I had my mind up on buying Michelin X tires at Costco. I went to buy them today but was told they did not stock the 16" tires for the Touring model. All they could offer was the Michelin Pilot Primacy. They did not know if it was a low resistant tire or not. Michelin web site did not appear to offer a 16" X tire. I am now back to ground 0. Any recommendations for a low resistant 16" tire for my Touring?
ii use the pilot primacy. they are the tires toyota japan puts on. really quiet. rates good. but beware there is no tread life warranty on these tires. they are kind of expensive too. maybe about 140 and up the other ones are bridgestone turanzas. that is what toyota puts on the touring here. they have a tread life warranty, but you have to actually purchase them, if they came with the car then you are not covered... another good tire that rates well and costs about $80-99 is the falken ze 912. they have a 40,000 mile warranty. and the tire has built in wear indicators that tell you when its time to rotate them
your other choices are very scarce, mostly run flats. if you want to upsell to 205 / 55 / r16, this will increase your selection to about 60 tires, but this will reduce your mpg slightly. i think the falkens are the one to get. they have a tread wear number of 360 prius cars seem to shave tires. so the higher the number is probably better tread wear guarantee is something u want, i think
oh yeah, when it comes to balancing the tires, ask the tire place to use sticky weights. thats what i did. they are stickers and they go on the wheel i didn't feel like wanting them pound on the regular tire weights on my rims, so i had them use the stickers instead
There are very few non-runflat tires available in the Touring OEM 195/55/16 size, and most in this small group will be performance tires and not have a very low rolling resistance or long tread life. If I were you and really wanted the Michelin X Radial, I would move up to the 205/55/16 size. My bet is that any mpg loss will be minimal -- between 0 and 2 mpg, and will be far outweighed by the gains.
It never ceases to amaze me how far off topic this forum can take a thread. --------> He asked about tires<-----------------
Just a side note: "Run flat" tires will, in general, noticeably reduce your MPG. They work by having a stiff sidewall (thicker materials) which increases the rolling resistance. JeffD
