I live in So. Cal and planning on changing my tires in Nov/Dec. when the raining season comes and plan on take my '07 prius for a trip to Vail Colorado for a week. I am not sure which brand/type of tires will be the best fit for this situation...I am thinking about all season tires and not sure which one to pick...I have done a few searches in here and came up with too many suggestions that actually confused me more...I drive ~21k a year. thank you
I'm shopping around too. With that much mileage you'll want a tire with a high treadwear rating for sure. I don't drive nearly that much but because I'm a cheapskate and don't want to replace tires very often, I'm also looking for something that'll last. I'm down to these three: Michelin Primacy MXV4 620 A A $104 Goodyear Assurance TripleTred 740 A B $104 Michelin HydroEdge 800 A B $111 Despite it being the lowest treadwear rating (620) I'm leaning towards the MXV4. Good reviews everywhere I look and TireRack testing put it right at the top as well (Is Platinum the New Gold Standard in Grand Touring All-Season Tires?). Along with decent life expectancy I'm also hoping for a much quieter ride than the original tires. Hope that helps. - D
I switched to the GoodYear Assurance FuelMax tires 7000 miles ago. Since then, I have noticed a 3-5 MPG increase over the Integrities and a much quieter ride. They come at 51 PSI max and I have them at that pressure. I changed the integrities at 61,000 miles. So far the FuelMax tires show almost no wear after 7000 miles. I bought them at TireRack.com and my Toyota Dealer installed them for me. As of 30 days ago, they had a $20 rebate also.
A few of us are running the Falken ZE-912's. I like mine. Their predicessor, the ZE-512 was great in light snow and ice/slush (for an all-season). I live in Denver and need some all season capability so I can at least get home when the blizzard hits while I'm at work (hey, if I'm gonna get stuck in for a couple of days, I REALLY don't want it to be at work!). I'll find out how the 912 is in the bad stuff soon enough, I guess.
This is good to hear. I just put on a set of the FuelMax tires this week. It's way too soon to see what the mpg will do, but your report is encourging. They do seem to be quieter. The Comfort Treads would probably have been quieter, but I wanted to maintain the best mpg. My Intregrities wore out after 24K miles, and GoodYear did made good with a warranty adjustment, with about a 45% reduction in the cost of replacements. There was also a small rebate available from GY.
