Help me pick a new tire.

Check out the Continental True Contact.

 

Michelin Energy Saver A/S, Defender XT, or Premier A/S? Need 185/65/15, highway/city, California, sometimes mountains. I'm very confused

 

You buy tires based on your need (climate & driving style). Since you are in California, and occasionally go to the mountains to ski/snowboard, you just need a good all season tire; always bring snow chains/cables with you when you go to ski/snowboard. You don't need true winter tires, as these are meant for people who live in areas where they get a lot of snow. If you are hell on wheels/"Fast & Furious," you need to get a high performance tire.

Michelin Premier A/S is a "luxury performance touring" tire; 60K mile warranty. Think the larger more expensive sedans. This tire will probably have better performance (traction-dry&wet, braking, heat dissipation ability, less noise) than the Defender XT. There is nothing wrong with the Defender XT either. H Speed rating=130MPH

Michelin Defender XT is a standard passenger car tire; 90K mile warranty. Think normal cars: Accord, Camry, CIvic, Fusion, Focus. Once can always "upgrade" to the Premier A/S tire if they want. T speed rating=118MPH

Michelin Energy Saver A/S (60K mile warranty) T speed rating=118MPH, and Bridgestone Ecopia (70K mile warranty) H speed rating=130MPH, can be considered to be in the same class: Energy Efficient/Low Rolling Resistance.

Premier) $520-$70cpn=$450+tax; 70K mile warranty
Defender XT) $443-$70cpn=$373+tax; 90K mile warranty
Energy Saver) $480-$70cpn=$410+tax; 60K mile warranty
Ecopia) $326+tax; 70K mile warranty; ask Costco Tire center if the $70 off set of 4 Bridgestone applies to Ecopias too, when that promotion comes around.

If you want to maximize MPG, get Energy Saver or Ecopia.
If you the "best" performance, get the Premier.
If you want "budget" performance, get the Defender.

Some people are religious about tires. Some will probably disagree with my simplification above. So take everything with a grain of salt.

To maximize tire life:
*have your car aligned after tires are installed(front wheel alignment only, as the Prius rears are not adjustable unless a shim is installed)
*tires rotated regularly
*tire pressure increased (factory 35(front)/33(rear) PSI is too low; many here go 40/38 or 42/40)
*check and adjust tire pressure with some regularity

 

Thank you very much for your answer. I like Ecopia, but today at Costco the rep told that they have tendency to wear faster on sides than Michelin. They have the new Ecopia version, but for now they don't know yet how it'll perform. With $70 off at Costco now, I figured I can buy Michelin for the price of Ecopia. In one of the threads here I read that some people put 195/65/15 instead of 185. I guess it creates better traction? Should I consider?
Sorry, I'm not a blond, but sure sound like one I just tried to read and do some research, and got confused.

 

The Ecopia wear may possibly be accelerated by owners sticking to 35/32 PSI and/or a poorly aligned car. Costco unfortunately follows the manufactures tire recommendation, so that doesn't help. You will have to increase the air pressure yourself after they mount the tires; easy enough to do. You should invest in a good digital tire pressure gauge; prices run the gamut. $10s-$20 is a good price range.

When deviating from the original manufacture tire size (185/65R15), speedometer error is introduced. General rule is to stay w/in 3% of the diameter of the original tire, to avoid brake failure, significant speedometer errors, etc. However, brakes can be upgraded, and speedometers might be able to be corrected (or the driver just has to remember the amount the speedometer is off). Also, one has to be certain nothing will rub with the "larger" tire; highly unlikely any of these three plus sizes would cause rubbing.
195/60R15 would give you a +1.06% speedometer error read vs original size of 185/65R15.
195/65R15 would give you a +2.09% speedometer error read.
205/55R15 would give you a +2.41% speedometer error read vs original size of 185/65R15.

If you were to go a larger size, 195/60R15 would be better as the speedometer error is +1.06%.
195/65R15 gives you a +2.09% speedometer error; but this tire is likely to be cheaper of the three plus sizes above; it may even be cheaper than 185/65R15.

The first set of numbers measures the tires width in millimeters. Original is 185mm. Will you see an improvement with 195mm (+10mm) or 205mm (+20mm)? I doubt +10mm will be meaningful, nor will you likely feel/notice any improvement in traction/handling. A +20mm increase will probably be noticeable.

Don't know if Costco will allow going a plus size.

EDIT:
Consider getting a lifetime alignment for your car, esp if you plan to keep it for a long time; or any car for that matter. I got one from Firestone Tire ($120), back in 2010. I just drop the car off once a year for an alignment check/adjustment; it has always gone out of alignment w/in a year. They loose money w/ me, as I have been doing my own suspension work. You break even after the first 1.5 alignments.

 

205/60r15 will make your speedometer more accurate than the 185. most cars, the speedo reads faster than your actually going; when I had 205/60r15, when I would pass one of those speeding signs that tells you how fast your going, it would be the same as my speedo or at most 1 mph lower. with the 185/65r15 integrity junk tires, its off by 2 or 3 mph.
and you most definitely get better traction with 205s. that won't matter much if you drive slowly, but I drive kinda hard.