Hello fellow PIP owners, The end of my lease for my Scion FR-S was up in July, so we started looking for a new vehicle and found a lovely 2012 Prius Plug In Base. Although I was very sad to turn in my Scion, I decided that this was definitely the better purchase option. However, this vehicle was sold with winter tires on the 15" rims. Great! I have a set of winter tires. In my garage, I also have a brand new set of 17" Scion wheels and brand new Michelin Primacy HP tires 215/45 R17 that I purchased at the start of my lease. A great summer option! I've done some research, I know I'll take a hit on MPG, I'm okay with that. What I'd like to know is what are your experiences with 17" wheels and Michelin HP's, if any? Just to be clear, what I am look for is Safety factors, Road Noise, Ride Comfort...
Nice PiP! Pretty car. I get up there once in a while my relatives have a place on Seneca lake. Maybe you do the Grand Prix. Welcome!
Maybe just get some new 15" all seasons tires? Those 15" rims are nice, wouldn't mind having a set. I wonder what the history is on the car? Maybe someone doing snow tires on the cheap: no extra rims, just swapping between all seasons and snow with one set of rims?? Our Canadian Touring has the OEM 17" rims (per US 5 model) and Michelin Pilot in 215/45R17. I sometimes toy with getting 15" LRR all seasons, on rims something like what you've got: a nicely finished, kosher Toyota 15" rim. I've hear the models with OEM 17" have some mods to the steering, to better accommodate the 17" size, but not sure. I've heard it's ok going from 17" to 15", but the other way around is a bit risky. Though lots do it.
I like the 15's as well. My thought was to keep them with the tires for winter use. As far as the history? It belonged to the daughter in law of the dealership's owner. Its clean, very low miles, and at a great price, though they never mentioned that the car had winter tires. What sort of mods to the steering? I didn't see much on this, just recalibration topics. I am considering just purchasing 15's.
Well the one tangible difference in the stats is the turning radius. Models that come with the OEM 17" have a slightly larger turning radius. But there's also strong rumour that there's more to it than that, that the steering is beefed up a bit, mechanically different.
17900 miles! So I called the dealership and told them that I had winter tires on the car. They did not realize it, and said that they had the All Season back in the shop. The car came with 2 sets of tires. How cool is that!
