Selling 2009 Prius-need to buy tires

I have always gone with Bridgestone Ecopia 422 Plus tires from Amazon with a local install at Walmart.
Keep the receipt and add it to the selling price of the car minus......$200. I would say that is fair.

 

So if you buy the tires for $600 have them installed for $120...you pay $720 for new tires to make the car safe while you own it.
Then when you sell the car...for say $8,000 add $520 to the selling price and sell it for $8,520.....and give the tire receipt to the new owner. If they are coming from a gas car. $520 bucks will be saved in fuel costs in about a year......(if they drive 15K a year) Plus they have new safe tires that offer LRR and great all weather traction. (All fuel costs are estimates.....) I will never again drie without quality tires. sliding off the road, crashing, rolling over.....spending time in a hospital recovering...missing work....home...family... Not worth the $300 more for better quality tires IMHO. I'm getting ready to put tires on my wifes Mercedes and with the sale I should get them out the door for $1,982.00 with an alignment.....AND bonus they might last 45K miles. But it is a GL550 land yacht that carries our child and friends everywhere.
Worth it. IMHO

 

Well, cheaper tires mean worse gas mileage... But I've found the majority of Prius owners aren't informed enough about high MPG tires and get taken advantage of at tire stores.

So you could either get that handled for the next owner by buying Bridgestone Ecopias Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) tires for the smartest prospective buyer, or you could simply pick the most popular tire store that will offer full service that's transferred to the new owners and buy whatever they sell that's cheapest because the not so smart prospective buyer will be more interested in a full service plan for the tires rather than price and best MPG.

 

Most 14 year old used car buyers could care less about the tires as long as they have good tread and it’s unlikely they would knowingly pay more.

 

Buy the Yokos.

That is a reasonable deal for a solid middle of the road tire.

And I agree totally with RJPARKER.

If continue to look....try to get a price on General RT43...or the RT43 was being replaced by another RT something or other...both are great tires and usually reasonable

 

I vote for the Avid and Rj. That is a smoking deal in today's market for a decent quality "name" tire.

 

Depends what General tire you had.

I have had mediocre from Bridgestone and decent from Bridgestone...never excellent, but we can always hope

 

Just go to Walmart, get the Dextero DTR1 Touring model tire size 185/65/15 and be out the door for about $250-275, 4 tires, installed, balanced, lifetime rotation, blah blah blah....(assuming you don't have the touring model Prius with the 195/55/16 tires)
It's a 45k mile tire, they ride absolutely fine and they're quiet. I have them on 2 Gen 2s currently. Both getting 45+ mpg. You don't need to spend a fortune on tires.

Many inexpensive tires are lightweight/have very thin sidewalls. Spoke with tire techs about this tire. Told me it's the most stout/heaviest inexpensive tire they've ever installed. Personally, I really like them so far. Not exactly an Ecopia 422+, but that's not what everyone needs either.

My local Wally world has them at $53 each.

The Dextero DTR1 Touring 185/65R15 88T Tire features a new design for passenger and crossover vehicles. It delivers all-season performance with precise handling and control in wet and dry conditions. The Dextero tire also offers a quiet and comfortable ride. It provides advanced water and slush drainage for enhanced traction. This model has a T speed rating and a load index of 88. It comes with a black sidewall to enhance the look of your vehicle.
The Dextero Touring DTR1 is a new all-season touring tire designed for passenger and crossover vehicles. The DTR1 delivers all-season performance with precise handling and control in wet and dry, and a quiet, comfortable ride.
?
Tire installation from $12 per tire. Click here for more info.
?
Dextero DTR1 Touring 185/65R15 88T Tire:

• Treadwear Warranty: 45,000 miles

• Tire Type: Passenger - Touring

• Sidewall: Black Sidewall

• Speed Rating: T

• Load Index: 88

 

Get the cheapest tires you can that will fit from Walmart.com

 

Bridgestone ep150’s are available $50-$75 a tire

if your not planning on keeping the car they should work as rom huggers

 

Yokes are excellent tires, another brand that I like an is usually cheap is sumitomo. Kumho isn't bad either.

 

Putting any kind of new tire on is not going to pay off as the buyer isn't going to raise the price they would pay for a nice set of tires anywhere near as much as they would have cost.

If the OP is only going to keep the car a short time perhaps pick up some used tires from a junkyard or even from a tire shop? Nothing wrong with used tires (not retreads!), possibly even mounted used tires, if you can check the age and state of wear before purchasing them. Seems crazy to buy them mounted, but consider that you won't need to pay for mounting. And what about the TPMS sensors? Really going to put on a full set of new tires without replacing all the sensors?

 

Whether or not to replace the sensors would mostly depend on how much a person drives. Let's say tires last 40k miles, the owner drives 20k miles a year and the sensor batteries last 10 years. In that scenario they would only be replaced after 8 or 9 years, on the fourth or fifth set of tires. Conversely, if the owner only puts on 5K miles a year, then when the tires wear out at year 8 the sensors would also be replaced. If the owner drives even less than that, then the sensors would be replaced when the tires age out.

This is of course why the TPMS should be on the rim and not in the tire, but that ship has sailed for this model unless a person wants to install an aftermarket TPMS.

 

TPMS - If it’s not broke don’t fix it.
However if one breaks it’s smart to replace all four as their batteries have been wildly spinning for the same number of years. But don’t spend more per sensor than Walmart charges for a tire.