Replaced the tires

Not too long ago, my dad replaced the tires on his 02 Prius with Michelin Harmony tires. They were a little noisy at first, but ride just fine now that they are a little broken in.

I also think that they should last a little longer then the stock Firestone tires that Toyota had on the classics.

I was wondering what made you choose the "Hydroedge" tires. I have been a fan of Michelins myself, and am trying to find the best tire for when the time comes for replacement.

Cheers.

~Andrew

 

There's no contest, HydroEdge is better in every respect. And to further sweeten the appeal, Michelin has lengthened the warranty from 80,000 to 90,000 miles. Cool, eh?

Here's the comparison data:

HYDROEDGE
10 - Tread Life
10 - Wet Traction
10 - Quiet Ride
10 - Handling
8 - Winter Traction

HARMONY
9 - Tread Life
9 - Wet Traction
8 - Quiet Ride
8 - Handling
7 - Winter Traction

 

Hey John, where did you get the comparison data? I found customer review data on Tire Rack with similar categories (plus a few more) with scores with two decimal places (from averaging customer reviews), but that looks a bit different that what you are showing. Thanks in advance.

 

I'm still trying to decide among:

1. Keeping my OEM tires;
2. Switching to the Hydroedge; or
3. Buying snow & ice tires for winter, and going back to (1) or (2) in summer.

For now, I'm waiting for the first snow in Minneapolis so we can read John's report on how the Hydroedge does on snow.

 

From Michelin's own website.

Customer reviews are great, but they obviously don't compare the two tires. They compare the new tire they purchased to the one they previously had, which is what I've been doing by stating HydroEdges are clearly better than the OEM tires.

Go to this page... http://www.michelinman.com/catalog/tires/M...html?source=mid ...and click the "Compare This Tire" link in the bottom-right corner.

 

Thanks everyone for giving me a bit more direction for the time when my tires tire.
:?

~Andrew

 

Thanks, I found the comparison data a bit after I made the post, but forgot to amend my post. =/ Since this post is a bit long, I've put in bold my followup question hidden in the middle of the post.

I noticed that Goodyear has an Assurance ComforTred which seems to be rated in a comparably based on customer reviews. They have their own comparison data on their website as well, but I doubt the Michelin and Goodyear data can be compared to each other.

From Goodyear's website:
Dry Traction: 9
Wet Traction: 9
Snow Traction: 9
Ride Comfort: 10
Quiet Ride: 10

On TireRack's website, it appears that based on customer ratings, the HydroEdge edges out the ComforTred in handling, dry traction, wet traction, and tread wear rating (based on specifications)/warranty. However, the ComforTred edges out the HydroEdge in snow traction, ride comfort, noise comfort, tread wear (based on customer reviews), and is $24 cheaper per tire ( $74 vs. $98 -- funny spacing due to emoticon insertion).

HydroEdge appears to be an excellent choice. However, It seems ComforTred might be a comparable tire to the HydroEdge while being significantly less expensive. It looks like the ComforTred only came out recently, so it might of not been an option back when some people switched there tires. Does anyone have any experience with ComforTred? I found only one reference to it here, but no actual ComforTred experience. It looks like TripleTred might also be a good alternative (slight emphasis for handling/traction over comfort/noise), if Goodyear ever decides to make one sized for the Prius.

For Daniel, from Goodyear's website, it looks like you only get slightly better snow traction (rating 9=>10) going from the ComforTred to the Eagle Ultra Grip GW2/Ultra Grip Ice, while ComforTred is an excellent all-around tire. From Michelin's website (you probably have to select X-Ice in the second comparison column, it's a 2004 Prius sized tire based on TireRack's tire guide), you get a slightly bigger snow traction difference (8=>10) going from HydroEdge to X-Ice, and again, HydroEdge is an excellent all-around tire. I don't have a whole lot of snow driving experience, so I can't say how much that matters, but it doesn't seem like a big difference to me. ComforTred might be the way to go, since snow traction is important to you, while you can still simplify things with one set of tires. I also lean toward it since it appears to be significantly cheaper with slightly better comfort/noise than the HydroEdge, sacrificing a bit of dry/wet traction (compared to the HydroEdge--both tires are much better in all categories than the OEM Goodyear Integrity tires). Again, keep in mind, this is just me hunting for data on websites and I don't have any tire experience other than with the OEM tires. Maybe you can get the ComforTred and tell us all about it. =)

Personally, I am leaning toward ComforTred tires for when it comes time to change my tires. Of course, that may change with the availability of new tires or additional reviews/opinions.

 

The V-shape in the tread provides a rather obvious advantage when it comes to corning, especially when the roads are wet. The angle is just right for a solid grab with the tires turned.

As for better snow traction, that could actually sacrific MPG a little too much. I wonder how we'll be able to make decent comparisons. Hmm?

Anywho, I have 7,400 miles on my HydroEdges now. They are perfect for my wants, a definite improvement over the OEMs without being too extreme (like an actual snow tire would be) that could be used all year.

 

Curious, at least by Michelin's ratings, I wonder why they bother to sell most of those tires. Other than the 10 rating in snow for the X-Ice and Artic Alpin, ALL the tires rate lower in ALL categories. And the X-Ice and Alpin are lousy on wet or dry pavement. At least in the "big city" Burlington area, even here in VT, the winter roads are dry more often than not.

 

John, I have a question: I know you bought the Hydroedge tires because you happened to get a blowout, so you had to get something.

Knowing what you do now, would you have replaced the OEM tires with the Hydroedge right away? Or would you have waited until you needed new tires?

I was actually advised by the tire salesman at my trusted tire store that my OEM tires are perfectly good as all-season tires.

 

I was always planning to replace the OEM tires with something better. That was going to happen next fall (Sept. 2005), with the mileage past 45,000 and winter soon to arrive. Having that accident simply accelerated the schedule.

And yes, the OEM tires are "good" tires. But I wanted "better"... especially since I knew owners would endlessly be asking for a recommendation of a better tire anyway.

Having been through this once already with the Classic, decisions come pretty easy the second time around.

 

I can only support what John has said about the Hydroedge tires. Since we've had some rain here recently I finally had a chance to drive them in a downpour. They really felt good. And I even tried the larger 195H60X15 size which in retrospect is what would have been a better choice for me. I was surprised to find an article that said that this is the size on the Australian Prius. I don't know if it is true, but the larger size really didn't hurt the mileage a measurable amount compared to the 185H65X15 size. And after about 2000 miles (1000 miles with each size), if anything, my mileage is improving slightly over the Goodyear tires. So for me at least, I'd say they're pretty close in rolling resistance too.

I know John has said he took about a 1.5 mpg hit but I really don't see it with the driving I do here in San Diego. For about 9000 miles, 2000 with the Michelin tires, I've managed to increase my overall up about 0.3 mpg over the last 2000 miles to 48.8 mpg. It's pretty tough to get the mid-50's given the traffic, lights, and hilly canyon terrain we have here so I'm pretty happy with the Michelin Hydroedge.

 

Are you saying that you did get the 195H60X15 tires? If so, do you have any comments on cross-wind sensitivity?

Anybody else change tire/wheel combinations and get an improvement in stability?

 

I'm saying I drove with the 195H60X15 size for about a month. I had an agreement with Evans Tire that if I wanted the std size I could get them after 30 days. I decided that I might get more help from Toyota about my car's lack of stability on the freeway if I had the standard size tires so I switched to those. I think I was wrong and the large size handled better after have driven each now. It didn't cure the problem but did improve stablilty a little bit. It's really the only thing that has made much difference once the alignment was corrected.

 

Fred,
Did you notice any differences in the two sizes besides the possible improved handling with the larger size? Like noise or mpg?
Thank you.

 

It's a little bit hard to say. Most the 1000 miles I put on with the larger size was freeway. I made a trip to Vegas. This was my actual mileage with the two sizes:

195H60X15
52.2
55.9
46.7
49.5

185H65X15
49.5
50.2
48.7
52.2

The 49.5 tank was 50 miles with the smaller size. This is the actual mpg calculated from the fillup data and not the computer so it is subject to fillup variablility. It almost looks like the larger size was better but there's lots of freeway mileage there. I thought the larger size took more of a hit around town actually. And that's just a feeling. It seemed tougher to get really high mpg's around town at times.

I'd say they were aboutthe same for noise. But I did notice the 195's were harsh at 42/40. Maybe just a bit harsher than the 185's. I now wish I had just kept the larger size for the stability reasons discussed earlier. I hope this helps