I'll be getting my Prius in a few weeks and am probably going to take the OEM's off and go with better tires right from the get go. I've heard folks here like the HydroEdges and the Pirelli's. What are your recommendations for a climate that will never see snow? Thanks. Ken
kente, i'm in the same boat as you. We might not get much (any!) snow, but we deal with rain all the time. ALL THE TIME! I'll be putting hydroedges on the car as soon as I get it - though i've been researching the goodyear comfortreds too. I can't wait to see some replies =)
Hi. I used the original tires for 30,000 miles on my 04 Prius and then switched to Hydroedge. I'm in Miami so they work fine. The car handles a lot better and I have more confidence in the cornering. I'm very happy with the Hydroedge. If I were going to do any driving up north in the winter, I would have gotten the Goodyear Assurance. I haven't noticed any difference in the noise level with the Hydroedge. I think it is about the same as the original tires.
I had Sumitomo HTR 200s, which are low-rolling-resistance summer tires, added to my Civic Hybrid. They are one of the ones recommended by GreenSeal as being a fuel-efficient tire, and their marks are excellent on TireRack. Plus their max PSI is 51 so you can safely inflate it pretty high. Bumps are really annoying at 50 PSI but it does roll very smoothly.
The OEM tires are more than sufficient for daily driving here in Central Florida - especially during the rain. Not one single spinout, slide-out, or hydroplanning with water in the ruts. Guess it's a matter of preference for ride quality, handling, etc....and, of course, safe driving.
Here in Puerto Rico we have no snow (of course) but we do have plenty of rain. The stock tires have performed perfectly for 31,000 miles and they should last at least 40,000 miles. I am replacing the stock tires with another set of stock tires, or with a set of Goodyear Viva 2 tires sold by Sams that closely resemble the stock tires. Search the forum and you'll see that almost everyone who has changed to different tires has reported a drop in mpgs.
