Tires and the Prius

Just throwing it out there...

If anyone needs a P225/45R19 tire I'll have one up for grabs shortly.

 

Just saw this ad for a new XLE and it appears to be equipped with some type of Michelin tire..I will attempt to add the photo.

 

There were no takers, offer no longer valid, the tire has been recycled.

 

The Prius Prime isn't much different weight than my mom's 2006 Camry, I don't see tire wear being all that crazy compared.

 

If you look up the gvwr of a Tesla model 3 and divide by 4, it's 1140 lb per tire and these tires from Walmart for $65 each have a load rating of 1,400 lb each. Am I the only one doing the research and the math here to prove that these articles are nonsense written by people who with no technical knowledge? Press reference a load rating of 94. W speed rating is a top speed of 168 mph. With that load. I bet the I'm the only person here who looks into these things and actually understands this stuff.

SuperMax UHP-1 UHP 235/45ZR18 94W Passenger Tire https://www.walmart.com/ip/386519754

 

If it helps, I give you credit for understanding tire loading and safety specifications.

On the flip side, there aren't any useful specs for noise or comfort, and that is a leading criteria for tire selection on cars that never go to race tracks. Most people already take safety for granted, so they've moved on to caring about smaller stuff.

 

It's probably all a bit moot on the 45 section tire. If you want comfort you really gotta downsize. A lot of tires in our usable sizes are also rated XL which is totally unnecessary as @douglasjre pointed out. The best be would be a SL all season touring. Forget about the EV rating stuff.

 

Oh look tires that exceed Tesla model load and speed requirements for $61 each. I call fake news. Journalists appear to be people who write well but have no other job/knowledge other than writing well. And no I'm not saying this because I'm a Tesla fanboy. I don't own a Tesla, nor the stock. Just pointing out that articles are written to sell advertising. They're dramatic and unfactual, like the TV news channels

Lexani LXUHP-207 UHP 235/45ZR18 98W XL Passenger Tire https://www.walmart.com/ip/462828378

 

Are you saying you think the tires are fake? Your comment isn't very clear.

 

I had a 2009 Prius Touring Edition with 185/45 R16 tires. Not excessively low profile, but ugh! It was not the most comfortable ride at all. After suffering through 3 or 4 complete cycles of tire replacement, settled on a new size, 215/50 R 16 a slight larger tire. 2 benefits; a more comfortable ride, and the speedometer became accurate (!) It used to read 1 mile above actual. The best was the slightly more comfortable ride. I don't like the looks of low profile tires, but that's only me I suppose because of my experience with the Touring Edition.

 

Both the 17" and 19" gen 5 tires are only 195 mm width IIRC. Makes it kinda hard to up the tire height, if you want to maintain the same OD.

 

Toying with the Idea of getting a set of 18 x 8 Enkei Rims on 225/50 Bridgestone RE980AS+ and Using the OEM 19" for Winter (on either Toyo GSi-6 or Micheline X-Ice 195/50 ).

Since 225/50 R18 are a very common size (97 available at Tire Rack) where19 of them are Run Flats.

 

I got another set of wheels and tires for winter. 16's w/ 205's So much better than OEM
Now I'm going to get rid of the 19 OEM altogether and get 17's with 225/55/17

 

Do a search on YouTube “Prius vs GTI”.
Point of video is how a change from OEM 195 19” to 225 18” wheels and tires gets the Prius Handling very close to the GTI (many consider the Bench Mark for hot hatch Ride and Handling)

 

Just a note, the 215-55-17 tires I got (Vredestein) are 1% taller, 20mm wider, and improved handling and ride significantly over the 17 inch stock Toyos. They also redress the inflated speedometer/odometer miscalibration, although it's still nearly 2% high.

 

Can you actually return a new set of tires in a reason of personal preference?

 

Don't conflate speedo reading high with odometer; only the speedo is off, and that's by design:



Link to the article:

Speedometer - Wikipedia.

 

... and if the odometer is off, it must be in the other direction, reading low instead of high. Also by design, forced by class action lawsuits.

Several car makers, covering two of my past cars, where shaken down by those class action product liability lawsuits for warranty fraud, because the alleged high-reading odometers were a defect that caused the warranty to expire too early. Neither of my covered cars actually had that defect, and neither had any repairs that might have been covered even close to the 2% mileage warranty extension of the settlements.

But my new cars since, have odometers reading between 1% and 2% low, not high, at least when the OEM tires were still fresh.

 

I'm gonna need a cite here. AFAIK, the gearing/counting is shared. If the speedometer reads 63 when my gps shows 60, the odo will log an extra 3 miles traveled for every hour I drive at an indicated 63 mph. That inflates the miles displayed driven over actual miles driven by exactly the amount of error in a speedo that reads faster than actual.

 

No. If you for instance hook up a scangauge to the obd port and monitor speed, it'll show a speed that's 1~2 mph lower than what's displayed on the speedometer.

The car knows the semi-accurate speed, assuming you're using stock tire size(s). And that's the info it uses to control the odometer. The speedometer is purposely reading high, due to regulations.

As @fuzzy1 said, if the odometer reading was high (by a factor of 63/60, roughly 6%, your example), the car manufacturer would be back in court, due to owners running out of warranty because of miles, 6% too soon.

FWIW, you're not alone, this idea comes up a lot, but it's unfounded.