Recommended replacement tires for Prius Touring 195/55R16?

I bought the Nokian WR G2s for my 2008 (Touring) 1 year ago. I've been happy with them, and my wife now has the same on her 2010.

Not as good perhaps as dedicated snow/ice tires, but with a bit of added caution they've seen me through the Canadian winter fine. My wife was somewhat concerned with the feeling of less snow/ice traction, but I think she got used to her previous car, a heavier Subaru Legacy with all wheel drive.

I'm happy that they are true 4 season tires and I don't need to deal with another set of tires and wheels and twice yearly swaps.

I AM concerned they might have a shorter life than other tires. The original 15" tires bought 15 months and 15,000 miles ago look like they may be on the edge of tread snow depth life by next winter. This may be partly due to some mildish under-inflation in their life though.

I'll re-assess next winter, but might consider dedicated snow/ice tires on my wife's 2010 at that time.

 

Does anyone have experience with the Michelin Pilot Primacy, 195/55/16's for a 2008 Touring

 

Win,

I don't believe the Michelin Pilot Primacy is made in a size suitable for the Gen 2 Prius. I believe it is only made in 17 thru 20-inch sizes. Your standard Prius uses a 15-inch tire and the Touring Model a 16-inch tire. The 2010 Gen 3 Prius Model V comes with a 17-inch tire OEM, but I didn't understand you to be asking about the 2010 Model V.

Rich

 

I have the Falken Ziex-912 on my 2008 Touring Prius. They were purchased last August 2009. The 40,000 mileage rating is way off. They are being replaced after 16,000 miles, such a disappointment.

 

Wow. Only 16,000 miles. It's supposed to be an excellent tire, but that tread life is way too short.

Will the warranty cover some of the replacement cost?

What other tire are you considering?

 

Excellent!

Hope you like them as much as my brother and I do.


Will be looking out for your updated posts.

 

Good to hear. I would expect nothing less.

 

Considering the Michelin X at costco or the new Kumho eco Solus KR22. TheKumho is rated a 800AA tire, Low rolling resistance. Puts it at over 100,000 miles. I have doubts about getting such high mileage on a tire, but may take the chance! $93 at tire rack. $611 to have four installed from the local tire shop inventory. I will check with the tire shop again in the morning to see if they have them in yet. If not, I may have tire rack send them directly to the shop for install!!

 

Do the 195 or 205/5516s need to have the XL rating as the classic (01-03) models?

 

I agree with Karp, these tires suck. My 2008 Touring had 38K when the EL-400's wore out so we went to discount tire. The guy was surprised at the lack of options so we opted for the Falkens based on customer ratings. Ours had just under 20K and we took it to Discount for it's 5K rotation and the guy said they were worn out. I hit the roof. Sure enough, those "special wear indicators" were worn completely down. So we left and I started researching here. Based on what I read, I finally decided to go with the larger size (205/55-16) which was what the Discount guy tried to get me to do. We put on the Hancook Optimo H727 which they had to special order. Just prior to going to get them put on we did a speedo test with my GPS function in my iphone. Set the cruise at 70 and the phone indicated between 68-69 mph.
So we went and got the tires put on and the first thing I noticed was they are SUPER quiet and ride softer than the Falken which made the car feel like a skate board. It's too early to tell the affect on mileage but it seems unchanged (they are currently at factory pressures and the falkens I kept at 39-41). We took the car to the exact stretch of toll road and did the speedo test again and set the cruise at 70, and the phone wavered between 69-70 so it actually seemed to improve the accuracy.
I can't believe this is the third set of tires on this car in less than 60K with two alignments and 5K rotate and balance. They said the falkens had no unusual wear. Almost all highway miles. Will report back later how they are doing if anyone wants to know. But so far, we are impressed.
They gave me 50% credit on the Falkens BTW.

John

 

I had the Falkens too. I got 25,000 miles out of them. They gave me $35.00/tire credit toward my new ones.

I have the Bridgestone Ecopia's on order, but now am not sure that was the right choice. I paid $109/tire at Discount Tire plus installation, etc.

I also like the idea of a mileage warranty which the Ecopia's do not have.

I live in San Diego, so weather is not an issue.

Do you think it's worth the extra money to find a tire with a warranty even though there are none that a low rolling resistance that I could find? I also don't know about going with H rated tires. At Discount Tire, they said that H-rated is not a good idea.

Or any recommendations? I don't mind the idea of going up a size.

Thanks,
-Darin

 

Hi Darin,
We went with the Hankook Optimo H727 based on reviews I had read and also it was the second highest rated tire in it's class in consumer reports and was rated very good for rolling resistance. "H" rated tires are more than enough for a Prius, do you sustain 130 MPH for any length of time? That is the speed rating for H tires. The high speed rated tires on the Touring is ridiculous. They are soft and wear out too fast.
We also found by going to the larger size, it actually corrected the error in the speedometer and the mileage coming from the Falkens seemed to improve slightly.
It's really a drag tire shopping for one of these with the limited options, but I am pretty much sold on the Optimo's.
PS, they are SO much quieter than those dang Falkens plus the car rides a bit smoother.

Take care,

John

 

Thanks for the feedback John.

Those Optimo's are T rated, so that's not a problem? I know, I don't drive at 118MPH either, so I guess there's no issue?

But a 100,000 mile warranty? They really expect everyone to get 100,000 miles on these tires? Sounds too good to be true.

Discount tire wants $132/tire compared to $109 for the Ecopia's. For the extra $92, I guess the 100,000 warranty is worth it.

Maybe I will give those a shot instead...

-Darin

 

Wow they have gone up a bit. I think we paid less than 120 each and there was a rebate. Correct on the speed rating, even that would be a push for this car I am sure
The Goodyear integrity on the non-touring is "S" rated.
I figure, the warranty even if it doesn't last that long, will give me a bigger credit toward the next set..60K and on it's third set...Not very impressed with that record..

 

The only side affect we had is that it corrected the existing error. We checked the speedo via GPS before putting the new tires on and it was off by a bit more than 1mph (I can't remember which way) When we put the new tires on, we took the car on the same road and the speedo matched the GPS almost exactly.

John

 

I prefer the Michelin Primacy MXV4, it has better handling & lower rolling resistance. Slightly worse snow traction is the only down side. You would need to get a 205 55 R16 which would be about 2% lower speedo reading then the correct size. The wider width should make the snow handling closer if not equal to the Hankook.

 

Ecopia's now come in an all season model that I just purchased and so far I'm very pleased. I guess anything is better than the EL400s although I got 36,000 miles on my set.

 

Just replaced a set of G019 Grids today with about 30k on them. Summary: Extremely disappointing after 15k.

I was very impressed at first, very quiet, great grip, wonderful in snow.

However, after about 15k miles, the 'cupping' began. At 25k miles, it sounded like a jacked-up 4x4 truck with off-road tires -- very loud. At about 30k miles, it simply became unbearable, even with a lot of tread left.

I've since learned the G019 Grids are highly susceptible to cupping. Even with dedicated rotations and close attention to pressures, the tires still developed a cupping problem.

We even had a set on our '02 MINI Cooper and had the same cupping problem occur after 10-15k miles.

Personally, I'd avoid them. If you've been watching, you've seen their ratings continue to fall on TireRack's feedback site. The ratings are falling for good reason.

We are putting on Goodyear Tripletreads in 205/55-16 on our '07 Touring. We'll see how that goes.

Just my $0.02. YMMV.