Tires size possible deal breaker on 2023 Prius?

Why are you still not considering upgrading to the Prius Prime, especially with the Canadian incentives? You don't have to worry about a spare time with the Prius Prime because there is no place to put one to begin with.

 

We just passed 98k kms on our ‘10, still a spring chicken. could have used the proximity sensors this morning though…

I won’t consider a car that doesn’t come with a spare.

 

What happened this morning?

 

Why don’t you just mount an actual full size tire? If you’re going to the trouble and expense of getting a proper rim?

I’m confused… the OEM rim is 17” diameter… but the Falken temporary mounts on a 16” rim/

 

I'm trying to understand your problem.

You've purchased a 2023 Prius LE. You've also purchased the correct 16" spare wheel and tire. You understand that the 195/60R17 and 145/90D16 are basically the same size(26.2" vs. 26.3"). However, you've measured the height of the full sized tire on the car and it only works out to be 25" and change. Because of this, you're worried the spare won't fit in the space under the floor board. Is that all correct?

Did you consider that a tire on the car is naturally going to be shorter than the "official" height because of the weight of the car compressing it? Did you take one of the full-sized 17" tires off the car completely to measure, or at least jack the car up enough to take the weight off the tire before measuring? And have you removed the white boxes out of the car and lined the center of the spare tire up with the threaded hole in the floor to see how it fits in there?

Considering Toyota sells the Prius in Japan with a 145/90D16 spare in the back straight from the factory, I think you're worrying over nothing.

 

Yeah for me its a big concern price wise - especially in Germany which as some kind of stricter regulations. As there are no normal Prius in Europe, it will be a kinda super exotic car with leven more limited accessories/third party offers.

First my idea was to actually add "real" all season tires - but I gave up on that right away. Despite snow is on the decline thanks to climate change, you dont want to be in an accident during cold temperatures without winter tires. So in worst case I might have to buy a full set of expensive dealer 17" rims with winter tires.

Im just glad now my car is not supposed to arrive anymore before next year, so hopefully we have more offers and experience until then.

 

Ugh, near miss. No contact. Resolve to never change lanes in a curve again; too much going on.

 

The OEM rim is 16" for the spare. I can't mount the actual full-size tire on the spare rim. Rim and tire are different for "regular" and "spare". Overall I spent about $200 to get the oem spare rim and Falken tire, as opposed to paying over $600 for a regular rim and tire. As, I mentioned before, even the spare doesn't seem to fit in the back and there is really no well to sit in and then put that other styrofoam back on top; you'll need to get a few other parts to make everything fit nicely.

 

I'm not worrying Hammersmith. I'm just commenting for others to read on what I see. You are right, I need to take the 17" tire off, measure again to see the difference, and put the spare in, and I think there'll be no problem. I can tell you for sure though that the spare barely fits in the trunk if you align it so the hole in the rim sits in the middle where the rim retainer (tire stud) goes. I don't plan to carry all the time though because I would have to buy the rest of the hardware in the back to fit everything nicely and it's too expensive.

 

I used 16 inch rims for a set of reasonably prices Blizzak snow tires instead of the focus on 17 inch rims and snows. I tried to buy the rims identified in this post earlier but found that they were only available from Costco in Canada. I went to Discount tire in the US and bought 16X7 inch alloy rims and then I was able to get Blizzak winter tires (16 R65/205 about 120 $ each) which have been good historically for me. To complete this conversion I needed different lugs, another set of TPMS monitors ( which I got from Tire Rack for $42 apiece. This gives me a a "spare" tire if I need on a long trip and reasonably priced snows for our climate. I am even thinking about selling the 19 inch rims and tires and just getting another set of 16 inch rims and tires for summer. The installers at Discount Tire did a great job of checking for brake caliper interference and also for mounted tire interference on full lock turning. I feel that the 16 inch solution keeps the same diameter overall and is the most cost effective solution for the 19 inch rim issue.

 

Had I been able to get a 17" winter tire, to mimic the SE setup, I would likely have bought 17" rims, appropriate tires, and gone that way. But because I couldn't, and the 16" Costco rims basically fell into my lap, I went with them and the 205/65/16s.

16" winter wheels and tires? that's understandable.

But the all seasons?

Some of it might have been for looks, but I can't help thinking Toyota put effort and thought into their wheel and tire setup, and I wouldn't presume to know better.

I don't know that I'd go so far as to change the all season rims and tires; at some point you might want to sell this car, and I think it would raise questions in the mind of a would- be purchaser.

 

Here's two:

 

There will be tires available. Pirelli is making a winter tire in 195/60/17- at least costco says so- and someone's posted here that michelin is also.

Hopefully Michelin will offer its Cross Climate in appropriate sizes; I don't THINK Nokian or the other brands are offering an all weather tire in appropriate sizes, but I may be wrong.

 

Definitely give it a lot of thought. We bought a 2023 Prius Limited in September 2023 and had to wait 5 months for a second key fob. We really like the car but we would not buy it again. I did not realize that we did not have a “donut” spare tire. We were fortunate in that at Christmas we went in. 2000 mile trip with no problems. This week my wife was coming home from an event and picked up something close to home that ruined the tire. She did get home and in the garage where it sits on Jack stands waiting for a new tire. What a sad thing for Motor Trends car of the year. If this would have happed 600 miles from home the car would still be there and I would have had to rent a car to get home. The dealer calls this “car down”. Even an all electric car could be towed to a charging station. Not with the new Prius. This car will be used locally only when we get a new tire. We are ordering 2 new tires and saving the good one as a spare and will keep it in our garage.

 

I just took my 2023 Prius Prime XSE to the Milpitas Toyota in Milpitas bay area. Apparently they found two blebs on back tires. They had no tired in stock all back order. They told me they had no time frame could be a few months could be longer. All tire companies across the US had no stock. No american tire, no cosco, nothing. Then Sunnyvale said they have 2 at $350 a piece but they wont even order them unless I drop my car off for 4 days because the warehouse wont release them. Finally a toyota tire rep at Fremont got 2 and said come in tomorrow. Translated for all…. Toyota wanted to make a specific tire for mpg and other unknown reasons that ONLY fits 2023 and newer. Car dealerships are capitalizing on this to trick you into trading your car and losing money. The fact one dealer wanted to hold my car for days was suspect citing the stock is so low they will only release it to those that cant drive. Toyota messed up immensely with this. And like low stock markups during covid dealers are yet again capitalizing on what looks like either poor supply chain management or purposeful scarcity of a tire. Note to all potential buyers, dont buy this car. This car could technically solve the pollution and rising fuel cost crisis as it gets many mpg but greed and corruption are ruining this brand. Why toyota did this to us is appalling. The dealer experience is even more abhorrent. Called a lawyer she said run from this car its just a taste of the future. Why toyota would want to ruin their prius name and toyotas name for that matter is confusing. They should be mass producing these. They get good mpg and lower pollution at the same time. I have a feeling competition is preventing stock because they cant compete mpg wise and toyota messed up big time.

 

TireRack has both Michelin Primacy A/S and Michelin X-Ice Snow in stock in the 195/50R19.

 

Have you considered a different tire size? This can be a helpful tool: Tire Size Comparison

 

Do you, or anyone, have an opinion on how the Michelin X-Ice Snow would work as a year round tire? In New England. Any better tire that is actually available in this size? Thanks.

 

They would wear more quickly in warmer weather. But if you don't drive all that much, there wouldn't be any issues. I have them on my mother's car year round because she only drives 4,500 miles per year. She has a set on there now that's she's been driving on for the last four years. The tires were from a 2017 VW Passat I had. This upcoming winter, I'll change them out for the set I used this past winter on my Prime. I decided to go with the CrossClimate2 year round.