Tire replacement Mileage

Didn't you say that the Costco one is inferior to the regular Michelin one (or was that someone else)?

I bought the Yokohama Avid Ascend GTs. I'm generally satisfied but think I took a minor gas mileage hit. I had Dunlop Enasaves before that lasted 38K miles. I got several flats towards the end of life and decided to replace them although they still had some tread left. I thought the Dunlops were a good tire.

 

I put a set of Michelin Defenders on our 2008 Prius. It was an excellent all weather tire that lasted 75,000 miles and 6 years for us.

 

I have the Costco Defender X-Tour. Very pleased with it. I can't believe it's a lesser quality than the Defender T+H.

 

Any new tire with deep new-tire tread will have some hit to gas mileage compared to the old tires with worn tread. Tread squirm is a fact of new tires.

 

My 21XLE came with Ecopia 422 Plus (JPN) with a load rating of 91 and higher tread wear rating. According to Tirerack the other factory tires are from Toyo and “Dunflops” with a load rating of 89. Difference seems minor but probably led to my different driving experience and feel during test drives vs. the purchased car. Maybe higher chance of flat spotting on the Ecopias as most Primes in my region are on Toyo or Dunflops.

 

My 2017 is in need of new tires and I live in an area where snow traction is often needed. So performance in snow as well as overall safety quiet ride and mileage are my considerations from highest on down. I am considering one of the Michelin tires mentioned by others, likely the Defender. Has anyone tried a set of Michelin CrossClimate+? If so any comments on performance, noise, mileage hit? And... I thought I was only going to keep this car for a year or two and four years later I still look forward to driving it. Didn't see that coming.

 

Take a good look at Nokian WRg4 tires for your Prius. They are not at Tirerack (or reviewed there so you will have to find them elsewhere.

JeffD

 

Thanks so much for the information I will take a good look at them.

 

I used to do 50K miles a year as a west coast field technician and I can tell you that you will sacrifice tire longevity for grip. For pure grip, you can't beat Pirelli, went thru them in 30K - about 9 months; but what a ride through the Rockies. That was on my old Acura Integra. Too much downtime, so moved to BF Goodrich - great compromise between grip and tire longevity.

Had Altimax on my 2013 Prius C, sidewalls a bit stiffer and took a 1 - 2 MPG hit from the OEMs; also excellent tires.

Stay away from the Goodyear Assurance tires from Costco, Sams club.- they got thin sidewalls. they're covered by the club's road hazard warranty; just a real PITA since these Primes are running without a spare. I've already replaced two in less than 20K miles on my Envoy 4x4; so flat logging trails only!!!!

Look at the UTQG rating of the tire, higher the number = longer lasting and makes sure they're traction=A Temp=A tires. I believe my OEM tires are only 300. 40K mile tires are rated around 400+ for reference.

Hope this helps

 

There is no standardized test for the UTQG rating, so using it for comparing tires is really only good for ones of the same brand.

 

The original tires are low rolling resistance for a sliver better gas mileage or battery distance. They are very light. Short tread life is not a surprise. Tread life, traction, and rolling resistance are somewhat mutually exclusive. To maximize one factor one or two other factors must be reduced. Tread life also depends on driving habits, inflation pressure, speed & load carried, and even the abrasiveness of the aggregate used for road construction where you drive. The Michelin Defender is maximized for long tread life with good traction. the Michelin Premier is maximized for wet traction with good tread life. The Michelin CrossClimate is maximized for snow & wet.

For snowy driving, if one doesn't want real winter tires, the new all-weather tires with the snow certification are a good choice. The Michelin CrossClimate is one, Continental has one, so do Nokian and Goodyear. They'll be better on snow than an all season, but not as good on ice as a winter tire.

 

Thanks to all for tire insights, information and opinions. Picking tires, as others have said, is highly dependent on the priorities, location and driving style of the tire picker so not a one size fits all proposition. After reviewing information from a number of sources including Consumer Reports tire ratings (they rated the Cross climate+ quite high albeit a different size) and considering that we have snow at least 5 months a year up this way I'm going to give the Cross climate+ tires a go. My first asymmetrical tread tires ever. At $100 per tire I hope they work out. In any case at least I can collect some data and that's always fun.

 

You may be giving up some MPG with the Cross Climate +. The Nokian WRg4 is an LRR "All-Weather" tire.

JeffD

 

Yes, I wonder about how the mileage will be impacted after first 1000. What I found interesting is that the Consumer Reports tire rating included rolling resistance as tested on a dynamometer and gave the Michelin cross climate+ a better rating than the Nokian WRG4 which as noted is a low rolling resistance tire and I'd bet a good one. I don't know if this will translate well into real world driving but at least I will get some data. Yeah I'm a science guy.

 

^^^
My experience with rolling resistance is that the biggest differences between tires is in cold weather. When warm the tires are more alike than not. But all marketing aside, you simply cannot have a "winter traction" tire and LRR in the same tire. And anything rated for more than 50,000 miles tread life is also not going to deliver LRR.

 

I did a long term study with my 2004 Prius about MPG and tires.

• My 2004 Prius came with terrible tires (Goodyear Integrity - very weak sidewalls) that were rated "LRR". They averaged 45 MPG over their life (44.5k miles)
• The Michelin MXV4+ replacements were much better tires (Better traction and ride stability). They matched the GY tires in the summer, but got better MPG in the winter averaging 45.5 MPG over their 55k mile life (about a 2% improvement over the GY tires)
• I switched to Nokian WR series (3 sets) and found them to be great tires with good traction in the winter. They averaged 46 to 47 MPG over the remaining 180k miles of the Prius use (about a 4% improvement over the original GY Integrity tires)

I normalized all results for Revs/mile and tread wear (they both affect odometer calibration) and my driving habits were consistent over the 12 years of the experiment.

JeffD

 

Anecdotal tire observations after a couple thousand miles with the Michelin cross climate +. This is the fifth spring I have been driving my Prime. Spring through fall I routinely make the same 75 mile trip (55 of which are freeway), typically twice a week. Since replacing the OE tires with the Michelin cross climate plus reported mileage has not observably changed for this trip. Similarly when driving routine routes in town miles/kwh are consistent with earlier values. Therefore I cannot say that I have seen an observable drop in mileage. Perhaps Consumer Reports rolling resistance data has application in real world driving. Mileage aside these tires track much better, are quieter, handle and corner well and as such I am very pleased with them. Lliving in a climate where we have snow on the road 5 months a year along with the related wetness tires that carry the snowflake symbol seem, short of swapping for actual snow tires, a good idea although I have yet to drive cross climate tires in snow and hopefully won't until at least October.

 

Our Prime is too new for tires, but I have direct experience with the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422+, which are OEM on some Primes (other is Dunlop Enasave, which our '21 has) - the EP422s came on my 2016 VW Golf Sportwagen. That car was rated 35 mpg hwy, but has always done well with smart driving (not even close to hypermiling) and I averaged 38.55 mpg over 46k miles with those tires.
Replacements are/were Hankook Kinergy PT - I've used their predecessors on previous vehicles and find them to be a great value, and incredibly long wearing - 90k warranty. Also my VW uses the same 195/65r15 as the Prime. The tires are not marketed as LRR specifically, but supposedly use a compound to help - so you won't find them as OEM or recommended for a Prius most likely. I track each tank of gas, and my VWs mileage from 46-72k with the new tires - 38.12 mpg. So statistically the same as the OEM LRR tires, yet longer lasting, and definitely better in weather - those EP422s are pretty bad, IMO.

TL;DR - Hankook Kinergy PT are a great option and can be had for a deal if combined with Discount Tire and Manuf. rebates. I paid $280 installed in 2018.

 

I replaced my OEM Toyos at 24,803 in May, 2019. They were down to 5/32 and we were getting ready for a speing trip of 6.000+ miles that would take us through the Rockies. That didn't seem like much of a safety margin.

Installed Yokohama Avid Ascend GT. Starting tread depth was 12/32. Now, at 51,585 they are just under 9/32 tread depth. They have given great traction, especially in the wet. (And, yes, we did catch a little snow in Colorado, but not enough to cause any concern. )

 

Seems there are a lot of good options to dress a prime
in proper a-tire.