Bridgestone Ecopia 422 Tire Review

What tires did the 422s replace, and how many miles did those tires provide? Are these the 195/65R15's?

Thanks for providing feedback on these new tires.

 

Good info as I am looking real hard at the 422's. Now I have the Stock Bridgestone ep20's and have over 50k miles on them and they still have tread. I hope to get 60 k. My wife has the Goodyear Fuelmax on her 09 and they are a little loud not quite as fuel efficient.

 

Very timely post! I am on my original tires (Goodyear Assurance) and at 40K miles i'm down to 4/32. Could I go more? Sure. But I might as well get this out of the way before the rainy season. I too am strongly considering the Ecopia 422s based on the info I've gotten here at PriusChat and your mini review adds to that. Thank you!

 

The common complaint with the Ecopia 422's is experiencing "wandering" of the car on the freeway at high speeds, requiring steering wheel correction. I'm not sure if this is a genuine issue, or just some people with alignment issues.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts about it.


Our Prius is due for new tires, and here in the upper Midwest it snows frequently enough to warrant a decent all-season snow-capable tire, but not quite enough to put on straight-up snow tires all year.

The Ecopia 422s score pretty good, they look to be a great all-around tire and maintain the Prius gas mileage rating. They rate decently okay in the snow too.


The other options are the Michelin Defender, which would rate well in the snow, and other conditions, but tanks the gas mileage 5-7% or so.

The ever-popular Energy Saver A/S is tops in gas mileage, but they are the OEM on my Fusion, and trust me they are a crappy tire in snow conditions. Which is saying a lot given the Fusion has wider 17" tires (more surface area), and I rode last winter with 8-9/32 of tread. They're about the same as the Yokos in snow, which impressive given the gas mileage improvment, but that's not saying much because the Yokos are terrible in snow.

 

Ah, this is interesting! Will soon be in the market for tires "again" on my 2010 Prius. The original set, Goodyear Assurance were absolute crap, as far as I'm concerned. Worst tires I've ever owned. Thank goodness they were original equipment, as I would have been extremely disappointed if I had bought them as replacements! They lasted about 38K. I put Continental Pro-Contacts on after that. They are an LRR tire, (that's Low Rolling Resistance). They have been a very substantial improvement over the Goodyears. For one thing they are going to last over 60K. As I have 90K on the car now, and feel I can safely get to 100K with them. I'm not "wedded" to these tires and will be looking for something that is as good a buy as these were, that will still give a silent, but tenuous feel to the road. Regards "wandering" that a previous poster referred to that is inherant in this car, not necessarily the tires. And that will be a kind of personal observation, I'm sure. This car has electric power steering and there are posts on here that talk about the car will have to be corrected more often than a conventional rack & pinion setup...... I only notice it, 1. if I'm thinking about it, or 2. Take my eyes & attention off the road for a time, and expect the car to track where it belongs. (In other words you don't have the road "feel" through the steering wheel that you might in a conventional steering setup). We shouldn't be inattentive to what is going on ahead of us anyway at speed!
My son just had these Ecopia's put on his Honda Fit, & I will be interested in how he finds them on it. I wanted the Michelin LRR tire for my car when I bought these Continental's. I couldn't get them for the car as there was an incentive going on at the time, & Michelin fell short of demand... I will be looking at both the Michelin's & the Brigstone's, as well as the Continental's again. Guess I will buy which ever set I can purchase the cheapest that will give me the most miles, and still maintain my present good mpg.

 

The car does have wandering due to the side profile and wind turbulence.

However some individuals reportedly experienced extra wandering and instability that went away when they switched to other tires.


Typically, people post tire discussion in the Fuel Economy forum around here. Head over there to see other tire reports.

 

My 2012 PIP came with Ecopia EP20's stock.
From Tire Rack:
The Ecopia EP20 is one of Bridgestone's ecologicallyoriented, ultra-low rolling resistance Passenger All-Season tire developed to match the Original Equipment (O.E.) needs of third generation (2010+) Toyota Prius hybrids.

The Ecopia EP422 is one of Bridgestone's ecologically oriented Grand Touring All-Season tires developed for the drivers of coupes, sedans, minivans and small crossover vehicles looking to combine year-round traction, handling and comfort with reduced environmental impact.


Is there a reason y'all are passing up the EP20's in favor of the EP422's?

 

One factor, EP20 only comes in 195/65R15.

 

You do have a good point, but the EP20 is designed to be a cheap low cost tire aimed to reduce Toyota's costs and maximize gas mileage. It carries NO WARRANTY, and has an abysmal 380 treadwear rating. It's your basic, 40-45,000 mile tire. Some people stretch it to 50,000 in dry states.

The EP422 has a 480 treadwear rating, in the 91H version, which means you can expect it to last ~25% longer. Further, forum / tirerack reports seem to indicate it gets better traction and the same gas mileage as the EP20.

Of course, miracle tires are impossible as we all know, but the exception is if a lessor tire is using old/inferior materials.

Further, the EP422, comes in a 91H rating, which means it can carry a larger load. The door sticker on your Prius says you can carry 900lbs, in part because the car is already ~3500lbs and the 89S tires can only carry 5000lbs (1250 x 4). 91H would increase this to 5400lbs (1350 x 4), giving you a bit better margin to prevent blowouts if you overload your car with heavy stuff. Still bad for you shocks/tranny, but at least you don't have to worry about dying.

 

I guess the 55,300 on my EP20's with some tread left is pretty good then, due to hypermiling. Thanks to CleanMPG and PriusChat for reeducating me in my driving!

 

Thanks for the in-depth reply (truncated in my quote).
I swap out the EP20's from Dec-March- for winter tires so they get to take the winter (and about 5K miles) off. Guess that explains why they still look very good even though I'll have the PIP a full year come mid October.

 

Good to hear! I think I'm going to get a set of these tires this weekend.

 

Thanks for your review.

The Ecopia is know for soft sidewalls and mushy handling. It can be a good thing if comfort is a big priority and handling is not.

I'm co spidering them as a replacement for the Fuel Max tires on my Volt.

Here was my review on the 17" version.
Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Review - 17" Tire | PriusChat

 

Yep, you need to be very careful about using non OEM tires as I have had mostly bad results on MPG when I did not use OEMs. My next set will be OEMs since I have yet to have an issue with using the MIJ OEMs on my 4 Civic Hybrids and 3 Prius Hybrids that I have owned or do own. I am tempted to use other tires but I have had terrible results in MPG and ride with Michelins. I am pleasantly surprised on the MPG with the factory OEMs by Goodyear.

On my first Civic hybrid I went to SAMS and bought 2 Goodrich tires for the back and my MPG went up 2-3 MPG. So I thought I will stick two more on the front and really increase my MPG. My MPG went down 7 MPG. I trust Toyota to select the right tires for my Prius and plan to buy 8 more OEMs from Tire Rack when the time comes. The ECP info above is excellent and if SAMS or a local discount tire dealer carried them I would definitely consider those as an option/maybe.

Thanks all for the excellent information on the ECPs.

 

That doesn't make much sense considering the GenIII Prius comes with three different brands/models of tire. The GenII came with horrible tires.

Manufacturers choose tires for specific reasons and as a one size fits all decision. I highly suggest buying replacement tires that fit your specific wants and regional needs. E.g. living in a region with a lot of rain and replacing your tires with Goodyear Integrity tires just because they were OE is a horrible idea!

 

I have a 2011 and 2012 with different tires on each and they are both excellent in the rain where I live. Hot Florida!

 

I'm not sure why you think that OEM tires are somehow better than aftermarket ones or that Toyota has any interest in helping us get a couple extra MPG. As long as we get near EPA estimates they will feel absolved. The fact is that OEM tires generally have lower tread wear ratings and often come with no warranty. I'm pretty sure that Toyota buys whatever they can get a good deal on in large quantities.

But if your experience is positive with OEM tires, that's great. I just don't see a real upside to using them.