Tire replacement.....which tire?

Fred,

Just like you, I ditched the tires soon after purchase.
I'm on my second set of Goodyear Triple Treds, fantastic tire!

Somehow my location no longer shows. I'm in Wisconsin, so I feel your upcoming pain.
The Triple Treds are a massive improvement over the stock tires.

Also the 195/60/15 is just the ticket.

 

I have 33,000 miles on my 2005 Prius. I have the original Integrities on my Prius.

I live in the snowy suburbs of Chicago. With traction control and vehicle skid control on the Prius, I have had no issues whatsoever with the Integrities.

I am due for new tires shortly...and will probably not purchase new Integrities...but if you only have 5,000 miles on them, they will handle just fine in the snow with the above Prius options.

 

I'm going on 16, 000 miles on my 07 and the minute it turned cold here the stock Integrity's are really making some noise. Rumble rumble. They really suck. Are the Triple Treads quiet? Thanks!

 

+1 on the Integrities. I have driven on snow with my Integrities as well on PA. snow...no problems whatsoever. Take your time and drive safe. Just for any other car, if the snow gets too deep and it starts to drag under your car...no tire will let you plow through the snow. I say keep you almost brand new Integrities for the winter ride.

 

I'm from Michigan. I'm buying Michelin Radial X tires tomorrow at Costco for my 2005 Prius. It is a good all season tire, good rolling resistance, etc. There is a graph with several options for the Prius tire at green hybrid that I sent you in a personal message with the graph attached which states the Rolling resistance, ice, snow etc. but this site will not let me post that website with the graph on here, because I'm a new member of this forum. I'm buying in the original size of 185/65/15, so that I can keep the MPG, if you go up a size you will loose some MPG. . The graph states the Radial X is a club tire, meaning it is a Costco Tire. At the very top of the graph it states what each of the symbols on the graph means.

 

Four days ago, I had Bridgestone G019's installed (all 4 tires). Great tires for stability, turns, traction on wet roads. But, my mileage took a MAJOR hit -- average went from about 48 mpg to 32 or 34 mpg.

A complicating factor may be the sudden dramatic drop in temperature here in NE NJ -- the 20's to low 30's for several days now. Last year, I also noticed a drop in mpg when it got cold out, and needed to use the heat, but not nearly this drastic.

So I'm not sure if the drastic drop in mpg is due to the tires, the temps, or a combination of both.

Some people in these forums say that they had a similar experience with other tires, but after a few months (or even a year), the mileage recovered somewhat.

Any feedback, I would really appreciate.

 

I just turned 39k miles on my 2007 Prius - on the original OEM tires. Contrary to many reports of OEM tires, mine are doing fine and earning a consistent 52+ mpg. I have a 30 mile commute (60 mi round trip).

 

+1 on the Integrities as well. I purchased Kumho tires and have never achieved MPG as I did with the Integrities. It worked for others on this forum but not for me.

In fact I'm looking to buy Integrities from a new buyer who wants to upgrade.

 

Fred, thanks for the info. I did size up from the OEM 185/65/15 to 190/60/15. I expected a little drop in mileage, but not this much.

Also re inflation: the dealer pumped them up to 35 lbs, and they were still at 35 lbs yesterday. I checked online and found that my tires should not be inflated more than 44 lbs, so I will try your idea in a few days and bring the tires up to around 42/40.

A friend this afternoon was telling me that his Prius (2004) always loses mileage when the temps go near freezing, but not as bad as 32 mpg. This afternoon, my mileage for local driving went up a little to 36 or 37.

PS Mine are the Bridgestone Potenza G019.

 

New Michelin MXV4's from Costco. 195/65/15. These tires are currently on sale at Costco, with free lifetime rotate, balance and inflate...sweeet. this is my second pair. Ditched my stock integrity's at around 37 thousand miles. This makes the third set of tires in 104 thousand miles. The MXV4's that I just had removed, still had a fair amount of tread, but I changed them out because the rains are coming and the tires went on sale. New tires have caused a mileage drop from 50 MPG average to 47MPG for the first tank with new tires. This will come back after 1 or 2 thousand miles wear. Plus I have not yet raised the air pressure from what Costco set them to.

These tires work good for us.

 

I too vote for the Michelin MXV4 tire. I just replaced my OEMs at 31K and did not want to go another winter with them as they were getting thin on tread. The MXV4 is very smooth, quiet, and handle well with much better traction in precipitation that the OEMs. I'm VERY happy with the tire and no noticeable change in MPG. I'm still around 52 mpg, same as before the tire change.

I was able to save $$ too as Sams Club has a sale on them now with $80 off (instant savings) a set of these 4 tires! I stayed with the original size 185/65-15.

 

George, new tires take a while to break in. You should see better mileage as the miles pick up.

It'll be better soon.

 

I haven't seen any discussion of Yokahama Avid TRZ tires. Consumer Reports rates them quite highly, and the cost is reasonable. I have run mine for 20,000 miles now and am very satisfied with their all-around performance. Check them out.

 

If we're talking about all-season tires (as opposed to a set of mounted snows, which would be my preference) I think that the tripletreads are a good bet. We put a set (195/60r15) on Prius #2 and the mileage hit hasn't been that bad. She lost maybe 2-3mpg (47 vs. 50) which was expected. They do whine a bit. But vehicle stability is dramatically improved, probably because of the wider tread. We have yet to actually try them in the snow, of course, so I defer to others with real experience at this point. I like the 80k tread warranty, too.

 

Just FYI: As i've said in other threads, I had TT's on my Prius and Intrepid. The tires wore out after 45,000 miles on both vehicles. For less than half the cost of the TT's I installed Kumho Solus KR21 tires on my Prius and they handel well. I very much doubt that anyone will get the rated 80,000 miles out of the TT's.