I am having very little luck finding snow tires for my duaghter's 2008 prius touring. I think the tire mfgs made all sorts of snow tires for trucks and monster suvs, and did not plan on us little guys! In any event, can not find michelin xice in stock anywhere in massachusetts for the p195/55r16. One dealer found michelin primacy alpins, but he said they were "run-flat" tires. He said they would be a lot stiffer than what is currently on there. So, question--does anyone have run-flat tires installed and if so, how are they? Does the mileage really stink? Do they have handling problems? Question 2 would be if anyone knew a place in ne mass or southern nh that has bridestone blizzak or michelin xice in stock for the 16" rims?
I am using Bridgestone Blizzak LM-25's on my Touring. They're a bit on the expensive side, but they fit on the stock wheels, and work really well. The ride is bit harder, just a bit. Mileage hit is negligible compared to the drop due to cold. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with your area, so I cannot say where you should go to find them, however, you can try getting them on line, say like on tirerack dot com.
On tire rack they list the blizzak lm-25 as "run flat" also. So I guess that must be what you have already, and they are not "too" stiff for you. good data point!
I suspect the shortage is due to the province of Quebec. They have a new law -requiring- snow tires in winter. It takes effect in December, and has caused a snow tire shortage all across Canada. See if you can find a Nokian supplier. In my experience they make one of the best snow capable tires in the industry. I use the WR and find it as good as any Winter tire, with the bonus that it is also fine in Summer.
I am not a big believer in all-weather tires. I figure if I am going to go to the trouble of changing out summer tires for winter tires, they should be tires substantial enough to make quick work of a huge snow or ice storm. There are other Nokian styles that are true snow tires, but again are only available in run-flats for my size. But the plot thickens. So, in summary I was able to find the blizzaks, nokians, and the michelin alpins--but all are run flats. On a hunch, I called the service dept at Boch Toyota, and they said that under no conditions should I put run-flats on the car. They were a little vague about why, but were cetain that run flats would cause some minor damage to the prius. I was wondering on how the tire pressure monitor could work with run-flats, which presumably have a lot of rubber in there with zero clearance. So, the only thing out there that is a true snow tire, not a run flat, and available by next Wednesday in Massachusetts happens to be a Hancook W409. It looks ok on the Hancook wedbsite, and I found some good user comments on one site on them. I personally never heard of them before, so I am rolling the dice a little here. The price was good at least!
I think if I didn't like the snow tires available in the Touring OEM 195/55/16 size, I would see about the snow tires available in the much more popular 205/55/16 size. There are a lot more tires to choose from in that size.
I believe that TPM's were originally designed to work with run-flats since you wouldn't know if they were soft since the appearance doesn't change when they go soft. I have had 3 cars with run flats and TPMs and had snows on two and they have worked fine.
You could also use 185/65r15 and permanently mount them on a 15" rim for your winter tires. The bolt pattern is 5x100 if you are looking for rims as well.
