Ecopia 422 Plus US and Japan variants....differences?

Thanks for bring this up. Bridgestone seems to be bleeding credibility on this. For a year or two? Someone here even managed to get two of each when doing tire replacement.

Maybe an email to Bridgestone? (Said with little conviction...)

 

When something's that befuddling, I tend to throw up my hands, say: see what Michelin's offering. Listening Bridgestone...? I thought not.

 

energy savers $110.

 

yeah, i haven't driven them in winter yet. will be interesting compared to the oem's, which i never had a problem with.

 

Kinda strange, considering the elephant in the room: they don't even look the same, ie: the different tread configuration. For me, an uneducated consumer, that spooks me. Seems like piss-poor marketing, to have a glaring anomaly.

I appreciate this is TireRack talking.

 

I do not know. The typical consumer wants reassurance, not confusion. This variation necessitates research and extra knowledge, personally I was very interested in the tire (215/45R17 size), but now not so much.

Bridgestone is not alone: our OEM Michelin Pilot HX mxm4 have the GreenX logo, but the aftermarket variant apparently does not.

 

Tire Rack does offer a bigger selection. The local chain where I buy my tires (Hibdon) only carries the higher speed rating.

 

Just bought the Ecopia 422 Plus from Costco. I have a 2011 Gen III, replaced the OEM tires at 20,000 miles with Michellin Defenders. The Defenders lasted 70,000 for me. I do just under 15,000 miles per year.

After reading through all the threads concerning tires, here are my observations.

The Defenders were great in the rain, and lasted a long time. I did not overinflate my tires and kept them at factory levels. I think I will put them near 40 now that I've read through all the threads. Maybe it would have lasted closer to 90,000 if I did. The Defenders seemed to be not as smooth on the road and they seemed to have some drag that I noticed right away compared to the OEM tires, but I still averaged a little over 50 mpg here in Los Angeles.

After replacing them with the Ecopia 422 Plus, I have noticed a smoother ride and the Prius seems to have regained the "glide" it used to have before I got the Defenders. The noise seems to be the same with both tires. I just got them, so I can't say my mpg has improved yet.

As far as the tread patterns, during my research, I recall seeing the US made tires as being the standard set. The Mexico made tire, I saw a notation on a website, don't remember which, that said, "Volkswagon." So maybe they made a special version for VW with the extra tread blocks.

The Japan made tires are the ones rated at a higher speed.

I bought the Ecopia 422 Plus from Costco with the $70 off a set of 4 tires and 1 cent installation fee for a total of $380.

Side note, I also did the 25 AGM Battery swap and it seems to have a positive impact on my mpg of 2-3 mpg extra.

 

Update: For a couple of months, I over-inflated my Ecopia 422 tires to 40 psi. The ride was slightly harsher, and it did not help, but hurt my mpg by 1-3 mpg, IMO. I went back to factory levels and am satisfied to keep it that way.

 

I can't imagine it would hurt mpg, could be some other factors. Still: I think raising pressures over spec influence on mpg is a bit oversold. I compromise: raise them, but just 2~3 psi.

 

I have to agree here. I think that setting the tires at what the car calls for is the correct thing to do. The tire may go on many different vehicles, and the max pressure and load ratings are required information. I can see going up just a few pounds if you are loaded very heavy as higher pressure will carry a higher load capacity. I don't think that you're going to "hurt" anything as long as you don't overinflate to the point that the tires wear unevenly. As long as you run them so they wear even across the tread I feel like you're probably safe. I do think that setting them to high will sacrifice ride quality and possibly emergency handling and braking. I'm still new to the Prius so this is combined experience from everything I've owned and worked around. I've been selling and installing tires, and doing vehicle maintenance for 30 plus years.

I put the Ecopia tires on my other cars, and they have been the smoothest quietest tires I've run. In fact, most of them did not require any weights when they were balanced. I think the normal choice before them was the Affinty touring, which wasn't bad, but the Ecopia 422 was way better. They also netted me a couple MPG's. There is a new Champion Fuel fighter available now, but I'm not sure how it stacks up against the Ecopia. It's a Firestone, the Ecopia is a Bridgestone. Bridgestone is the premium.....

 

OK. The one that says Toyota, is probably the OE spec tire for the standard car. The GT model is probably what came on the touring package version of the car. Speed rating is a measure of max operational speed under full load. As the touring model generally weighs more and is expected to do more highway driving at higher driving speeds, the tire is built to handle the excess weight and stress. I believe that this will also affect braking distance and grip.The higher speed rating will normally cost more, but if you're doing a lot of highway or high speed tire I'd pay the difference. Mind you my commute is 55 miles each way and almost entirely on the interstate. If I lived in the middle of a large city and rarely got up to higher speeds or hit the highway I probably wouldn't care. I know this is late coming in, but I'm new here.