I have ordered a new Prius after renting one for a couple of days. I just fell in love with the car and its 55MPG on my route. While I wait for that wonderful moment when I take delivery of my new sporty green machine, I am curious about wheels and tires. I'm thinking about a set of 16" lightweight wheels and lightweight quiet tires. Is anyone running a staggered setup (such as 16x7 in front, 16x8 in rear) or just normal 16x7 all around? I wonder how a slightly wider wheel/tire in the rear would impact stability. If the wheels and tires are kept very light, it could minimize impact to MPG while providing even better handling. Which wheels and tires are on your Prius? Comments? Pictures?
I think you need to have exactly the same tires and wheels on all 4 corners or the ABS (standard equipment) and VSC (package 4 and 6 for '05) will not function correctly. I'm still running the OEM Integritys, if (when) I decide to upgrade I will go to wider tires and maybe larger wheels but I will be careful to keep the rotations per mile the same so the speedometer and mpg calculator will still be accurate. Of course I also need to be sure they will fit under the fender wells with the suspension compressed and the steering turned from lock to lock. If you haven't already done so take a look at Tire Rack, one of the sponsers for this site, they have some good stuff at good prices. If you click on "specs" for whatever tire you are looking at you can find the rotations per mile. The OEM tires are 855 for example.
After researching this site (very helpful) and others, I went with Nokian WRs on the OEM rims for wet and pre-winter tire traction here in very rural NY. Got ~30k on the OEMs. VERY happy with the traction, especially in cold rain. 1 month too limited to tell on mileage, but no obvious penalty and of course no wear rate yet. Will put four Blizzaks (bought last year) on in mid-Nov for snow season. WRs have nylon belts and are as light as the Goodyears and purported to be LRR; only downside is cornering/dry traction not as good as some. We are gentle drivers, so in the few dry days with the WRs I haven't felt limited by the tires.
