Replacement tire recommendations for a Gen II (2007) Prius?

1. No experience here with your tires except for the Integrity. My opinion on that one is it is not the best for the Prius.

2. I would recommend you study a list that is provided here on Prius Chat that discusses tires. I think if you will take a couple of minutes and read through what F8L has posted you should have a good idea of which tires to choose from.

FWIW, the touring model's are well known to get LESS mpg than the standard Prius.

Here 's the link.

Low Rolling Resistance replacement tires: Current List | PriusChat

I myself personally recommend the Michelin Energy A/S. You will find those tires on the list also.

new energy savers!! | PriusChat

Best of luck to you.

 

^^^what Dorunron said and also check out TireRack.com where many of us order from, and you can see test results and comments from Prius users. One nice tire is the cheaper Continental ProContact EcoPlus but not so long lasting. I am thinking the A/S too.

 

On my 2008 Prius I replaced the stock Integrities with Bridgestone Ecopia EP422's and couldn't be happier. They seem to go on sale at Costco every 3 or 4 months. I got my set of 4 for just under $400 out the door.

They preform very well on the wet roads of the Pacific Northwest. If you are in a always dry environment, the EP100 might be a better choice.

I've heard good things about the Michelin Energy Savers too, but have no direct experience with them.

I put Continental tires on my old PT Cruiser which I liked, but they were not low rolling resistance.

 

1. The tire size has a wider footprint which results in greater friction.
2. The Yokohama Avid tires are not characterized as low rolling resistance.

I also have installed Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 and have found them to be an excellent choice.

 

Well, since the Touring wheels are 16", it may not be easy to obtain narrower 16" tires that will have the same circumference as the original equipment tires. If the tires have a smaller circumference, that will throw off the speedometer and odometer. Smaller tires may have insufficient load carrying capacity.

 

Tire size is a function of three variables: tread width, aspect ratio, and wheel rim size. 2G Prius has two original equipment sizes. The non-Touring size is 185/65-15 which can be interpreted as follows:

185 is the tire width in millimeters
65 is the aspect ratio which means that the sidewall height is 65% of the tire width
15 means the wheel size is 15" diameter

The Touring tire size is 195/55-16. This size was not randomly chosen. The point of that choice is that the Touring tire circumference will be pretty close to the non-Touring tire circumference.

Your challenge will be to find a tire to fit a 16" wheel which is narrower than 195 mm and has a greater aspect ratio so that the tire circumference remains unchanged.

Further, the maximum allowable load that a tire can bear is usually correlated to tire width. The greater the width, the more weight a tire of a given wheel size can bear. So your choices will be further constrained by the need to select tires which have a load rating similar to original equipment.

 

Changing tyre size on the touring to 205/55/16 (with the correct choice of tyre) can actually improve the mpg figures. "All gen2 Prius are fitted with 16 in wheels in the UK/EU". This size of tyre also gives a much greater choice of tyres, and if the same applies in the US as in Europe the wider tyre is also at least 25% cheaper.
There are other benefits to going to wider tyres, better grip, stability, and handling.

John (Britprius)

 

I find my self a bit baffled by the test results on TireRack for the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422.

They said that snow traction is wonderful, but

"What We'd Improve: Dry and wet traction"

And...

"Conclusion: An eco-friendly tire for drivers who don’t emphasize wet or dry traction"

Hmmm.....I like my tires to have both wet and dry traction and plenty of it (usually).

Any ideas here? I don't drive that much on snow (three/four days a year). But, you know, the rest of the year, it is either wet or dry.....

 

As of this writing, TireRack shows 132 respondents to its online survey.

7.8 rating for wet traction
8.1 rating for dry traction

Both ratings fit into the "Excellent" category.

If you want to improve dry traction, typically you would use a summer tire. If you want to improve wet traction you would purchase an all-season tire with a more aggressive tread which means the rolling resistance will increase.

I think the Ecopia EP422 provides an excellent blend of characteristics and have never noticed a lack of traction given the driving I do, sometimes in very heavy rain as there are two rain seasons (summer and winter) in my area.

 

My wife's car has the Michelin Energy Savers and she averages 46mpg

My car has Michelin (Non-energy savers) and I average 44mpg (but I'm also heavy footed)

 

I put the Ecopia 422 tires on my 2010 Prius two weeks ago, and they seem very noisy at 50 mph and above. I am returning to the store where I purchased them tomorrow (TiresPlus) to see if the noise is caused by the tires or something else. Has anyone else experienced excessive road noise with the Ecopia 422 tires?

Another thought: When my tires were replaced - could the mechanic have done something to cause the wheel bearings to go bad?

 

I bought the Michelin X tires from Costco, on sale; they were rated about highest, and excellent wet performance and longevity by Consumer Reports, also have a high mileage rating of 90,000. I live in Seattle, so I wanted good wet traction and resistance to hydroplaning. I got 51,000 on the original tires, still had some tread, were about at the recommendation for replacement. I have 48,000 now on the Michelins and there is still lots of tread, look about half worn. I get about 48mpg average, somewhat careful about acceleration. I get about 51 mpg on the highway if I keep it 65 mph or under. I got about 53 mpg on I-5 between Redding and Sacramento (very straight, level). This is slightly better mpg than the original tires. I fill them to 38 pounds. The wet performance is great, no more hydroplaning. I couldn't be happier. I wish the Gen II had progressive springs like the 2010 and later, but that is the performance person in me speaking. I also bought the Optimus 12v battery specially designed for the Prius when the old one quit a month ago. Got it online for $160.00. Much better quality than the original, in every way.

 

I have to change my tires every year because of how much I drive, thus I have tried a lot of different tires and I am a huge Michelin fan. In my opinion they wear the best and are worth the money. I have taken the energy saver A/S through a ND winter. They are definitely not made for that, but if you are careful it can be done. However, I only got 40k miles out of them and they started to wear uneven at the end. It's probably because the winter here is really hard on tires because I can never get the full mileage from any tire. I currently have the Defenders on and I like them a lot. I'm projecting to get about 70 - 75k out of them. I haven't driven them through a winter yet but their wet traction is exceptional. I know up in the PNW you get more ice storms and icy conditions so I would stay away from LRR unless you use a winter set. I get about 2-3 mpg less with the defenders than the energy savers. It's much more difficult to get this car over 50mpg now. Also, the prius is not that bad on snow, you just have to have the right tires on.

 

I had the ecopia 422 on mine for about 2 years, I didn't love them and I didn't hate them either. They were better then the GY Integreties by far however I got better mileage with the Integrities. I live in Ohio and I found that the ecopias were a drastic improvement with snow traction, however they were a bit slippery in light rain. I also found the ecopias to be extremely squirelly at highway speeds especially when they were new. After they were worn out this past summer I was going to go back to GY Assurance Triple Tred tires, but I couldn't pass up a deal I saw at WalMart where I got a set of Goodyear Viva 2's out the door for just over $300 and my mileage is about the same and the tire performs better in every single way compared to the Ecopia 422 except they are a bit on the noisy side. This is the 4th set of tires I've had on my Prius and my favorite set was when I had a set of GY Assurance Triple Tred. If you get the Triple Treds though you have to get 195/60/15 since they don't come in the stock size of the Prius.