Prius Winter Tires - Atlantic NE

Here's what I'm using, and the X-Ice are very well behaved. Our regular tires are the Michelin Pilot 215/45R17. I recall swapping over to the snows one year, asked my wife a few days later how the snows were doing: she'd forgot they were on there, lol.

snow tire: Michelin X-Ice 195/65R15
Corolla steel rim, part no: 42611-02471 (2008+ model year?)
steel rim lug nuts: 90942-01007 (plain, open-ended, galvanized)

I didn't bother with TPMS.

 

This is my first winter with my 2014 Prius v and I'm planning on getting Michelin X-Ice XI3 tires and a new set of rims. Costco has the Michelins on sale with a $70 discount from Michelin. I'm not bothering with TPMS. Costco charges $47.00 for each of the 4 sensors.
From what I understand, the TPMS certification is only required on the OEM set of tires, not any afterwards (unless you live in a state
where TPMS is required for inspection. It's not in NH)

They have to re-program the sensors into the car. It's included with the 1st mounting, not sure what it would be the next season. I don't understand why the group that designed TPMS didn't think that a car would have more than 4 tires. Guess none of them live where there is snow.

I'm getting the rims locally for about $65 each, so in 2 years they will have paid for themselves in re-mounting fees.

 

All 4 are just over 8/32" remaining tread depth. New is 10.5/32", I believe (our are XICE2). We've had them on the car for four winters, about 5000 km's per, so 20000 kms so far. If that rate continues they'd be nearing 5/32" remaining, say somewhere between 40000~50000 km?

Our winters here are very mild. Once in a while we'll get snowed in, and get our share of cold, but we're right on the coast. The mild weather might be a factor in the wear, they wear faster in warmer temps I believe.

 

I would think that any 'all-season' tire should be fine for your location.

For you, yes, I would think so.

I have two sets of tires. Summer tires, and Firestone 'Winterforce' studded tires.

For me it is a requirement. It is simply not safe otherwise. But I am driving in Maine, so I normally expect to drive across frozen lakes/rivers.

 

While you might not get a lot of deep snow in your area (though that varies year to year), you'll get plenty of low temps and mixed ice/sleet/rain. A dedicated winter tire stays softer (and therefore more grippy) at low temps. Many "all seasons" get very hard below 40 degrees, I've had tires I thought were just fine at 60 degrees feel like skate board wheels at 40, with the lateral grip to match.

I have run Hankook iPikes (from delivery) and now Nokian Hakka's on my Prius and am very happy with them. On other cars I've owned, I've run Michelin Arctic Alpins, Cooper Weathermasters (twice), Firestone Winterforce, Gislaved, and Nokian Haka2's. Each had very minor pros and cons but honestly I didn't find much of a real difference between any of them including the Hakka's which, depnending on size and sales can cost much more than the others. The more aggressive treaded ones (winterforce and weathermaster) were louder on dry roads but better in deep snow. The smoother treaded ones (Alpins and Hakka's) were quieter on dry roads but spun more in deep snow.

These were on a variety of front wheel drive and rear wheel drive cars.

 

^ Yup. The consensus is below 7C an all season is going to fall behind the snow for bare road traction, due to rubber formulation differences; the snows stay more pliable.

 

If you're in an area that only sees snow sporadically, you want to consider the snow tire's bare road behaviour. There are some that'll have an edge in snow, but are pretty noisy/loose on bare asphalt.

 

XIce is good on bare pavement. One season: I took off our OEM's (215/45R17 Michelin Pilot), put on our 165/65R15 Michelin XIce. About a week later I asked my wife how they were doing: she said she'd not noticed there were other tires on the car, lol. Obviously the black steel rims are a tip off, but hey.

 

Another endorsement for Michelin X-Ice!
I had them for two NY winters on my 2012 Prius, they were awesome... and they're low rolling resistance tires so there's pretty much no mpg penalty vs regular all season tires. I had them on their own dedicated rims, no TPMS sensors. Got the complete set from the Tire Rack online.

I'll be putting Michelin X-Ice on my Volt this winter or maybe the new Yokohama iceGUARD iG52c which got some excellent reviews up in Canada.

 

X-Ice Xi3 Michelin ... Last year worse winter in 30 years , West Michigan , xi3 were great
In the snow and Low Rolling as well ,,, they will be back on in a couple months

 

You may be a little paranoid, but whatever floats your boat. There's no question that snows will give you better traction. On the other hand, I've been through two winters with the OEM tires and two more with the Michelin Energy Savers and haven't had any trouble, and I live in NJ. That includes the "crazy" winter last year.. Which I completely recognized as a "normal" winter from the 60's/70's. (Yep, I'm an old fart.)

Like riding a bicycle, once one has learned how to get around in really icy/snowy weather, one doesn't forget. And technique will get one through snow without snow tires better than snow tires will get one through snow without technique.

(Techniques: Running starts going uphill, and not slowing down when doing same. 4-wheel drifts going around corners as a safety feature. Knowing that the best way to stop a Prius is to jam on the brakes and let the auto-everything handle it. And coming to the realization, ahead of the situation, that glare ice means that the official, government-mandated speed limit can indeed be zero.)

KBeck

 

I too recommend the X-Ice. I had them on my 2006 Prius and I called my car my little snow machine. It just went through everything. And I used them through 4 winters. Sold the car with them on it. Then, on my 2010, I got whatever Tire Barn had in stock. An all season, and I can't complain. Only got stuck in the Indiana snow a couple of times. I now have a 2014 and I am definitely going back to the X-Ice for this winter. I don't have separate rims for them. I just have Tire Barn switch them over when the season changes.

 

Switching from our 225/45R17 Michelin Pilot to Michelin X-Ice 195/65R15, I see no appreciable change in mpg. That's definitely NOT apples/apples, but fwiw.

 

Welcome Philly! We used to live up your way, we just finally ditched our EZPass from the Delaware Brudge Authority in favor of a Va. EZPass

Serious bad news, apparently Poor Richard's Alamanac is predicting a repeat performance (bad winter). Beings Ben was from Philly, you cannot doubt that for one minute, but also strangely enough the Almanac apparently has a very good track record...so you must just accept this finding.

I go with all-seasons such as Goodyear ComforTred, but I agree winter tires have their place (but in Philly?). Seems like if you you need an all-season with serious good cold winter performance, some go with Nokian. But we don't have Nokian in DC area, which I take to mean we are too warm for that tire to be popular.

Recently here I've seen several posts by F8L (one of our tire experts as you know) saying the generic all seasons tires become less good below 40-45F (Fahrenheit please or both) 7 deg C, and so the implication is do not go with Comfortred or Defender basically the work-horse all-seasons tires which do not however provide the best MPG. But TireRack.com rates things like GY Assurance ComforTred better in snow than say high MPG tires like Ecopia 422 and Mich ES A/S. So I am not quite on board yet...but looks like the Assurance Comfortred is renamed or gone...but just saying.

I am still thinking of trying the Conti TrueContacts A/S EcoPlus but some guy put a bad rating on TireRack...he said they worked as advertized but not good at high speed due to being out-of-perfrect round shape...hence noisy.

 

Another vote for Michelin Xi3. There is no drop in gas mileage in weather above 40-60 degrees. I have taken these on a 3000 mile round trip to California last winter and they were fine in 80 temperature. I was worried about excessive wear in the heat, but did not seem to notice anything unusual when I return. 5000 miles total on them last winter. Tread depth is at 9/16. Original was 10.5/16. Should get 3 more seasons out of them (maybe 4) and will burn up the last bit of tread during the 4th or 5th summer. From now on, it is Michelin all the way for me. My next set of tires will be Michelin Energy Savers A/S.