Michelin Energy Saver A/S Tires

but we continue to have lower MPG on the new integrities.

I think his observations are confounded by winter.

It has been a couple of years since I put hydroedges on the Prius, but if memory serves it took the better part of 5k miles before the new tyre mileage hit went away.

 

Thanks SageBrush. Doh, looks like I should'a read the whole sentence. Yes I think you're correct that this is probably just confounded by the winter/winter blend fuel issue.

 

I just bought a set of Energy Savers and installed them today. Running 44/42psi, and looking forward to better hypermiling! (Doing a grill block tomorrow also)

 

Way to go on the Michelins!
I'm totally biased in this thread because Bibendum is my Father.
Use the Force....

 

I just blew one of the OEM Integrity tires after only 36 k miles and ordered a set of the Michelin Energy Saver A/S as replacements. I'm looking forward to what should be an exponential increase in overall quality from the junk OEM tires. I had been running 42 psi front, 40 psi rear on the Integrities as per the iconic Prius user guide recommendations. Is anyone running these pressures on the Michelins? It should be safe since their max pressure rating is 44 is that correct? Thanks for your help!

 

Would it really be bad to use the energy saver A/S tires in the winter in NJ?

 

I've had my Michelin Energy Savers on for a month now at 44/42psi. Between that and the grill block, my mileage has gone up from 42 to 51mpg in winter!

They also are really grippy with very good handling. Being a hypermiler, I corner as hard as possible to carry momentum(within reason), and they don't squeal one bit, which is nice for not attracting attention on hard corners. It must be that unique tread compound.

 

Ordered the Michelin Energy Saver AS tires from Costco a few days ago. Plan on running them at 42/40 psi. I hope they do a good job because they sure were expensive even with the $70 off, $125.99 each and $14 per tire installation fee with a $1 per tire disposal fee and a $7 CA State fee. Came to $542.87 out the door.....Ouch! I have never paid so much for a set of tires in all my life.

 

Be cautious on how much air you put in your tires. I've seen premature wear, sidewall cracking, on tires that are overinflated past the 40psi mark. If you have brand new tires, obviously, this wouldn't be so much of a concern but if your tires have over 12 thousand miles or if you drive in harsh climates, then you should monitor your tires when inflating over 40psi.

 

I think the age of the tires is more of a concern than putting a tad past 40 psi in them. As the tires age they dry out, which is probably the most important factor in sidewall cracking. I believe the latest study said 6 years after production was the limit, no matter if they were new or not. Plus if your car is kept outside in the sun, the tires will dry out even faster. I experienced this on several vehicles, living in a sunny State.

 

Just had my new tires installed at Costco. I took the plastic trim ring off the rims, so they wouldn't end up scratching them. My 2007 Prius doesn't even have 11k miles on it and is in mint condition.

I did a once over prior to leaving Costco after the install, then got all the way home and looked a little more closely at the wheels. Sure enough I find a nice brand new nick on my one of my rims. Are you freaking kidding me?! I was so upset, drove all the way back to Costco to have the Tire Center manager look at it, take pictures and fill out a complaint form. Didn't even get an apology from him. The damage probably wasn't on purpose, but come on at least tell the customer you're sorry! How hard can it be for people that do this day in and day out, to remove and install lug nuts without damaging customer's rims?

This was my first time having Costco install tires on vehicle and probably will be my last. Freaking idiots!

One more thing, they claimed I needed a front end alignment because of how much more worn the front tires were compared to the rear. But since I rarely rotated the tires, I doubt it's the alignment, as fronts always wear more than rears.

 

You would have paid those extra fees at any legit tire shop in California. Unfortunately you had to pay more for the actual tire at Costco than you would have at TireRack.com BUT the shipping cost of approx. $36 would have made the total price about the same. You chose a very expensive tire. There are similar tires that work just as well in most driving situations that only cost $73-$80/ea.. In the end you go a good tire and you didn't get ripped off so I wouldn't sweat it. Next time I would consider one of the less expensive tires and you could save as much as $180 over the lifetime of the tires as long as you don't require anything more than an all-season rating.

As for the nick on the rim, it happens all the time and not just at Costco. I've had it happen at Les Schwab, America's Tire, Big O' Tire, Tognotti's, etc.. It sucks but it happens.

 

Yeah they're expensive but they're supposed to be close to the best for high MPG. If they returned an extra 2 MPG then that could save about $150 over the life of the tire, so maybe they're worth it.

I'm up for new tires in about a month or two and I think I'll probably go with the Bridgestone Ecopia EP100's as they're also supposed to be excellent for LRR.

Just interested F8L, what other cheaper options did you have in mind?

 

The EP100 is an excellent choice as is the EP422, Continental ContiProContact and Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max. These tires are in the $73-$82 price range and have similar characteristics. They will have similar LRR charactistics and MPG as the Fuel Saver A/S so the difference in MPG will not likely be so large so as to automatically make the Fuel Saver the best economic deal over the lifetime of the tire. Obviously economics are not the only reason to purchase a tire or else I never would have bought the dB Super E-Spec.

 

I got the Energy Saver A/S last fall. It was expensive, but they had a deal going on at Costco, so it was only slightly expensive. (Costco doesn't do alignments they told me, but they would recommend one, standard procedure).
I like the ride, and no drop in mpg. It was done as temperatures were dropping, so hard to compare exactly. Handled the Chicago winter just fine, I run at 39/37 psi generally. Don't think you get much fuel efficiency improvement at higher PSI.

 

IMO that is the trick. Wait until Costco or TireRack.com offers the $70 rebate on the Michelin or Bridgestone tires. It's almost like getting one free tire. They change these offers once a month or so. This month is Michelin.

 

I did get the so called $70 off deal at Costco. Sure $70 is nice but not what I would consider a great deal.

Costco made it a point to state in my paperwork "member requested PSI be set to 42 fronts and 40 for rears. Member understands that this can void warranties if tire wear irregular". Since the tire has a max rating of 44 psi I don't get how it would void anything.

 

Did Costco "buy" or credit you for your OEM tires or did you lug away your 4 OEM tires?

 

As I said in my post, Costco charged me $1 per tire, for a disposal fee of the old tires. Plus I paid the State of California a fee of $7.

And while the rear tires had more tread than the fronts, all the tires had sidewall cracking. So they weren't worth keeping anyway.

 

I had the Energy Saver A/S installed yesterday, they feel good so far. What are the opinions on the necessity of doing an alignment right away after having installed new tires?