Daylight to Dark difference

You may pick a few mpg's by going up on tire pressure but there is definetly a trade off from the nice ride. I have a 2014 2 and started out with 42/40 psi. It rode like my old Sears and Roebuck go kart from when I was a kid. I settled on 40/38 as a compromise and 2psi made a world of difference in comfort. You want 2psi more in the front than the rear, hence 40(front)/38(rear). You will really feel the difference when going over RR tracks at higher pressures from 32. There is no right or wrong here. You're still going to squeeze a lot out of a gallon of gas.

BTW nice car. I have the silver also and love the color.

 

Different tyres, different pressures. Why blame the Prius model ?
As for comfort, I have owned the Lexus CTh and the Prius base vagon. I'll take the vagon anyday for long trips.

 

There is no blaming the model. I test drove a 4 and settled on the 2 because it's basically the same car to me. One just has different amenities. The Prius is a a commuter car optimized for city driving. It's gets you where your going with no frills. On the highway, my Civic EX was a high dollar Mercedes compared to my Prius as far as comfort goes. I got the Prius to get me to work cheap and that's what it does. For a long highway drive I'll take my CR-V any day.

 

Shows how we are all different. I was broken after a 2 1/2 drive up north here in BC past Whistler from Vancouver driving a friend's CRV.

While taking my 2010 ATP Canadian Advanced Technology on a 7000km road trip down through California Arizona and Nevada was great. I doubt the different models of Prius have that much to do with it, mine has leather seats with electric lumbar, but otherwise manual, just that we ourselves find comfort in the different seats and relative heights in various vehicles.

Roland

 

I completely disagree. I know cars that are made CHEAP and are intended for commuting only. The Prius is anything BUT a cheap car. Designed to be "eco-friendly" (sic), but not intended to be for short trips only. There is no reason an "economy" car costing over $20K (USD) shouldn't be equally suited for highway touring or commuting to work where driver/passenger basic comfort is concerned.

 

Not only are 15" tires typically a little easier in terms of fuel economy, but they tend to be softer riding than a lower profile tire that might react to steering inputs more sharply as well as bumps along the way.

Roland

 

Agreed. Had I test driven a prius with 17" low profile tires the ride would have been a deal breaker for me. The way mine rides now with the 15's at 40/38 already almost has my teeth chattering. It was acceptable at the test drive in the low 30's. Especially at highway speeds where I seem to feel every pebble in the blacktop. I'm usually pretty exhausted from the 6 hour drive to my fathers due to that. I have to take "extended" potty breaks and stretch a bit. My old '08 corolla drives much more like a bigger car as far as comfort. I may try taking down the pressure on my next trip to see if that helps. If not, my wife will have to drive it to work while I take her CR-V. She can't stand driving it. She says it rides like her old '76 Mustang II she had when we first got married. Taking away her Honda is like putting a small child in time out. The Prius is definetly a niche car.

 

As Tideland has said, the car does ride nicer if you stick to the factory tire pressures. I agree and only tried for a tank and a half with higher pressures on the Good Year tires I recently sold... the higher pressures really made a minimal if any difference in my overall total mileage number. But, if you could not avoid a certain pothole or ridge in the pavement, the jolt was more pronounced. Not worth reducing the added effect of using the car tires as bushings for the suspension in my opinion. Those tires had very stiff sidewalls compared to my new Nokian tires, and the OEM Ecopias as well as the also sold Michelin X-Ice tires. The softer sidewall seems to soak up many of those bumps, but the low rolling resistant tires seem to permit this deflection without exacting a penalty in the fuel consumption. But despite having now returned to a tire with a more flexible sidewall when you actually pick up the tire in your hands before it gets mounted, I am staying with the factory pressures. They are very responsive, quick and light with a tread section that is solid so no need to pump up the PSI as far as I'm concerned.

Sorry that even with the 15" you are feeling all the pebbles on the road. Do try the pressure and see if it helps without hurting the gas mileage. Maybe when it is time to replace the tires look for the models that have greater comfort ratings not at the expense of fuel consumption. The car itself has a reasonably compliant good ride, but high tire pressures and the wrong tires can easily get through to you more than in some other vehicles out there.

Roland

 

<<shrug>>
Certainly the stiff foam seat and 80 psi tyres make for a ride where the road is felt, but no big deal.

Oh, wait. You folks are complaining about a car !?

 

Railway tracks can be a good test for sure.... but if you are going to bleed some of the pressure off.... try taking it down to what it says on the door jam... 40 down to 35 would be 5 pounds off at cold pressure right?
If it helps, I hope it does... maybe then bring it up a couple of PSI and see if it does any harm to the ride. I don't mean to annoy anybody who likes to keep the tires hard to boost mileage, just trying to say that the harder tires ride rougher, and myself, like the smoother ride and don't or haven't seen that much of a difference in overall consumption to make me personally take the hard road.
Where you live makes a difference too of course. Most of the roads around here use a 'nice' smooth sort of asphalt pavement but not all. Some sections use rougher concrete, and there are actually many little chiefdoms or cities that make up the Greater Vancouver District and it seems that these guys all have slight differences in their road budgets and specs. Overall, I like the quality of pavement here that produces less road noise to residents that I do south of us in Washington State. Man, WASDOT or whoever it is uses some barely crushed rocks to pave part of Interstate 5 I swear. Somewhere south of Mt. Vernon and down towards Marysville I really feel your pain... every pebble it seemed last trip down there on the GY's. Well, not quite actually, but annoying and even with the radio turned up it was a pain and hard to converse with people in the back seat with the roar of the road.

Roland