A new Prius owner can trade up her tires!

One nugget of advice that I cannot use for myself right now I pass along to our astute readers of PriusChat:

The local Goodyear retail store informed me that a new car with less than 500 miles on it can trade up the tires. This costs 40 bucks a tire to go from the Goodyear Integrity (which is a piece of junk) to the Goodyear Comfortred (a user rated tire of high caliber and satisfaction)

In addtion to the trade up cost, you have to pay mounting and balancing and taxes on the difference but it is well worth it. The Comfortreds have 20% less transmitted vibration, a vastly smoother and quiet ride according to the user feedbacks on the sponsor link of Tire Rack.

I intend to upgrade to these tires, since I am sick of the poor performance of the bike tires that are on the car now.

 

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There are reports of the Goodyear Comfortred affecting fuel economy in a negative manner. I have spent quite a bit of time reading the user feedbacks on the sponsored link, Tire Rack. Overall, the feedbacks are that this tire, which is a high premium tire with an extra shock absorbing layer, is the utmost in quiet and noise/vibration reduction.

One apparently solid choice is the Michilen Hydaedge, another premium tire that is over 100 dollars each, sometimes avaliable with a slight discount from Costco. This tire is tops in rain, treadwear. I think I saw John1701a write that he put this tire on his Prius. Feedbacks have been positive from those who have these tires who have posted commentary about both the Comfortred and Hydraedge on PriusChat. The OEM tire is a very basic tire, poorly performing in any sort of inclement weather and poor gripping power. It has a short tread life, many reports of being worn out at 20K miles. It howls at any speed, has the road noise levels of early radials. I had it slip on me in the rear on dry pavement under acceleration getting onto a five lane road. Basically, the description of it being a "bike tire" is about right.

Oh, and the reason I am choosing this particular tire, the Comfortred? My desire is the reduction of vibration, best possible ride. Vibration is the enemy of component life, and getting the tires that will delay the onset of various noises, body rattles, etc. is desirable for me. This tire is a luxury car touring tire. The Hydraedge is a sure bet in the safety and wear catagory.

No matter the tire, there will be some people who have a negative experience, but taken in total the feedbacks are uniformily negative on the OEM tires and positive for the two cited tires.

One Khumo tire was listed with very positive feedbacks, and it is cheap.

Use the listed sponsor link on the left side of the page, follow the links to the Prius and click on manufacturer for the tires, then look at feedbacks.

Feedbacks can be filtered to Toyota's only, which helps give a more apples to apples comparison.