99
Continental TrueContact Tour $107.02
Continental ProContact TX $109.70
Yokahama Avid Asend LX $101.99
Yokahama Asend GT $96.99
Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus $118.77

tirerack doesn't carry Nokian but you can find them at tires-easy.com
Nokian WRG4 195/65R15 91H BSW $108.71
Nokian One 195/65R15 91H BSW $94.80

I seriously doubt I'd be unhappy choosing any of these tires for replacing the Toyo s that came on our Prime.

 

All good info. First the tire shopper needs to decide what is most important to them. Here in the Pacific Northwet I want excellent wet braking and handling. If one lives where an particularly abrasive aggregate is used in road paving, then longest tread life might be their number one choice--or one who drives many miles a year. If snow driving is a concern, then winter traction is critical and one of the new all-weather tires might be the best choice. Or maybe the top choice is the most quiet and comfy tire. There is no industry standard for low rolling resistance--best gas mileage--so we have to take the tire maker's word for this.

 

@Marine Ray Are those lists any easier to read at tirerack? They are tirerack lists?

 

Those lists are from Consumer Reports, not Tirerack.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Thanks Ray, I looked um over, but that's about all I could do. Maybe I need better glasses or sumptin.
Thanks for giving the source. I hope they are easier to read at Consumers web site because I'm sure there's a lot of good stuff packed into those lists, if I could only read it without getting getting an eye sprain or contusion. I already squint at times here anyways and have to hit the CTRL - + four times to the larges zoom I can get here than wonder why I can only read 1/4 of whats in the post.

 

Not sure whether you plan to do any winter driving, and I don't yet have a set on my Prius Prime, but I had the Nokian WRG3 [edit: not 4] on my Yaris, and I'll never use anything else given the option. Fantastic all-weather tire that functions as a winter tire that can be left on year-round. Great balance of being quiet, efficient, and grip in winter conditions. Seem to have decent endurance too.

A very good winter-tire option that you don't have to swap on & off twice a year is amazing. Lots of good reviews of the tire online, too.

 

When another member here at PC posted about their Nokian WRG3's a year of two ago and I saw the tire for the first time, I wished I'd seen them before I got my Defenders. I had thought Nokian only came in winter tires before that.

 

I put all weather (winter approved) Michelin CrossClimate on my Prime.

Quite satisfied with them.

 

There is a huge difference between "winter tires" and "snow tires".
Winter tires generally have a softer tread compound and not many tread grooves, putting more rubber on the road.
Designed more for COLD pavement and ice rather than snow.
The should have better traction year round.......but maybe not good in WATER at speed.

 

Conterpoint, than there is TPMS
just depends on who what where when and why. like most everything else in life.

 

Douglas tires at Walmart always gives me the best combo of price and performance. Under $50 each....

 

Meaning what exactly ?
How does monitoring your tire pressures have any bearing on your selection of WHICH tires to get ??

 

All Weathers can reduce the need for reprogramming TPMS ID's (that many complain about here, including me) by 2 or 3 times a year, as compared with having 2 sets of wheels/tires. It's not an end of the world kinda thing, but it can be annoying.
I do agree that a second set of dedicated snow tires is Ideal in many winter season situations, like mine here in the snow belt. Even so, I rarely travel unplowed roads in the winter.
There is a lot of pro / con discussion mixed in this thread concerning dedicated snows by @Rob43
GET YOUR DEDICATED SNOW TIRES NOW !!! | PriusChat