Energy savers done and need another set of Michelins. which would you guys go with? mpg not all that important as I am getting 38.7 mpg last few tanks. These old tires I bet are part of the problem. I’m looking for a more comfortable ride and we don’t get that much rain here in SoCal. I would want the better performing tire and am ok with 40k tread life. Leaning towards premier. What do you think? sorry if wrong forum.
A "four touring", that's 15" or 17" rims? For readers 'round the world, "Socal" is Southern California, USA. Addendum: think they're 15":
I definitely found the tire life of my Premier A/S set to be "exceptional", but not in a good way—which, combined with their premium price, worked them out to be about 2.4 cents per mile in my experience. I have been running on General Altimax RT43 since then, and I have liked their driving quality just as much as I liked the Premiers. I haven't checked in on their tread depth lately to project out their longevity, but given their substantially lower price up front, I think it will be hard for them not to come out lower in cost per mile.
Of the two mentioned in title, and assuming 15": I'd vote Defenders. They give up a little mpg, but not much, and are a durable/dependable choice methinks. Think the latest iteration has suffix T+H, something like that? Too, they now say "Total Performance", instead of "Green-X", but is that anything but marketing dreck now??
we have premiers on our hycam, and energy savers on our prius. i'd rate them about the same. wear looks good after 30 or 40k, mpg's are good, both fairly quiet and smooth. i can't speak to performance as i drive like a granny
My Michelin Premiers have 60k miles and should easily make 80k miles when I have 270k miles on the car. We drive fast but not stupid when braking or cornering. Still have the original brake pads and smooth rotors. Your results may vary. If only the engine design was as good Toyota might not be looking over their shoulder at Tesla.
even with gen4 and what looks to be a better design, prius is pretty much toast in n/a. alt fuel users are more interested in bevs, the rest of the population could care less
Had Premiers on a Camry and currently have Defenders on the Prius. Premiers are a nicer tire, but I wouldn't hesitate to get Defenders again either.
there are some tire shops that will give you 30 days to try a new set of tires and switch to another new different set for free if you feel like the first new set doesn’t meet your requirements/expectations.
I always wonder what happens to those reject tires; sold as near-new? Maybe as new, if nobody's looking?
There's a thread about them over here where some other posters have talked MPG. It started with a lowball number in post 1 that got revised upward in post 4 after poster 1's wife read the original post. As far as I gather from the rest of that thread, nobody had anything bad to say about MPG with the Altimax. If you look at a bunch of my own posts, you see that I really hardly ever post about what effect item X has on my MPG, and that's kind of the lasting damage from some coursework in experiment design I had years ago, which deeply impressed upon me how very much more control I would need over my real-world driving conditions if I wanted to sanely stand behind a result. Pretty much stops me from ever joining in the "I changed X last month, now my MPG is 4.7 better" kinds of discussions. About as much as I really have the strength of data to say is "I sure haven't noticed any MPG problem with them."
Thanks for the input guys. Local prices are around $580 out the door mount and balanced. That’s a deal coming from my other cars with low profile 19 and 20”.
i have two gen3 prii. one has Goodyear comfort-tread. the other has Goodyear weather-ready. these have been nice tires, better than the michelins IMO, which didn't last that long. the two Goodyear models were bought for better traction in wet driving, and may sacrifice 1-2 MPG, but the difference is hardly noticeable. the tread-base is wider. if you live in a non-snowy, non-rainy climate (i.e., socal), might want to go with a harder (higher life) rubber tire with a thinner tread base, as you might not need all that road grip. With that MPG you mentioned, I would be inclined to think something else is wrong though. I cannot see bad tires giving ~12-13 MPG difference, unless they are almost empty and or defective in some other way.
Michelin Defender and Premier are great all-season tires, but they shine better when driving on wet roads. However, in my opinion, I recommend the Michelin Premier because of its outstanding speed and control. For example, the Michelin Premier LTX is more for comfort and driving in bad weather conditions such as rainstorms or light snow.
Premier A/S now have 91k and still legal tread. Toyota is now trying to catch up with Tesla in unibody and ev design.
