New Tires, MPG Takes a Hit...Normal?

Not sure if you made a mistake with the Uniroyals, but I'm on my third set (crap OEM's and now on my second set of Comfortreds) and a few MPG drop for the first few thousand miles is normal.

 

I made a poor choice in my second tyre set with ZiEx, and saw a 10+ percentage hit for over 20,000 miles. Thankfully they are gone, and the hydroedges are only down 3% from happy-land after 1000 miles.

blbgp, are the tyres inflated to sidewall maximums in front, and 2 psi less in the rear ?

 

Same tp?

 

Yeah make sure your tire pressure is the same as you had on the old tires, or just fill them to 42 front/40 rear or similar.

I took a 2 mpg hit in switching to General Altimax HP tires a couple weeks ago.

 

Same thing with Pirelli P4's what a bite.
I am not sure what to buy next time?
From 50mpg to 42mpg if gas goes back up and it will that's a lot of money because of the wrong tires.

 

Yes, Your Prius deserves Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) tires. I have had three different model tires on my 2004 Prius:

• Goodyear Integrity - Poor handling tires with bad traction in wet/snow. Replaced at 44,500 miles
• Michelin MXV4+ "Energy Saving" - These LRR tires had much better handling/traction, longer tread wear and exhibited IMPROVED MPG (mostly in cold weather) averaging about 0.5 MPG better over a 12 month period. They were replaced after 55,000 miles (99,500 total) and still had some life left in them, but winter was approaching.
• Nokian WR - These GREAT LRR tires handle well, have good traction in all conditions and further improved MPG (about 2 MPG over the Goodyear Integrity tires). The only shortcoming is a little road noise due to their agressive tread design (the WRg2 should be a little quieter). They are currently at 34,500 miles (134,000 total) and have enough tread left to go into this winter.

All three tires were run at 42 psi (front) and 40 psi rear (the WRs can handle up to 51 psi; the others are limited to 44 psi). See the attached spreadsheet for the details of my 4+ years with my Prius.

JeffD

 

self delete

 

No hit seen with the Nokian WR tyres.

 

I love my Nokian WRg2 tires!

 

Have to say I went into Firestone and they told me my alignment was WAY off. I had the alignment done and there was NO DIFFERENCE in mileage. It has been months and there still is no difference. And yes, I am certain the alignment was off as I had never had it done and drove into some huge potholes in NY/NJ area in the months before.

So don't expect an alignment help with mileage; it did help a little with handling though.

 

Zombie thread. The OP is over 2 years ago, and they aint been back since.

 

I had Bridgestone G019 Grids which did hurt my mileage. I replaced them with Continental ContiProContact and my mileage is now about 3 mpg better.

 

I just bought my '04 from my local Toyota dealership and they had already replaced the front 2 tires with Falken Ziex (probably because they are cheap), and I can barely muster 42 MPG with a lot of effort, even in a mild winter.

 

2005 Prius. My OEMs were good for MPG, but awful for handling. I was all over the road. And they were short-lived (30k or so). Next were Michelin Hydroedge. I took a bit of an mpg hit, but they wore wonderfully. Over 75k! The hit wasn't so bad, since I was still getting 49 mpg or better. A little loud.

Then the bottom fell out. At about 120k miles I replaced the Hydroedge with Pirelli P4. Recommended by tire guy, etc. TANKED mpg. I realize it's winter, but I can't get about 39 mpg! They handle great, but that's small consolation if I get under 300 miles per tank of gas.

I think the change will be cost effective, even if I replace them after only 6k miles. If I can re-sell the Pirellis, all the better. I realize they're a good tire, but this just won't do.

:cheer2:

 

Hi Sanny. In a recent "Consumer Report" test those Pirelli's scored in the second poorest bracket for rolling resistance. The Falcen Ziex (Ze912) was also in this category.

I'm convinced that it's worthwhile getting LRR tires for the Prius. A drop of 5 MPG will cost you around $300 to $400 over the life of the tires. So yeah it's pretty much worth it even if you had to throw the existing tires away.

 

Uart, wow! Second poorest? Figures. That's the one place I forgot to look. And I know better than that. Sigh.

At the moment the Hydroedge isn't available. Under manufacture, according to my mechanic, but will come out in March. They've got some new green x addition, which my old ones didn't have. Maybe that's the holdup. He suggested a Goodyear enviro tire, but I hated the OEMs so much, I'm loath to go back to Goodyear.

So, one more month of miserable mpg, then new tires.

Anyone want to buy some slightly used Pirellis?

 

I know the reviews have been up and down on Pirelli P4s but I put them in my 2004 Prius several years ago and can't complain a bit. They have lasted over 60K miles and easily have a couple of years left.

I did see about a 4-5 mpg hit when I put them on but between going from a very warn 185/65 tire to a fresh new 195/65 tire, I expected some loss. The difference in diameter between the two is almost 1" which would cause the computer to report at least 2mpg less (even though the actual distance/gallon was the same). The rest of the difference (2-3mpg) is likely the rolling resistance of the larger Pirelli tire.

From a traction and handling perspective, they have been very nice tires and they have lasted very well (looking like twice the original Goodyears). I'll look more closely at rolling resistance specs when I finally need to replace these but the 3mpg loss would equate to about 100 extra gallons of gas over the life of the tire which might still be a savings compared to a tire that only lasted 40K miles.

 

I just replaced my front 2 Falken Ziex92 and rear 2 Goodyear Integrities with 4 new Michelin Energy Savers and have noticed a significant increase in MPG. I'm glad I bought these tires!