Hello Folks, I've been spending less and less time here on forums mainly because I've finished modding everything I'd like to do on my Prius. Occasionally I will comment on users posts and other times I will review a mod on my car after I find that I have enough experience with it. I would like to let others know if a product is good or not so you all won't waste your time and money! Today I wanted to write about my experience with the tires mentioned above. As you can see, I have the low profile version of the rubber to go with my 17 inch winter rims. Some may question the logic behind having low profile snow tires and at one point, I did too....But I like having the big rim look year around. After driving with them on in our mild climate, and through our first snowfall, I feel that I have enough experience to give an opinion on them. To cut the story short, they are fabulous. Quiet, with softer more comfortable riding rubber than the LRR Toyo Proxes that came with my Plus rims. The grip on dry and wet pavement is admirable but the tires seem really shine when on ice. I drove up this huge iced up hill last week and caught up to a large expensive looking Benz SUV in front of me: In fact, it feels like I have more traction and control with this car than I had with my older 4wd impreza with dedicated winter tires too! I find the cornering performance of the car incredible even with the softer tread compound. Probably the biggest wow factor is that my mileage has not changed with the tires on. The only negative thing I would say about them is that grip in slush could be better. Also, our city has not had a huge dump of snow yet so I have yet to evaluate their performance in deep snow. Other than that, it feels like Michelin designed these tires for the Hybrids in mind. I only put on about 8000Km of driving between Nov and March and I hope these will last me at least 4 years. I'd definitely buy them again in a heartbeat.
It looks like Priuschat is not letting me upload any pictures to make this post more interesting..oh well. Regarding FE. I kid you not it has not changed since putting on these tires! that is the most amazing part of it all. I'm not sure if the X-ice's are rated for LRR but they are rated Green-X. Guess it's Michelin's take on LRR?
interesting read / I have a brand new set sitting in the garage, waiting for the first real low temperatures & snow to come / BION
Going from 215/45R17 Michelin Pilot on (heavy) OEM alloys, to 165/65R15 Michelin XIce2 on steel rims, my mileage doesn't change that I can notice. Obviously a lot of variables at play, but...
Bought a set of 195-65-15s a few weeks ago. Great tires. I've driven through everything with them...we just got 15" of heavy wet snow this week. Hard to tell about mileage with the cold weather and engine running more to produce heat. They are very quiet tires. Happy with purchase from tirerack...$70 rebate on the way.
Finally can upload picts...Here's a huge icy hill and my winter setup experiences no slip. Not a lot of snow and ice where I live so winter tires will probably not last their rated 60,000km. Frozen ice and salt encrusted rims! Not an overly aggressive looking tread. However, with the windows down, you can hear them gripping 100% of the time... But fuel mileage has not changed...incredible.
