New Wheels/Tires- Bye bye OEM

I really continue to not mind the bridgestones that came standard in 17" on my SE here in Canada.

Though funny enough, I much prefer Bridgestone for winter and Michelin all seasons for the non-winter months. Unfortunately Michelin was the only winter available (other than Toyo) and Bridgestone ecopia were the only summer tires (other than toyo).

They've forced me to flip my preferences in terms of road noise and handling. The ecopias are pretty good in terms of road noise on more freshly paved roads, they're quite quiet. But on older roads that aren't smooth, you definitely hear them thanks to the fact they are LRR tires and the wheel well noise isolation isn't great.

Hopefully by the time I've put enough KMs on these tires, there will be other options in stock size available. At the end of the day this is an economy focused commuter car for us, so we don't want to go wild with new rims, tires, etc and reduce the EV range or fuel efficiency on it.

 

I didn’t know the SE was available in Canada. In the plug- in yes.

https://www.toyota.ca/toyota/product-summary-pdf/2024-prius-summary-bc-en.pdf

And last time I checked dealership website it had to be 19" rims and AWD.

https://openroadtoyotaportmoody.com/showroom/2024-toyota-prius-xle_awd-e

 

They're fine in the dry but start losing a bit of traction as soon as it starts to rain personally. I'm also down to about 5/32 after 40k km and the wet traction has decreased even more. I'm also seemingly getting some cracking/dry rot on the sidewall of the tire on some of them which I need to get looked at.

The quietness doesn't seem exclusive to them. I tried some Conti DWS06+ and they were the same if not a bit quieter on older roads. The handling was worlds better on the different tire size. I didn't have them on long enough to check for fuel efficiency but for the short time I had them my EV efficiency went for 5.1-4.8 kwh to 3.8 so a good difference but I need to put them back on to see more long term how it does.

 

I've only felt a loss of traction once or twice, in heavier rain, and when not being gentle with the gas. But yeah, they could be better. Not so bad that I want to go spend money on new tires yet. But not good enough for me to buy them again. I'll go back to the Michelin all seasons I tend to get next time.