Which (specific model of) tires provide the quietest highway ride?

i've heard the michelin energy saver a/s are as quiet as they get. the rest is the poor sound deadening in the car.

 

try costco. be careful of the defenders, i've heard they are good, but can cost 3-5 mpg.

 

We like the Continental TrueContact. They replaced the ProContact that we were used to, and are just as happy with the TrueContact.

 

One quiet tire is the Goodyear Assurance Comfortred, which is available again if I recall on TireRack.com

As per FuelMiser we have replaced our old Comfortreds with the Conti TrueContacts also from TireRack.com.
Have not done much highway driving to comment on the TrueContacts.

 

correct.

 

Using the bridgestones, started much quieter then the lrr michelins but after 20000 or so are louder then a bad wheel bearing.

 

I am not a huge fan of the Defenders (got em on my minivan) but they are a very long life tire, so any loss in MPG is normally considered paid back in less tire replacement.

 

you'd really want to take a hit on mileage in a Prius isn't thatswhy we bought the car in the first place you should go with the Michelin AS Energy Saver tires LRR

 

I suspect pretty much ANY tire starts out quiet, and very gradually gets noisier as it wears. Just food for thought.

 

I agree with this.

Last time I got my tires replaced on a different vehicle I told the guy I wanted a "quieter" tire. He said, he never sells a tire to a customer and tells them it's going to be quieter, because it almost never really is..and/or the affect is so short lived. It has so much more to do with the sound deadening properties of the vehicle itself and the surface it is routinely being driven on. He got tired of people coming back unhappy.

Tire wear, traction, gas mileage...but he'd never make any claims about a tire being significantly quieter.

None of the vehicles I have owned in my lifetime were particularly vehicles known for being quiet in the first place. The Prius probably IS the quietest vehicle I have ever owned. So I guess for me, I'm just tuned to road noise as being expected and I automatically tune it out as "white noise".

The Prius being a HSD hybrid, I think is quiet under a lot of circumstance. If I think about it when I drive? On the highway it isn't particularly quiet there IS road noise feedback. It's not worse than many vehicles I have owned. This is when I turn on the radio. I guess my standard is low in this regard. I don't consider it a problem unless road noise is actually interfering with listening to music/radio OR conversation in the vehicle. That's NOT the case, so I'm pretty happy.

I haven't yet had to replace the original OEM tires. BUT...I bought a Prius for the efficiency, I don't see much logic in buying one of the most fuel efficient vehicles possible and then NOT catering to it's greatest strength with tire replacement.

 

I use nothing but Michelin tires. No problems with anything with them. Just my opinion.

 

the newer asphalt is so much quieter than older surfaces, tyres and soundproofing aside.

 

I've driven all sorts of roads around the country since I started paying some attention to road noise in 1988 and they vary greatly in road noise not always based on age. I've driven the same roads between Phoenix and Savannah many times over the past 15 or so years. My experience since 1988 is this:

1988 Grand Prix
Goodyear Eagle GT+4 -- OEM's terrible on both road noise and wear.
Firestone Firehawk (Newly released at the time) -- Much quieter and 3 times better on wear.
Western Auto (supposedly made by Uniroyal -- the best by far and $40 each cheaper than the Firestones.
I don't remember the last brand, but they were not as good as the ones from Western Auto in Colorado.

1999 Montana
General -- OEMs okay on both.
BG Goodrich -- Better on both.
Michelin -- Better yet on both, best by far of any tire I've ever used on any vehicle.
Pirelli -- Not as good as the Michelins, but better than the others.

All tires after the Western Autos were recommended by Discount Tires here and I asked for the best combination of quietness and wear. The only reason I went with Pirelli at the end was because the Michelin was no longer available and the Pirelli was supposed to be as good as the latest Michelin at the time. No way to really test that out, but I was happy enough with them even though I could tell the difference. While they were not quite as quiet, they did subjectively provide a better road feel. Based in this experience, I'll lean toward Michelin when I need to replace the OEM Goodyear tires currently on our Prius, which will probably be next year or early in 2017.