Michelin Harmony or Michelin Energy MXV4

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BH1973 @ Mar 17 2007, 04:03 PM) [snapback]407501[/snapback]</div>

The Harmony tires should last longer as you noted, but they will cost you about 5 MPG.

My MXV4+ tires now have 35,000 miles on them and have more than half their tread left. The trick to getting reasonable tread wear (and great MPG) out of these tires is to run them at somewhat higher air pressure than suggested by Toyota. They are safe to 44 PSI. I run the at 42 (front) and 40 (rear). They have achieved slightly better MPG than the original tires (Goodyear Integrity) while providing much better traction and handling.

You are paying a premium of about 25% to use your local tire supplier. My MXV4+ tires were $425 mounted, balanced and guaranteed (with free rotations and balances for their life) at BJs discount warehouse.

JeffD

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BH1973 @ Mar 17 2007, 07:30 PM) [snapback]407615[/snapback]</div>

You could check into mail ordering them from Tire Rack. I just did that with my mom's tires for her Prius. I got the Bridgestone Turanza LS-T 195/65R15, which is the bigger size and actually $1/tire cheaper. They have an 80K mile warranty too, and for $73/tire plus shipping it was a great deal. Tire Rack has a deal with local tire shops on their website, so you can have somebody local install the tires.

Before you would order the tires though you might want to check with the local tire installing shop from the website. They told me that you were supposed to have the tires shipped directly to them, even though they are your tires, if you want the advertised installation price from the website. They turned out to be OK here and gave me the same price though, so I don't know if it was really true what they said. I think it came to about $12.50 or so per tire.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jdenenberg @ Mar 17 2007, 01:24 PM) [snapback]407546[/snapback]</div>

I have religion around the Michelin MXV4+ tires.... have used them on several cars - and they are really good. Consumer Reports consistently show them near the top in all categories.

Expensive tire and may not last as long as others. However, top quality ride characteristics.

On my other cars (not on Prius) I have consistently gotten 40,000 miles on them (I have bought 5 or 6 sets over the past 10 years...)

I like a local tire shop also - have gotten to know them personally. One thing they do for me is match the best price I can find on the internet (Like Tire Rack) to keep my business. You might try asking your dealer to do the same for you.

 

I have about 5000 miles on my MXV-4's and they seem to be 2 - 3 MPG better than the Integritys. I got rid of the integritys at about 4000 miles. They couldn't hold the road on wet pavement. The Michelin's are one size up - 195/15/60. The only downside is that they make the speedometer read ~.8 - .9 MPH high. Road handling seems excellent. Snow performance is also quite good (traction control seems more of an issue in snow than tires).

If you have a Costco near you use them! They were having a $60.00 off sale on MXV-4's. They also rotate the tires free forever and have a lot of services that tire dealers charge for.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(syclone @ Mar 18 2007, 09:08 AM) [snapback]407830[/snapback]</div>

Your MXV4s at 195/60HR15 do 862 revs/mile (vs the original Integrity's at 855, note that these numbers increase as tires wear). This accounts for an artificial 0.8% increase in both your speedo and odo calibration. Your MPG would be artificially (meaning - not real) increased as well by about 0.4 mpg by this change in calibration so the new tires account for a little less real improved MPG than you quote. I also saw a small improvement with my 185/65HR15 MXV4s, but it was small due the the 849 revs per mile of these tires (0.7% reduction in all readings). I found that the improved MPG is more significant in cold weather, there was little change in warm weather.

JeffD

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jdenenberg @ Mar 18 2007, 09:44 AM) [snapback]407901[/snapback]</div>

I know this is a little unrelated. but I was thinking of buying the MXV4+ sized at 185/65HR15, because it is just slightly fewer revolutions than the stock tire.

I figure that the speedometer generally runs high ... and with a taller tire, it would offset this built in bias ever so slightly.

A possible secondary benefit is a slight reduction in engine RPM - which under low load conditions - could result in a minute improvement in mileage.

Anyway, that's just my idea... as to what I will do in the future when its time to replace my tires.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(John in LB @ Mar 18 2007, 03:36 PM) [snapback]407949[/snapback]</div>

That's the size on my Prius

Just be careful not to get a speeding ticket

Actually, changing the tire size will not directly affect the engine RPM in a Prius as there is no fixed "gear ratio". The engine RPM is adjusted on the fly by the ECU as needed to provide the required HP to keep the car moving (with a little help from its friendly MGs).

JeffD

 

I use the MXV4+ Energy in the stock size. As for tire wear, I've never been able to wear out the tread on a tire; old age and sun always get the sidewalls on mine before the tread wears out, or the rubber gets so hard it's no longer safe. We run them all year, including the winter, and they do fine with our Northern Michigan winters.

Tom

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jdenenberg @ Mar 18 2007, 03:29 PM) [snapback]408053[/snapback]</div>

I agree, except I assume that at cruising speeds of 65 - 75 MPH, the gear ratio would peg out to its maximum allowed. At that point, the tire would affect engine RPM (we are talking less than 30 RPMs - so minute).

Of course, using that same logic, the car would also have a slightly taller gear on the low end - resulting in poorer acceleration performance...

blah... blah... blah... definitely getting anal here...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jdenenberg @ Mar 17 2007, 05:24 PM) [snapback]407546[/snapback]</div>

5mpg loss is about a 10% loss (figuring 50mpg). From what I have read, a LRR tire can give you 3 to 5% increase -- meaning 1.5 to 2.5 more mpg. Running with the tires underinflated will cause a much greater loss.

 

well, we finally dumped our bald integrities at 28k miles... 'bout damn time too, as i had an incident in the rain that made me feel extremely unsafe on the things. i have only once felt that freaked out in my prius, and it was because the tires sucked so bad they couldn't make it through a freakin' puddle...

anyway.

two days later we put the energy mxv4+s on it (this evening) and i just took it for an extended drive through all my familiar routes so i could compare handling, etc. especially around curves, i felt MUCH better with the new tires than i ever did even when the integrities were new. i don't anticipate much of a mileage hit... the first bar was 25 mpg as usual and then a series of 50 mpg, ending the drive with a couple of 75 mpg bars. and i was playing with the handling, not giving much thought to mpg at all. of course this says nothing about long term but so far i like em.

cost was ~$450 for the tires with tax and DH put em on, inspected/adjusted the brakes, and replaced my stupified smart key.

 

I might have missed this before, but here goes. I have an 08 Prius touring that will be needing tires soon. They have Bridgestone Turanza El400 P195/55R16's. The local
dealer has a buy 3 get one free deal on the same Bridgestone tires, total OTD price of $583.00. Is this a good deal, or is there something better, possibly Michelins? I live in Arizona and I
get 50 mpg. The car has 27k miles. Thanks for any help.

 

Why not look at the new LRR tires that are available for less money?

See the Test performed by TireRack on the newer (and better) LLR tires. When Round and Black Becomes Lean and Green

My roomate just purchased the Ecopia EP100s for around $360 shipped from TireRack and I purchased the Yokohama dB Super E-Spec tires for $457 shipped (185/65/15). Obviously your tires cost more due to size but even my tires which are more pricey than the quality Ecopia's are only about $500 (195/55/16) or so shipped.

 

I just ordered the Bridgestone Ecopia EP100 tires from Discount Tire in Tucson, for my 2004. The web price is $98 plus installation. Thanks for furnishing the link to the TireRack review!

The car currently has Pirelli P3000 that have an 85K mile treadlife warranty. The good news is that with 41K miles on those tires, they still have 6/32" - 7/32" of tread depth remaining.

The bad news is that they seem to be out-of-round with flat spots, so there is substantial vibration at high speed. I just had the tires balanced and rotated, and the problem got worse. I assume that the rear tires were worse than the front, so when the rear tires moved up to the front that exacerbated the vibration problem.

 

Good deal Patrick.

My roomate likes them so far and he is a VERY aggressive driver. From an economic standpoint those tires seem to be a big hit. Let us know how you like them.

 

I had the Ecopia tires installed yesterday, car now has 98K miles. The new tires are so much quieter than the P3000 tires. The old tires were in bad shape, so the noise and vibration level was like driving in a 4x4 with all-terrain tires. Now it's really quiet and smooth. It's been raining here, and the ride and handling are fine.

The Ecopia tires are made in Japan. UTQG is 400AB. Only seven tire sizes are currently available, including four sizes used for the three Prius generations (but excluding the 3G 17" wheel size.)

I got a $92 "customer satisfaction" credit on the old P3000 tires, so that almost paid for one new tire...

I had earlier thought that I had a bad front wheel bearing. However, whatever was causing an intermittent scraping noise went away, so it must have been a tiny pebble that I was unable to see when I looked at the front brake calipers.

I measured the thickness of one rotor, and it was 21.7 mm compared to new spec of 22 mm and replacement spec of 20 mm. Pad thickness is probably 5-6 mm, compared to new of 11 mm and replacement at 1 mm. So, no immediate need to work on the front brakes.

I've already bought a replacement front bearing hub, front rotors and brake pads, so I'll just save the parts for later.