Low Rolling Resistance replacement tires: Current List

My wife blew out my passenger side front tire hitting a pothole the other night (11,000 miles on it). The car is being checked for other damage at the dealer right now, but I didn't see or feel any problems other than the flat tire (took a while to convince her to stop the car). If I have to replace 2 anyway, I'm seriously considering replacing all 4 (I know it seems wasteful, but I suspect I'd be happier if ride and noise are improved on all 4).

Judging by a comparison of user ratings of the bestsellers at tirerack.com (also looked at ecopia and as energy saver, though those were not listed as bestsellers) it looks like the main contenders are Continental PureContact, Michelin Defender, and Bridgestone Serenity Plus, in that order. My main priorities are ride comfort, noise, hydroplaning resistance, wet traction, mileage, and handling, in that order. The PureContact weighs 18 lbs and has a 6.2" tire width. Defender weighs 19 lbs and has 7" tire width. I'm guessing the PureContact would have the best mileage. The ratings are all close (other the hydroplane and wet scores, where purecontact seems to excel), and the Defender costs a lot more.

Is the PureContact the clear choice for me?

 

When you say in your priorities "millage" are you talking tyre ware life, or mpg.

John (Britprius)

 

I meant mpgs.

Doh, I totally forgot to take treadlife into account, which explains why the Defender (6 years/90,000 miles) costs more than the PureContact (6 years/70,000 miles). The Serenity Plus is 6 years/80,000 miles. May not matter much to me since I may not reach 70,000 miles in 6 years, at my current yearly miles. I've been happy with Michelin in the past. Not sure about Continental.

 

With the Prius the rolling resistance of the tyre plays a big part in the fuel economy. This is something that the average driver in a normal car rarely takes into consideration, hence the best seller ratings. The Defender will last a long time but will impact by about 4 mpg. The Ecopia EP 422 is quite good in the wet and snow with a good ride and mpg. The Michelin AS is very good all round except for snow, and possibly the best mpg.
I would rate the Continental as fair for noise good wet grip and reasonable mpg .
No doubt the founder member of this post "F8L" will step in with his very good advice shortly.

John (Britprius)

 

I personally never go for a tyre which lasts a long time. I always select a tyre for its grip (traditionally) and now with the new tyre classifications, LRR. The ones that last a long time seems to be made of a much harder compound and lack in grip etc as a result.

My Dad on the other had used always rate a tyre by how long it lasted! That was until I did some research on a tyre with good grip and Lower rolling resistance for his 4x4 and he has changed his mind now that the back end doesn't step out and the mpgs have improved!

 

I must disagree with you on this one. The lowest rolling resistance car tyre made also has the best grip . This tyre is the Bridgestone Ecopia 001s.

John (Britprius)

 

Please let me and us know how you like these tires and any change in your mpg's. I am thinking about getting them the next time I need tires. Thanks!

 

Bridgestone Ecopia 001s - Is this equivalent to the EP422 or the EP20 in US?

After riding around on low profile tires on horrible Houston streets for 2 years, my no. 1 priority is comfort. I would not want to see a 4 mpg drop though. I'm not going to see much snow or ice. However, Houston gets a fair amount of rain, temporary flooding, and rain slicked roads, so that is also a slight concern. Handling is probably low on the list, as long as it doesn't wallow.

 

No it is a new tyre not yet available to you in the US. It is only made in two sizes at the moment :- 195/65/15 and 205/55/16, making it fit the UK/EU gen2 and gen3 Prius. It has 16% lower rolling resistance than Bridgstones previous best effort the Ecopia Ep 150

John (Britprius)

 

@ John, you must have misinterpreted my post, or else my point came across wrong!

My point was that traditionally tyres that lasted forever were Chinese or other similar tyres that weren't great when it came to grip and LRR wasn't even something that people knew about.

I would go for a tyre that grips well, but doesn't necessarily last for a long time. Longevity is not a priority for me, grip being more important, with LRR coming with grip these days as tyres have improved so much

 

I have these on my 17"s:

I'm quite happy with them given that they have 560 wear number and AA ratings. They are also apparently low rolling resistance, and quiet.

 

Just put on a set of 4 new shoes on our 'v' Two right at the 40K mile mark (the Yoko OEMs could have gotten a couple thousand more maybe, or maybe not). She was consistently averaging 51MPG with the v on the old worn tires, but ride noise & comfort were toast so we went with Michelin Energy Saver A/S. $803 for the set including alignment, TPS sensors, road hazard. etc. plus the $70 Nov gift card rebate off of that total drops it to $733 so that'll do. Installed on a Saturday conveniently and the wife's safe for winter driving. Greatly improved ride quality and lowered noise level on the road. Too early to assess MPG impact.

 

I bought 4 Michelin Primacy at NTB for $480 (carry out, uninstalled price), less a $70 Michelin mail-in rebate, plus $80 to have them installed at the dealer where the car had been towed, plus $90 for an alignment to make sure the wheel is still headed in a straight line after hitting a pothole. I'm also going to spend $55 to have 1 of the OEM tires mounted on a steel rim at Discount Tires. If anyone in the Houston area needs a couple of Goodyear Assurance OEM tires with only 11,000 miles on them, let me know. Otherwise, I'll see if I can get something for them at a used tire shop or salvage yard.

I'll post back here after I have some experience/break in with these tires. I suppose I gave up some MPGs by not going with the Michelin Energy Savers, but I really wanted the best riding tire I could get for these awful Houston streets. All in all, that pothole that blew out my tire probably did me a favor by prompting me to move to better tires all around.

 

Thanks. I probably would have bought these if they had been available here.

 

I understand that Michelin is discontinuing the Energy Saver. Costco manager called Michelin to ask about availability. They said no plans on restocking. Costco manager told me that this is probably the beginnings of discontinuing the tire.

Any thoughts on the next best thing? My priorities are quiet, mpg, then handling, in that order. Thoughts?

 

Are they discontinuing the Energy Saver or the Energy Saver A/S ? They are two different tires with different tread wear ratings (400 vs 480)

 

A/S

 

So far so good. The Pure Contact tires stick to the road much better on both wet and dry pavement than the Goodyear Integrity tires I had on before. To be honest the amount of tread on the Goodyears should have been good enough to hold better than what they did. The ride with the Continentals is good. I currently have 42 PSI in the front and 40 PSI in the rear tires. This does make the ride a bit firm, especially now that the weather has gotten colder, but I prefer a firm ride. The real traction test will be once ice and snow arrives.
As far as MPG goes it has been hard to tell. About the time I got the tires they changed the fuel in our area. I had been using E0 87 octane, which was $0.10 more than E10 89 octane. That fuel now cost $0.30 more than the now E10 87 octane.
With the difference in price I have been using the E10 87. So with new tires, E10 fuel, probably winter blend, colder weather and being in more of a hurry lately my MPG has dropped from 55 MPG to 45 MPG. But the gas price has dropped from $3.50 to $2.76 so the drop in MPG isn't as noticable at the pump.
My main dislike of the Goodyear tires was coming loose in hard corners on wet pavement. The Pure Contact tires have completely solved that. The Goodyears also seemed a bit loose at high speed even on dry pavement. An emergency situation 2 day after getting the new tires required them be put to more of a test than I had planned and much sooner than expected. I was glad I had the new tires because they and the Prius were both well behaved when I needed them.

 

we got a set of winter tires, they are yohohama iceguard ig52c, they seems to be a new model this year, probably not lrr...
they are on the oem mags, so the only changing factors are the tires, and the cold weather.
it's been around -10 c the past days and the cold start morning trip is 7.5 to 9 l/100km, instead of 6.5 i used to get. then a warmer return trip used to be 4.5 l/100km, now it's 5.5

btw how long do i have to wait for the car to warm up....

 

I'm fairly new to Prius ownership and have been asking myself this question lately. My 12km trip to work in the mornings is mainly downhill and the ICE doesn't turn on all that much, so I don't think that it heats up at all for the entire trip! On the way home, it's the opposit, all uphill, but as it's rush hour, traffic is at a standstill and temps are low, the ICE is on and off for most of the trip, so again, I don't think that it really heats up either. It's kind of annoying not having a temp. gauge in the dash

Where are you if it's -10c already?!