Low Rolling Resistance replacement tyres (Europe)

Thanks Tony.

John (Britprius)

 

Unfortunately Mark that is just the supply and delivered price at £76.50. Link below.
You may be able to better the fitted price of £91 locally as the fitted price is £14.50 per tyre more, and I find you can usually get the independent small tyre dealers to fit tyres for £10 each. If you buy the tyres from them you my be able to save another £5 per tyre as the £76.50 also includes the cost of delivery to your home.
As a side note the supplier appears to be part of Tesco so you get "triple club card points" if that helps.
Again I find the Hankook tyres excellent value for money, with very good performance.
The tyre we are looking at is the "Hankook Ventus Prime 2 K115" W91 XL rated.

Tyres Online | Cheap Tyres | Winter Tyres & Car Servicing UK

John (Britprius)

 

H rated tyres are rated for 130 mph so this is perfectly acceptable for the Prius top speed of 112 mph.
The Bridgestone Ecopia 001s "admittedly on a sample of 1 set" did very poorly in ware life "less than 18,000 miles".
I am running Hankook's on my gen2, and am now at over 30,000 miles looking good for 45,000 miles minimum. I would recommend these to anyone.
The Goodyears and the Dunlops rate the same, but as yet I ave no feedback on ware life. In the US people seem to like the Goodyears EP422, but they are not the same tyre that we get.

John (Britprius)

 

For UK/EU drivers with gen2 Prius doing some research I have come across some Goodyear 205/55/16 tyres that are rated (A) for economy (C) for wet grip, and a very quite noise rating of 67db, the lowest I have found. The tyre is the Goodyear EfficientGrip (not the performance version). The tyre comes in three versions with the same name size and rating with different characteristics as follows:-

Normal version 205/55/16 EfficientGrip FP 91 V Rated C C 68db.
Variation 1 205/55/16 EfficientGrip FP FI 91 V Rated A C 67db
Variation 2 205/55/16 EfficiantGrip MOE ROF 91 V rated C B 68db

There is then the performance version of the tyre:-
EfficientGrip Performance 205/55/16 91 V rated B A 68db.

For people prepared to loose a little wet grip the variation 1 tyre looks otherwise very good. All versions are the same price at a few pence under UK £60 per tyre. This is a saving of £25 per tyre against the Bridgestone 001S rated A A 70db tyre.
I will update the 205/55/16 list accordingly.

John (Britprius)

 

The performance tyres are very good and was about to use them at my next tyre change in abut 10,000+ miles "45,000 miles on the hankooks".
After a run on the motorway today running over a large piece of steel took out two tyres along with multiple tyres on 7 other vehicles behind me. I am now running on two skinny spares on the rear of my car until Tuesday "the end of the bank holiday"
So I will be replacing all four tyres early, and as yet cannot make up my mind between the A C 67db rated or B A 68db rated Goodyears.

John (Britprius)

 

Obviously the police were called, and I may say they were extremely helpful. They have given me a crime number if I wish to claim on my insurance, but since my tyres are 3/4 worn anyway the insurance will charge betterment, and it will not be worth the hassle.
I asked them about this "as having a friend reasonably close to loan me another spare to get me home" and they checked and stated that as long as I kept below the 50 mph speed limit of the tyre they could find no regulation preventing me from doing this.
Obviously I am now not driving around with these wheels on and am only going as far as my local tyre dealer on Tuesday when they open. The alternative to this was a number of hours waiting for a flatbed lift on the side of the M6 to a very expensive tyre dealer open on Easter Sunday, and then not having the tyres I want.

John (Britprius)

 

I can say on the 50 mile trip home admittedly at only 40 mph I had no problem getting over 75 mpg. Those skinny's are certainly LRR tyres.

John (Britprius)

 

For anyone looking for tyres in the Westmidlands LTC tyres are remarkable on prices (you can see them on line).
In the 205/55/16 sizes.
Goodyear Effigrip Perf are £263 for 4 fitted.
Bridgestone 001s are £316 for 4 fitted.
Hankook Eco Kin K425 £250 for 4 fitted.
The local National tyre are around £75 more than this but offer a find it cheaper within ten miles and they will better the price by £1 per tyre, reducing the price further.
It would be useful to other PC members if you find good tyre price deals in your area to post the details. There are many on line deals but these usually are for delivery and do not include fitting costing upwards of £10/£15 per tyre taking the shine of the deal.

John (Britprius)

 

Kumho are now offering very low RR tyres rated A B or BB at 67db depending on size "another very quiet tyre":-
Kumho Ecowing ES01 KH27 195/65/15 rated A B 67db
Kumho Ecowing ES01 KH27 205/55/16 rated B B 67db
Both at budget prices.
I cannot help feeling Michelin are dropping the ball on low RR tyres by not having an A rated low noise tyre on the market while many smaller manufactures have.
I know Michelin at one time was perceived to be king in this department not too many years ago, but since the EU labeling system was made compulsory they seem to be dropping back although they do make tyres with longevity, but generally at high cost.

John (Britprius)