New Tires for 2006 prius

[Deleted - duplicate.]

 

Last summer, I was starting to plan my tire replacement to occur sometime before winter. I was leaning toward one of the Continentals. Can't remember off hand which model, but it was one that Consumer Reports had graded fairly low (ie, good) in rolling resistance. Like you, fuel mileage was one of my top priorities. IIRC, it was middle of the pack in terms of other attributes: ride, handling, noise, expected tread life, etc. It was considerably less expensive than many of the others.

Unfortunately I couldn't follow up on those plans. I awoke to a unrepairable flat one Saturday morning in June. Though all tires had a little tread life left in them, it wasn't enough to justify buying just one new tire. Of the tire dealers that were even open on Saturday, most said they could get the Continentals, but it would take a week or more. I couldn't be running with the space saver spare that long, so my hand was forced. I ended up with Michelin Hydroedges and an estimated 5-10% MPG hit.

 

my michelin harmony's have an 85K warranty & wear very evenly. they get me just over 50mpg in the summer, I don't use any hypermilling techniques.

i just checked discounttire.com and all the 185/65-15 michelins are over $105/tire. They may be the best but they may not be the best tire for the money.

their cheapest tire was actually pirelli p3000 which was $71/tire and also carried a 85K warranty, this may be the best tire for the money.

i googled pirelli p3000 and went to the epinions page & the first 15 customer reviews basically had no complaints from any customers, they all loved the pirelli p3000, so put them at the top of your shopping list.

 

I'm considering the Harmonies; how are they in the snow? the rain? how quiet/noisy? Thanks

 

My original Goodyears have just passed 51,000 miles, and have at least 5-10,000 left. The horizontal tread sipes near the edges look worn from cornering, but overall thay have held up well. I run about 40/38 TP and have never had it aligned. Most of my driving is freeway commuting, 90+ miles a day, but I think the OEMs have held up pretty well. Can't justify getting new ones yet. They have never seen snow, and not much rain. I get over 50 mpgs without even trying. It may not work for your driving, but the OEMs have been fine for me, as for tread life. I don't notice them being any noiser than other tires I've had.

 

Yeah, you're bound to get different answers for something like this. I think we're mostly agreed that the stock Integrities really aren't very good, but there are differing opinions. I've relied on both TireRack and Consumer Reports for information, and the highest rated all-season passenger tires seem to be the TripleTred and the HydroEdge. If you've got specific desires, then you can use the ratings to pick the tires that are best for where you live and what your priorities are.

 

Like they say, "your mileage may vary". We also have two Subarus, the 96 Outback is on its second set of Michleins (from Costco), and has over 113,000, and the tires still look good. I changed the originals at 40K, they had tread, but one had 3 nails (!), and were getting cracked from the smog. My '00 Impreza is on its second set at 87,000 miles (now has BFG G-force Sport), and I do the occasional auto-cross with it. It may be the location. 99% of the Prius and Impreza driving is freeway, 99% city for the Outback, though we have done some dirt/gravel "off-raoding" with it. Good luck in your choice. Let us know what you decide to buy. I'm thinking Michelein Exalto AS for mine whenever that is.

 

Last August the crappy stock integrity tires were very thin on the edges and we were headed on a 5K road trip. Bought the Pirelli 3000 tires as the reviews showed them to be the same size and weight as the Integrity. Pirelli said their tires has low rolling resistance. Our trip and about 1000 miles after we weren't thrilled about the tires. Sure they were quiet, handled like a dream, and we didn't experience the body roll of the Integrities, but our mileage took a 10% hit. After a rotation and complaint to the tire supplier about our mileage reduction we started seeing a return to better mileage. We now are seeing no difference in pre-Pirelli mileage versus post-Pirelli mileage. We routinely get 50-55 mpg with no attempts at hypermiling. The Pirelli's have a 35 psi label on the sidewall, we keep ours at 45 psi. The tire supplier told us the Pirelli's had an 85K warrenty and were hard tires, that they would take a longer time to break-in as the Prius is such a light weight car. Obviously, 5K isn't enough time for the break-in but now at over 8K we have reached that threshold.

 

I got about 49,000 miles out of my stock Goodyears, with no real complaints. I replaced them with Micheln HydroEdge, but I bumped the size up to 195/65/15. I've got 13,000 miles on the Michelns, and no complaints at all...except the hit in mileage.

Over the last 8,000 miles (I'm disallowing the first 4,000 miles, for break-in), my calculated mpg has been 45.36. Disallowing the first 4k miles on the Goodyears, my calculated mpg for the next 8k miles was 48.44, which is 6.78% better.
There are a couple of "mitigating factors" to consider. When driving the stock tires, I drove 70 miles daily to/from work--all highway. With the Michelns and a job change, I drive 30 miles round trip. Also, the Goodyears were driven in the summer months, but the Michelns were driven during the fall and winter months. Finally, the Michelns are rated at 842 revolutions per mile, while the GY are 855 rev. per mile, for 1.154% improved mileage that is not acknowledged by the speedometer.
Bottom line is that I feel I've taken a 5% hit, more or less on mileage, but I'm very pleased with the Michelns anyway. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably stick with Goodyears, but get a larger size.

 

I actually have had a similar experience with the OEMs. I just passed 67,000 miles and have had no problems with them. I run 42/40 psi throughout the year...and it's done numerous trips to Vegas, the Bay area, and once to Seattle. I'm also in the Los Angeles area...when I first bought the car, I did mostly freeway driving with a roundtrip commute of about 85 miles (I moved closer to work about 4 months ago, so now I only commute about 7 miles one way)

During my last trip to the dealer (about 2k miles ago) they said I'm due in about 5-10k. So now it's time to get new ones, I'm contemplating between purchasing Integrities, Comfortred, or Michelin Destiny (Harmony).

 

WHAT TIRES ARE YOU USING? thanks!

 

We bought some Bridgstone Ecopias and noticed a 2-4 mpg increase after about 1000 miles.
Will be buying again next year after 50,000 miles.

 

Can I know the advantage of upgrading from 185/65/R15 to 195/65/R15 please. Can I upgrade just the rear tires to 195 keeping the front tire 185