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Yokohama Avid Envigor and Gas Milease Drop

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Fuel Economy' started by aginzu, Apr 15, 2011.

  1. aginzu

    aginzu New Member

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    After about 35,000 miles on my 2009 Prius Touring my dealer suggested that the car needed new tires. He had the Yokohamas on sale and a quick check on the web indicated that these should be good for the Prius so I agreed to have them installed.

    After they were installed I noticed an improvement in handling, but my gas mileage plunged about 10% or 4 mpg. I was stunned and called Yokohama customer service who said it might take 1-2K miles before the tires settled down. I now have about 2,500 miles on these tires and the gas mileage is still down between 5-10% depending on the type of driving. I'm wondering if the problem is the tires or something else. The dealer checked the inflation pressure and said it was exactly what Toyota recommended. He did not recommend increasing it above the factory spec. They also did an alignment when the tires were first installed and I'm wondering if they messed that up and it somehow had this effect on the gas mileage. If the problem can't be resolved I may ask for the dealer to exchange the tires for something else, even though I like the handling these tires provide.

    Has anyone had similar problems with the Avid Envigor or after a wheel alignment? Any suggestions on what I should ask for if they agree to exchange these tires?
     
  2. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Hi Aginzu. Are the tires the same size as the stock tires or are they different. Can you post the exact size of your tires (eg 185/65/15 etc)

    New tires are a really common cause of loss of MPGs. Sometimes the MPGs return after the tires break in, sometime they don't. It may just be that the new tires don't have quite as lower rolling resistance as the originals.
     
  3. Hal W

    Hal W New Member

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    Press them to about 41Lbs. front 38 aft. Your FE should improve. Hal
     
  4. aginzu

    aginzu New Member

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    The new tires are the same size as the originals: 195/55/R16

    These are advertised as having very low rolling resistance and I was expecting improved mileage, not a 10% drop.
     
  5. niphonk98

    niphonk98 Junior Member

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    My Prius just changed a month ago. I change to Bridestone Potenza. My AVG MPG drop from 48 to 41. I hope will be increse MPG after tire break in.
     
  6. aginzu

    aginzu New Member

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    Wow, that's worse than mine! Mine dropped from 46 to 42 mpg.
     
  7. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    I still don't understand why people purchase non-LRR tires for a replacement tire. There are many options out there for nearly all weather conditions. :confused:

    To the OP, the ENVigor is not rated as LRR according to TireRack. Not that you have many choices in that size though. The only tire that looks good is the ContProContact at $93. :(
     
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  8. aginzu

    aginzu New Member

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    I didn't know there was such a thing as low rolling resistance tires. In looking at the tire rack listing there are 7 choices in the 195/55/R16 size. I'll see if I can get the dealer to exchange the ENVigors for one of those. Thanks very much!
     
  9. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Thanks for the info aginzu. So it's the touring edition.

    Honestly this is such a common problem. "They advertized". The advertizing of any product will never say anything other than great things. It's not that it's necessarily false, it's just that it's a relative thing and it depends what you compare it to. You really need to find independent reviews to get any decent comparative information. From what I can find the envigor is a good performance tire, but compared with the best LRR tires it's only average at best as far as rolling resistance in concerned.
     
  10. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    I think you can get the Bridgestone Ecopia EP100 in that size. It rated near the very best for low rolling resistance. Several people have reported increased MPG right from the start with this tire. There's also an Ecopia EP 422 in an all season tire (I don't think it's quite as low in rolling resistance but still good).
     
  11. TheSpoils

    TheSpoils Member

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    Did they also change the oil? Check for overfill.
     
  12. aginzu

    aginzu New Member

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    Here is a quote from Yokohama's advertising for the Avid ENVigor:

    "All-New Silica Compound. Delivers ultra-low rolling resistance for increased fuel efficiency, without sacrificing treadlife, comfort or grip on dry, wet or snow-covered roads."

    I have been looking for actual rolling resistance test numbers for a list of tires, but except for a few specific tires tested by TireRack, I haven't been able to find such a list. Has anyone seen it?
     
  13. aginzu

    aginzu New Member

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    Yes, they did change the oil and also performed a front end alignment.

    Does oil level affect gas mileage substantially?
     
  14. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    I have not seen an updated list. The last one was done in the early 2000s so it is not applicable now.

    The dB Super E-Spec is Yokohama's flagship tire for LRR and sustainability. The ENVigor should then worse than the dB but the Ecopia EP100 and Michelin Energy Saver A/S both posted higher mpg numbers than the dB. According to those tests and Yokohama's claim for the dB I would assume the ENViror is going to get lower MPG than any of the tires being recommended in this thread. :)

    No matter what tire you get I would expect some MPG loss until they are properly broken in. Who knows, maybe your ENVigors will get much better after 1,000 miles.

    Depends on the level of overfill. Mine was overfilled by about 1/2" above the max fill line but I didn't notice a precipitus drop in mpg. Some claim they have experienced a large drop because of this. It can't help mpg. Extra oil being moved around in the engine requires energy.
     
  15. aginzu

    aginzu New Member

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    That's what Yokohama and the Toyota dealer said. I already have 2,500 miles on the tires and they are not significantly better.
     
  16. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    DOH! For some reason I thought they were brand new. I'll scratch them off my list of potential 17" tires then. lol

    If you can get them to pro-rate your tires then I would switch out to:

    Ecopia EP100
    Energy Saver A/S
    dB Super E-Spec
    ContiProContact with EcoPlus
    Hydroedge with GreenX (super high mileage warranty and great in rain)
    Assurance Fuel Max

    All of these are proven performers and except for two of them (Energy Saver and dB Super E-Spec), they are pretty cheap.
     
  17. Hal W

    Hal W New Member

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    What air pressure do you normally run? Hal
     
  18. aginzu

    aginzu New Member

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    It's whatever the tag on the front door says. I think it's 35 front and 33 rear.
     
  19. Hal W

    Hal W New Member

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    Try 41, 39! H
     
  20. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Yeah I also read that advert and thought they sounded really good. I had a bit of trouble finding actual numbers but eventually I found a review that compared them to 3 other tires and scored them by category (wet performance, dry performance, LRR etc). The Envigor's scored in the 70's for LRR while the Primacy MXV4 scored 100.

    BTW. 100 is just assigned to whatever was the best of the four. Most of the tires listed above by F8L will be as good or even better than the MXV4's.

    Sorry but I cant find the report again today (found it doing some random googling yesterday). Anyway it had the "Michelin Primacy MXV4" at 100 while both the "Avid Envigor" and the "Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S" had a score of 70 something. The Envior was a few points ahead of the "Pilot Exalto", but I have a consumer report test that only rates that one (the exalta) as a "4" for LRR in a ranking of one (best) to five (worst). So while my information is a bit indirect and convoluted it does seem to indicate that the Envigor is only an average tire when it come to LRR.