So, after some efficient forum surfing thanks to all who post about the tires, I quickly came to the conclusion that getting the Michelin Energy Saver tires was the way I wanted to go. Even if I get a .5 MPG improvement they'll pay for themselves over the course of their life and more. (I currently have the Goodyear Integrity tires on both of my Prius's) Based on some links here I ended up purchasing them from TireRack.com pretty decent price, I was also happy to find out they are based in Windsor CT which is not too far away from me!! So they are allowing me to pick up, with tax total will be $876.32, or $109.54 each. Pretty good price, but wait, there's more... TireRack has a $70 per set of four rebate going on, so taking off an additional $140 on that prices reduces the total to 736.32 or $92.04 each!!! SWEET!! (just gotta wait 4-6weeks etc) Anyway thought I'd share my excitment, and thank all for the informative posts here.
i hope you made sure there were no b.s. caveats about one per household on that rebate. the optima rebate I've been touting allows up to 4 optimas per household, yet my Monroe rebate only allowed one per household so I had to have the Prius rebate sent to my house and my Corolla rebate send to another house. Michelins are very good tires but many people here recommend the bridgestone ecopia's and then there is a new energy saver from continental, they're all good and you can't go wrong with Michelins, when it comes to tires buy the best you can afford.
One thing Costco does, if there's some sort of promotional offer, say $70 off a set of 4: they take the amount off at the till, so no waiting around for a cheque in the mail, and your sales tax is reduced.
I've heard the Conti's with Eco Plus are the way to go, but I'm buying the Michelin Energy Saver A/S. I've wanted these tires ever since I read TireRacks evaluation of LRR tires using several Prii for roadtests. I've waited patiently for them to become available and finally my Yoko's are wearing out after 40k miles. :rockon:
GSW, I've got the Energy Saver A/S on my car, and just be careful in the rain if you increase tire pressure. I only say that bc I see you're in FL and I've spun the wheels several times in the rain at only 40/38 for the PSI. Ok, so they only spin for a second or so, but I've never this easily spun tires before on a car. I'll probably move to a different tire when these wear out. Maybe I'll drop down to 38/36 and see if that matters much with the next rain storm.
Really? I tend to take curves pretty fast. I may have to wait on the Michelin Defenders to see how they stack up. Thanks for the heads up wick1ert.
I just had the Ecopias installed last Fri and I love them. I thought long and hard about going with the Michelins, but I got a good deal on Tirerack.
Interestingly, I've never had any issues driving in the rain, just sometimes from a stop. It's been enough times for me to notice it, so I would be hesitant to chalk it up to just an oil spot from the last car at a light or something. We also don't get quite the rain that you may get down in FL, either. It's not enough for me to get too concerned, but enough for me to remember not to jump off the line like a bat out of hell from a stop light (mostly only happens in Power Mode). That would really be my only complaint, per se, with these tires. I love them otherwise.
Which Ecopias? The EP100 is a great tire but only decent treadlife. The EP422 has a longer treadlife but worse mpg than the EP100 and the Energy Saver A/S. it also has worse wet and dry traction than either of the other two tires. The Energy Saver A/S is a fantastic tire but if you are looking for more inspired wet traction then maybe take a look at the AVID Ascend or ProContact with EcoPlus. The Defender is still very new and we do not have any real reports for it yet. Which tire did you get exactly? The Energy Saver or the Energy Saver A/S? One is a summer tire and the other is an all-season tire.
I agree. I have about 1k on my set of Energy Savers and noticed that these tires are perfectly fine for mature driving, but do not take spirited driving well at all. For instance, I like to take right turns at about 20-25 mph sometimes. With the Primacy MXV4 tires, I would make the turn with no problems. On the Energy Saver A/S, I can feel myself slide across the lane quite a bit. The grip simply isn't there, wet or dry, compared to higher performance tires.
Excuse my poor math, but how does 4 tires X $109.54 each = or $736.32 ( 75% Tax? ) Edit: Or $876.32 ??
Sorry, should have included the A/S in my first post. I live in Connecticut, I've always utilzed all season tires.
Sorry, I purchased 8 tires, not 4, I have a 2005 and a 2007 Prius, both need new sets of tires. I think my math is correct for 8 total tires.
yeah, I was concerned with that as well, which is why I ended up calling. They did confirm it is for every set of 4 tires.
It's good to see that the Michelin Energy Savers are becoming available again. I bought a set of four a couple of months ago, after scouring the country looking for the original OEM size and for the plus-zero size I really wanted. I finally managed to get the plus-zero size tires, 195/60/15s. What size did you get?
I am starting to think that the EP422 and Energy Saver A/S perform almost identically. The test where the EP422 was found to have miserable traction was on a E90 BMW and the EP422 was being tested against more conventional tires. OTOH, the Energy Saver A/S was tested against a group of pure LRR tires (which likely have low levels of traction) and was found to be decent relative to the group. Considering that the two tires likely deliver near identical fuel economy, it becomes difficult to justify the 20-30% price difference for the Michelins. (However, there may be other reasons to select the Michelins such as perception, service, uniformity, etc.) Also, I am fairly certain that if the Energy Saver A/S and Ecopia EP422 were tested on identical vehicles, the results would be almost identical. MB860 ? 2
I got the EP422 for the all-season purpose, I'm in Michigan and I felt like this would be a decent alternative to snow tires.
Maybe it's just living here in NC... but I've yet to have any issues with wet traction with the Energy Savers after 60k miles. In fact, I'm getting close to the replacing this set with another set of Energy Savers. I'm hoping to wait until I get to 100k miles, but I'm currently on the wear bars on the fronts.
