Prius C 16" Turanza tire life and mpg

Hey all,

I have a 2012 Prius C 4 that is finally at the end of it's OEM tire life. I have 54,893 miles on the OEM Bridgestone Turanza tires. They are at 4/32" tread life and I will be replacing them in the next week. With winter approaching I think it is perfect timing to change them out. No way I am waiting to replace when they are legally wore out at 2/32". Doesn't seem safe.

I have read reviews on tire sites that rate these OEM tires horribly for tread wear and fuel economy. I do not agree with those views from other drivers. Just not sure how many of them have those tires on a Prius.

With these tires I have gotten up to 59.5 mpg for a complete tank with over 560 miles. I have been very happy with these OEM tires. I don't have large stretches of road where I can cruise and stay at a good speed to keep up the mpg. It is always in bad traffic on the freeway.

I will be replacing these tires with Yokohama Avid Ascend tires. They say they are made from orange oil and made in an environmentally friendly manufacturing plant. Who knows how friendly.

I don't expect a lot with new tires in the winter with the winter blend fuel. I will know more in the summer. Those Yokohama are less expensive than OEM and have a much higher UTQG rating than OEM. If I get 55k miles out of them I'll be happy since they cost less.

With the Prius C 4 there are far fewer options for tires so I'll take a gamble on these.

 

Hey F8L, when making my decision I had read your review of the tire from a couple years back. Overall you had liked the tire, even in the wet.

Like you mentioned, there are very few options for tires for the C4. The OEM tires would be over $100 more than these at the moment. It's hard to justify the added cost at the moment.

 

Ooooo nice to hear pilot. I would be fine with a small loss as long as they last just as long or even longer. It's at points like this that I think I should have gotten the 15" wheels to have more options for tires. It was definitely something I overlooked when I purchased the car.

I scheduled the install for tomorrow. New shoes for the car.

 

I had the tires installed today. Mechanics broke one of the tpms sensors while removing the old tire. They went and got some non Toyota sensor and had me try that. The low tire pressure light came on right away. They said drive it for a while to see if it cleared. Nope, that didn't work. Now they say they will order a Toyota sensor and call me when they are ready to install it.

On the plus side, after over 100 miles today, I'm getting 61.4 mpg. There are so many posts of people changing tires and getting lower mpg. Not here. Looks like I'll have no problem being in the mid 50's. So far so good, except for the mechanics.

 

I definitely noticed the quieter ride. I had the radio at the normal level and this time it sounded louder. I drove a while without the radio on to listen to the tires. I really like the quiet ride. A while ago I was considering getting dynamat and putting that stuff everywhere. Even the windows haha.
I don't think I need it anymore.

As for grip I didn't try taking any turns faster than normal so I didn't notice that change. It was a perfect day today though. No clouds and a high of 70F. Just cruised on the way back home. For the price these tires are good in the dry.

In the rain I will need to watch out and get a sense for when the tires will break traction.