We bought our first 2010 Blizzard Pearl Prius 2 about a month ago. And we decided to sell our other car and get a second prius. We just picked up a 2010 Winter Gray Prius 3 with Nav and moonroof + solar. I drove the blizzard pearl around for a week and averaged 56 mpg. I put 200 miles on the winter gray this weekend and averaged 45 mpg. Same roads same driver. The pearl came with the bridgestone ecopia and the winter gray came with brand new westlake sp06. I'm not certain if the ecopias were brand new. I've never heard of the westlake brand before. The pearl is a CPO and the gray was bought from a small dealer. Both were lease returns both had just under 30,000 miles. Any one know why there would be such a big difference? I've been lurking on the forum since we got the pearl a month ago and have already learned so much thanks in advance!
We fuel up at the same gas station, no rain, and the temp has been relatively constant. I have not checked the tire pressure! Thank you Bob.
I did not realize that, thank you 32k! The ride between the cars does feel noticeably different. My wife thinks the westlake tires make the feel much more solid. Anyone have any experience with the Westlake tires? I don't think I'll be replacing these tires as they are brand new. Not sure the MPG savings would justify. I'll have to crunch some numbers.
You need LLR tires! It does make a difference I've read other threads with this exact same problem! They switched the tires out with LLR's and back to great mpg's. a really great tires is the Michelin Energy or the Defenders. If you can find Energy's go with those. They are designed for good MPG
No problem. I had em on my 2010 Mazda six and they were great. But when stock Prius tires are worn ill be looking for the michelins! I think the Energy line is being discontinued bc of downsizing. Which sucks bc it's a good product.
These westlake tires are brand new. I don't know if I'll be able to justify swapping them out now. I may need to deal with these until they wear out.
True. Price wouldn't outweigh gas savings in the end. 45 mpg is nothing to sneeze at! It may get better as they get broken in with more mileage!
You can swap the Westlake to the Pearl and Ecopia to the Gray and you can know for sure if it is the tires or something else. Vincent
Yes, LRR tires have better mpg but it can't be that much difference of 11 mpg. My point is that there may be other factors, not just tires alone. By swapping wheels, OP can determine how much % is due to tires and look for other factors beyond tires. Vincent
Assuming the life of the tires is 60k miles with gas price at $4. The LRR tires will save you about $1000 in gas. However, there are pros in using regular tires. I think regular tires will give you a more comfortable ride especially on bumpy roads. Regular tires have more surface area touching the road. This is something you would want when you're driving in the rain.
non-LLR tires don't account for all of that difference but it's worth looking into as you investigate. I suspect it's a combination of things: start with tire pressures as that can make a big difference. It's also possible they used the wrong weight oil at the last change, etc. I went from the OEM Yoko LLR's to non-LLR ContiProContacts and lost about 2mpg on average. I deliberately chose a non-LLR tire and am very happy with the trade offs as I have MUCH more tread depth (resulting in fewer punctures and better dirt road, wet, and light snow traction) as well as noticeably better ride and overall handling.
ContiProContacts is a very good tire that results in minimal mpg loss. Worse tires can account for a 10% mpg hit, which on the Prius can be 5 mpg. The best LRR tire can get 2 mpg better than the worse LRR tire. But, yes, other factors may be at play. Tire pressure, oil used, stuck brake caliper, etc.
Well said, I've never heard of Westlake tires either, but I've never had off-brand (non major name) tires perform as well as good, name brand tires. Google tells me that Westlakes are indeed Chinese made, of dubious quality (reviews generally negative and they have had past recalls). So you may be right, a particularly subpar, non-LLR tire might indeed make a large drop like that. fwiw, I really hate when dealers do this and I see it all the time. They rehab a used vehicle and put it on the lot with brand new tires, but they use the cheapest, no-name crap they can find to save a few bucks.
I had a new set of Accelera tires when I bought my 2012 Prius a month ago. I found out that they were just a marginal tire at best. I had to work at it very hard to get 50 mpg. I bit the bullet and traded them in on a set of Michelin AS Energy Savers Saturday. The mpg increase was instant. I took a short 40 miles trip and with minimal P&G and very little EV mode my mileage shot up to 65 mpg. I am seeing a tremendous increase in mpg. An off brand set of tires can make a huge fallout in your MPG. I couldn't wait for the tires to wear out and bought the new tires. When continually seeing posts from 0others getting 65 plus and I was hardly getting 51 the decision was easy.
