Updated Tire recommendations for 2018

If you have Costco membership go there. Very few places can beat the total purchase price (new tire, mount/balance, tire disposal fee, TPMS rebuild fee, road hazzard warranty). This is especially true when Costco has the crazy promotion of $0.01 install price (mount/balance, tire disposal, road hazzard warranty) for a set of four tires! TPMS is a separate fee, but still cheapest compared to anyone else.

If you truly care about safety in snow, you'll get a set of steel wheels and SNOW tires. All season tire for "snow" is an oxymoron. Only snow tires work well in snow.

If you believe your child's life to be ≥ $400, then get a set of NEW snow tires.
You can always save money by buying used; this would be the only time most people would agree a used tire makes sense, and low risk: snow tires are only used for a couple months out of the year. But, you would want to inspect the tire well and look at the date code.
Search PriusChat marketplace, Private Sales | PriusChat or craigslist for snow tires.

 

+1 for getting dedicated snow tires for winter. Michelin Xice 3 is excellent on sone and ice, and thyr are LRR and had absolutely no loss of mpg compared to all season Ecopia on my previous Gen3. For summer tires, I was not very happy with Ecopia 422 Plus for its noise and not so good tread life (though they warranty to 65K). I did not have long enough to compare, but Conti True Contact was very pleasant ride and good fuel economy. That said, I am going to get Yokohama Avid Ascend for my current car (Prius Prime) when OEM Dunlop is worn out. I had very good experience with Yoko on my previous cars

 

One recent change with Costco, at least in Canada: they used to have periodic cash discounts on various brands (typically $70), that reduced your price at the till immediately, and reduced the sales tax. Of late they've only been offering gift cards (come in the mail, maybe 2 weeks later), for the same amounts. So you pay the regular tire price, regular sales tax, and recoup the discount only when buying stuff in their store.

It's still better than the typical tire store mail-in rebates imho, but not as good as their previous policy.

 

These'll work:

Corolla steel rim, part no: 42611-02471 (2003-2008 corolla or matrix, CE, LS, S)
steel rim lug nuts, part no: 90942-01007 (plain, open-ended, galvanized)

And if you want to keep life simple, and you can get away with it in your locale, just get regular valves. Purchasing the rims/tires loose and installing them yourself may help get the tire store off the hook on the tpms boondogle, and affords earlier purchase, before the madhouse snow tire install season starts in earnest.

We're west coast, mild winters, but once in a while we get a dump. Nothing like New England, Maine, Nova Scotia, but I like to improve the odds:



I'm not sure, but our dog mighta tagged that rim...

 

This is the 2nd BEST deal (Best deal is $70 off 4 tires & $.01/tire installation/warranty fee).
$70 OFF INSTANTLY.
$60 off via Costco Cash Gift Card (you pay $60 upfront, but this comes back to you later via Gift Card).

 

So, what brand and type of tires are recommended? I also need new tires for a 2007 Touring Prius (well, one) and 2008 Standard Prius. Appreciate suggestions, because like OP said, there's a lot of old recommendations out there but can't find newer info. Thanks in advance.