I have >6000 miles, and love the camry hybrid. Coming from a BMW, I couldn't do the prius because it was so sloooow, but the camry has very good acceleration. The problem is the tires are terrible in the rain. It has bridgestone turanzas on it. Any suggestion fo a switch to something with more traction?
Falken Ziex 912 have been very reliable and had excellent traction for me (no winter in my state ). Price is low from online sources, about 1/2 or less of similar size Micheline , but do not expect more than 30k miles out of them. - Alex
well, for starters, it's not question of traction. It's question of having water film between tire and road removed for contact and, having tire properly inflated. If it's over inflated, it'll skid. From that on, you really have to make decision - what do you want? Sticky, good in rain( and I am not sure why you concern yourself with rain so much, as it rains for months here, and I do fine on regular tires), but high friction and low mpg tires? Or less rolling resistance, maybe less stable in rain, but better mpg ones? It's your call. And what exactly is the issue? It takes quite high speeds to skid or hydroplane modern tires? Maybe it's operator fault, esp for someone coming from BMW driving style? As it'll cost you lotsa mullah to do tires switcharoo.
I want traction. COuld care less about MPG, MPG is of no use if I get into an accident! I want safety first - better wet and ice traction. These turanzas are terrible. Worse than my minivan as well!
The new top wet traction LRR tires are: Continental ProContact with EcoPlus Continental PureContact with EcoPlus Michelin Primacy MXM4
Toyota uses some of the crappiest OEM tires on its hybrids. We went with the Continental ProContact Ecoplus on the Prius and the Michelin Latitude Tour on the Highlander Hybrid. I have the perception that wet and dry traction and handling is improved for both, but not much difference in noise, ride quality or fuel economy. Not enough experience with snow/ice yet to judge.
My biggest beef with the Prius when we had it was the lousy traction with the OEM tires. But back then in 2007, there weren't many choices on LRR tires or in the size that was on the car, and when you consider having to replace tires on a new car, well, just didn't make fiscal sense. Actually going through that right now on my current ride, debating on getting another set in smaller size to see if it improves the MPG, but will any improvement offset the cost at any point? At one point I thought, well if they dont work out, I can put them on my other car, which is about due for tires, but they are not the same size, 235 vs 225 on the old car, so.......
we just drove 500 miles in the rain, pouring in some places, mostly 65 mph, no problems with the turanza's.
