I needed new tires 6 months ago. I had been using Continental Pure Contact SL with Eco Plus but the family complained that the car was too noisy. I drive 30,000 miles a year and 80-90% on the highway. My mileage was 50 mpg - seemed great to me. I have a 2010 Prius Gen 2. I installed Michelin Premier A/S. I noticed that I was filling up significantly sooner. I did the math and found that now I was getting 43 MPG. The car was quieter and the tires were better when wet but a 14 % mileage hit is too much for me. I will get the next tires based on returning to the 50 MPG range. Are there high mileage tires out there that are also quiet and have good traction?
Not sure. Consider the Bridestone Ecopia EP20, and maybe EP422 Plus? I'm really not sure if they'd meet your "quiet and good traction" criteria, but they're ok. The EP20 I do have experience with, they're good for mpg, but also good for getting noisy when worn. They're readily available around here, and fairly cheap. They're terrible in any amount of snow once down to about 5/32" remaining tread depth though. I guess bottom line, it's pretty tough to get everything in a tire. Disheartening, your report on the Michelin Premier, they're on my short list, I'm needing 215/45R17 size, sometime not too far down the road.
Welcome to PriusChat! I had 60% worn Michelin Energy-Saver tyres on my 2009 Gen II when I bought it used in 2014, I found them to be terrible in the snow (here in North East USA) and so I bought a set of Bridgestone Blizzaks, put them on a set of steel rims, and those are my winter tires. At the end of last spring, I didn't want to run the snow tyres in the warm weather, so I put the OEM wheels (with Michelins) back on, but knew that I'd have to get new tyres before the inspection (June) so I started looking and asking around. I went to the local TireRack and told them I was looking for economy and quiet ride (the Michelins were getting to be v. noisy - far more noisy than the Blizzaks) and the guy at TireRack suggested a set of Antares Ingens A1 (…nope, I'd never heard of them either!), but a set, balanced, aligned, fitted, warranteed (50,000 mile), plus road-hazard insurance, plus free seasonal changing for as long as I own the car, cost about a half of what the Michelins A/S would have set me back, and he reminded me that I wouldn't need all-season tyres since I had the Blizzaks for the winter. The Antares tyres have been on the car since the end of May, I run them at 49F/47R and they're very quiet, and over the last couple of tanks-full I'm getting ~50mpg. The Michelins are nice, efficient, long-lasting, well-performing tyres, but their let down is that the tread tends to out-live the walls, and I noticed on my old set which had been on the car ~40,000 miles, the walls had started developing fine cracks.
No way 7mpg difference! I went from 17 to 16 wheels and tires the A/S quiter,smoother, better wet and dry traction and 1/2 to 1 mpg improvement. I have 20 inch contract eco on my truck they are very noisy when cold, also pull to left until warm up, 1/4 to 1/2 mpg gain, good snow and wet traction, long tread life so far. So I put a set on our jetta hybrid same results, when my c7 need tires and if they are available A/S will go on!
If you look on Michelin's website, on a scale of 10: Energy Saver A/S are 10, Premier A/S are 9, Defender are 8 and Pilot mxm4 (which we have btw) are 7. Which says to me maybe give the Premiers more of a try?
I can say that I had both the Energy Savers and Premieres on my 05 - first the Energy Savers which I loved, but they wore quickly. But even brand new, the Premieres lost not one MPG compared to the old Energy Savers. I was impressed! No experience with True Contacts but the reviews look positive.
Good to hear. And yet: this is strangely divergent from the initial poster's experience. Make you wonder if Michelin doesn't have good control over their manufacturing variables??
When I bought my 2008 Prius the dealer had original Michelin tires on it and the wear was terrible not to metion too soft of a tire, So I bought new Premier tires that are required by Toyota and for Hybrids, and do give you best economy and traction on the road in all weather conditions plus 80,000 mile warranty. I have had tires for 2 years now and they are still performing great! Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Note that going from a worn tire to a new tire will always result in a drop in mpg (and you'll see another drop when you rotate the tires). The worn tire will be smoother and will have less rolling resistance than a new tire that has grip and thus higher rolling resistance. I'd say let the tires wear in a bit. You may still lose mpg but I don't think it'll be as large as it is now.
