GET YOUR DEDICATED SNOW TIRES NOW !!!

Maybe they found these in the back of a warehouse somewhere. They are 2016 production. Eco focus is the only difference I can see in the specs, but it might be a typo. There is usually only one image that covers all sizes and variations of a tire, so that's not too helpful.

Less than $200 installed is a really good deal! Installation has gone up in the last few years. All the decent tire shops near me are packed all the time, so they don't have much incentive to lower prices.

I went ahead and bought the tires from Costco. I also ordered some TPMS sensors which I plan to program with cloned IDs from the factory sensors. Hopefully Costco doesn't mind installing those after I clone them, while they install the new tires.

My other car needs 5 TPMS sensors too, so between 9 sensors and a programming tool ($200), I just spent $500 on this stupid system. And $450 on the tires.

There are definitely cheaper winter tires than Michelin (that was the original purpose of this thread), but if they really last significantly longer than others it could be worth it. I still have to tally up how many miles I got out of the blizzaks, but it's pretty pathetic, and the cost per mile is high.

 

Let us know how your New Xice-Snow performs. The photo shown on TireRack site seems to have very aggressive block treads. I am not sure if they are meant to be the successor of Xice-3. At the current price, I may be interested in CrossClimate for my next set of winter tires. They are not dedicated snow tires but have mountain peak and snowflake logo. I want to try keeping it year-round. But, then again in two years, I may just swap my car just like I did with 2017 PRIME to avoid purchasing a set of tires. Yeah, it's crazy buying a brand new car cost less than buying a new set of tires.

 

Persevere, get the correct size rings? You can carefully measure the hub (on the car) and the hub opening (on the rim) with a caliper.

 

Insert "Winter is Coming" meme here...

Edit: one weather model is saying we could get up to 8 inches in Boulder on Tuesday night. Good thing I've had snow tires on (all summer)! I'll definitely go for a short drive and see how blizzaks with 4-5/32nds of tread do in snow. I'm not expecting good things.

 

The snowstorm in my last post was mostly a bust. It was mostly a mix of rain and snow, and I don't think it ever dropped below 32F. We got a few inches of snow on the trees and grass, but nothing really on the roads. I just stayed inside and waited for it to warm up. It felt like winter.

I'm getting the WS80s replaced today. It's early, but there was a good enough deal on Michelin last month. I could swap on my all seasons until the next snowstorm, but it's not really worth the time.

I have a total of 12,452 miles on the WS80s. The fronts are down to about 5/32 in the center and 6/32 at the edges. The rears are 4-5/32 in the center and 6/32 at the edges. The wear this summer seems slower than the alarmingly fast wear I had the first season they were installed. They are still annoyingly noisy and cause some hit to efficiency. I rarely spin the front wheels anymore unless I'm really trying. When they were new it was like driving on ice when the pavement was dry.

I probably could have squeezed another season out of them if I had put my all-seasons back on for the summer, but I'd rather be safe. In Colorado 6/32 is the legal minimum in the mountains in the winter, and in my experience tires quickly go from fine to really bad in the snow below around 5/32. I already had a couple concerning situations this spring, but I can't tell if it was the tires or poor road plowing due to the pandemic.

In one late spring snowstorm I was on the highway, and there was a heavy amount of slush and chewed up snow, with more falling. The car was getting pushed around more than I'm comfortable with. It felt like when you have to cross a big slush pile to change lanes, but the whole road was that way. I took the next exit and turned around.

Another day I was on a road that was plowed and looked fine after a storm, but I felt the front wheels break loose when I tried to accelerate from 40mph. There's not normally enough torque at that speed, so there was some combination of unusual ice or poor tire performance.

Edit: it looks like the $110 off Michelin deal at Costco was extended to include this month.

 

I just drove home with these Michelin X-Ice "Snow" tires. My first impression, after just 8 miles, is that they are a lot quieter than the WS80s. And they give the car boat-like handling, at least in response to small steering inputs. I know the taller tread will tend to do that, but it's pretty bad, worse than I remember with the WS80s. I'm going to let them break in gently for a while so they hopefully don't end up with the same fate as the WS80s.

 

Tip, rather than purchase Chinese alloy wheels or steel wheels of questionable quality that may require special lugnuts and socket to remove, just purchase a set of used Toyota Gen2 Prius wheels.

They will fit the car fine, accept the proper tire size, and use the same lugnuts....and look better than steel wheels. Depending on where you are Gen2 OEM 15" wheels sell for $40-$70 each. NOTE, Gen4/Prime TPMS sensors are different so your TPMS light will remain on (same as aftermarket wheels) unless you buy new sensors. (black tape over the warning light works too)

 

Last I looked on eBay, the price of used OEM wheels of any generation Prius was more like $100 each or more. Most of sellers will tuck the shipping cost on top of that, making it very uneconomical choice when I could buy "cheap" new alloy wheels and winter tires as a set with a discount, installed and shipped free. For my last purchase, the total cost of the Xice-3 on the cheap alloy wheels from the Discount Tires was less than $400. See my comment here: GET YOUR DEDICATED SNOW TIRES NOW !!! | Page 3 | PriusChat

 

Look on car-part.com, find a local recycler and go pick them up. In the Denver area they are $50 each all day long. I guess it depends where you live. I'd rather install used OE wheels than new aftermarket that require hub spacers, special fasteners etc.

 

Yeah, I agree. If I could have found used Prius OEM wheels at that low price, I would have jumped on them. No such luck here. I hate the special tuner lug nuts on my aftermarket wheels. But for the price, I can't complain.

 

Would Gen3 OEM wheels fit the Prime as well?

 

Yes, Gen2, Gen3, Gen4, & Prime 15" wheels are all interchangeable. 185 or 195 wide tires can be used on all these rims.
I recommend 15" wheels for snow tires even if your car came with 16 or 17" wheels (the tires will be cheaper and less susceptible to blowouts hitting potholes etc)

Snow tire sizes compatible with 15" Prius Wheels
185/65R15
195/65R15

Prius C and Prius V each have different bolt patterns than regular Prius so they cannot be used.

 

There was no snow in the forecast. But, here it is. The first snow accumulation of the season. Luckily, I am not driving my car for daily commute now. It still have new tires (only 2K miles since the purchase) with plenty of treads, I may forgo the snow tire this winter, unless I plan to drive it long distance with chance of snow on roads. It only takes 15min to swap the tires anyway.

 

I've used my new Michelin X-Ice "snow" tires long enough to have an initial impression. My last set were Blizzak WS80s which wore out incredibly quickly. At 36psi the EV range with the X-Ice was not great, about the same as the Blizzaks. I recently increased the pressure to around 42, and efficiency is better but still worse than the factory all seasons. I didn't like running the Blizzaks at over 40PSI, but these seem good so far at 42. They are much quieter than the Blizzaks, and dry grip seems better but I haven't pushed it. I've driven in snow once so far, and grip was good but I didn't try to find the limits.

I'm still having a problem with squirmy handling on the highway. I thought it might go away with higher pressure, but it didn't. I might suggest the proven X-Ice XI3 (it it's still available) until more people have tried the new tread pattern on the "snow" version.

 

Have you had squirmy handing with the factory all-seasons as well? If not, I would suggest a one-time "road-force" balancing of the X-Ice tires (without any more standard balancing, just rotation); I had success with "road-force" balancing with Nokian WRG3, which were squirmy on my Camry Hybrid. When I eventually replaced the Nokian with Michelin CrossClimate+ (so-called "all-weather" tires able to handle some snow/ice), I again had them "road-force" balanced based on past experience. BTW, I haven't seen any MPG loss with the CrossClimate compared to standard all-seasons on the Camry Hybrid. Planning to switch to these on my Prime as well when the time comes.

 

I don't see your car, just beautiful woods with snow and some road .

 

I've had no issues with the factory all-seasons or the old Blizzaks. The problem was immediately apparent after I got the X-Ices installed, so I doubt it's any mechanical issue with the car. I could try to ask for roadforce balance, but I guess I don't see how that would help.

 

"I hate the special tuner lug nuts on my aftermarket wheels."
Standard chrome acorn (round sealed end) lug nuts in the depth, thread, and seat you need are available many places...on line and local auto parts stores. They may require a different size hex socket.

X-Ice tires on our Prime feel the same as the regular tires, steady and straight. I'm running the inflation pressure shown on the placard on the door jam.

 

Thanks for the info, but I don't think there are any standard hex lug nuts that would fit in the holes of 5x100/114.3 dual purpose alloy wheels. The thread is 12mmx1.5 but the hole is too small to fit the standard hex nut.

 

Road Force Balancing | MotorWeek