I'm looking to get one of the fuel saving all-season tires. Does anyone have a lead on good sales going on right now? '06 Prius 195 or 185\65R15.
fuel-saving tires are a misnomer. As far as I know,,,,and I could be wrong. There is NO official certification that "guarantees" fuel savings. On this board it seems that most have swooned over the Fat Man tires and you dare not mention that any others are worthy -- although sometimes Conti's get the nod. This despite the fact that General Altimax RT43 are top-rated by Consumers Report and totally match the MPG I have gotten from several different "fuel-saving tires over the years." And they have impressive snow and ice traction == and the price ain't bad. So, you will probably see the same praises of chubby boy tires here -- but on the other hand this is a question that seems to get asked every three weeks and people tend to be tired of answering it. Myself, I am sitting in a waiting room and have nothing else to do for the next 20 minutes.... As for sales, you can hit up the usual suspects -- tire rack, discount, costco and walmart. There are not that many national chains and also check out the rebates sections. "fuel saving" ha.
Call Tire Rack and talk to a sales person and get their input. They are usually knowledgable on their products. As noted above, anybody can claim "Green This" and "Environmental that" on their tires, but they never present actual data like rolling resistance or a standardized coast-down test, so it's marketing fluff for the most part. Also, look at the reviews on Tire Rack for people driving the same car as you and see what they have to say about the offerings.
I have Milestar MS932 Sport tires for $42 apiece, 540UTQG, and apparently no reduction in mileage from Michelin Defenders. Yokohama Avid Ascend 800UTQG look pretty good too, though.
If you have a few tires in mind go to Ebay or anywhere online and find the cheapest price listed. America's Tire will match the lowest price found. That is how I got my Hankooks for $300 installed I still get 48-50ish mpg. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Contrary to what people say above... The Michellin and ecopia LRR (Low Rolling Resistance) tires are more expensive, but will pay for the extra cost via fuel savings, especially if you keep tire pressure up in the mid-40's. As for a good deal, I got an amazing price on Ecopias on Black Friday at simple tires a year before last. Best part is I found a local shop to mount&balance tires for $20 each, so I could take my time and make sure I got as much mileage as possible out of every tire before it was swapped out. So many people spend a way too much money buying at a local shop and having a local shop swap all four tires at once, even if there's still lots of mileage left on some of the tread. That's incredibly wasteful.... I spent over a year swapping out tires. So I not only saved when buying them, not only saved when installing them, but I also saved on delaying as long as possible before I started using them.
Is there test data to support this? I find that if they are rotated regularly, they all wear at the same rate and generally are due for replacement at the same time.
Simple tire just had fantastic deal 30% off on Ecopia 422 (not plus) for ~$50 each for memorial day sale event. But the sale is over now. They still have the tires but they are up to $75. I would think next sales event would be around 4th July? If you watch out for the sale locally you often find buy 3 get 1 free (25% off). Currently Good year seem to have the best rebate program going on if you are willing to sign up for their credit card. Up to $200 rebate on some model. I will be needing a new set of tires to replace my OEM, but I can wait till next spring, so plenty of time to strike a great deal.
I cast my vote for simple tire also. I needed 1 tire for a road hazard replacement and they had a great price and free fast shipping.
I buy all my vehicle tires at WALMART, Free balancing and tire rotation whenever needed & you can have it done at any WALMART in the country.
Used tire shops typically have around 30 tires in Prius size. 25% of them are junk. The other 65% are good enough for a year or 1.5 years. And the remaining 10% (well maybe less chance than that) they are in excellent similar-to-new condition and worth getting. When they are name brand and really good tread they'll charge around $150. Although the one shop by me is more expensive they charged me $225 for a set of Michellin Defenders @ about 85% tread maybe better. Or if you want to spend more than $150-$200 costco usually has Michelin/Bridgestone @ around $450 and you can just screenshot the price and bring to any franchise tire shop and they will match it.
Continental is having a $70 rebate for the month of June. I just got a set of Continental True Contact Tour.