Hankook Optimo H727 or the Toyo Versado Eco?

Personally I wouldn't choose any of the ones you listed because the H727 is not really a LRR and it doesn't handle that well. The Versado is virtually untested by anyone that I know of. Same goes for the Kumho and I think I read a few negative reviews on it but I can't remember where. That being said I doubt any of them are terrible tires. I just think it is safer to go with tires that are proven performers that in the same price range like the Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max, Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 or EP100, and Continental ContiProContact with EcoPlus. All of these tires are relatively cheap, handle well, offer great traction in anything but snow, are LRR rated and proven to help fuel economy and all but the EP100 have good tread wear ratings. The EP100 is the best for fuel economy but likely has the lowest tread wear. It's still good for between 45k and 55k depending on your driving.

If you choose either the Toyo or the Kumho would you mind doing a full review for us after they are broken in and you've done somempg testing? If they turn out to be awesome I'll be happy to eat my words. I just like to have as much real world information as possible.

 

My best friend works in a tire shop and tells me that with cheap tires (made in China or Korea) you get what you pay for, they don't last very long and they aren't as uniform. He also says that paying extra for a name like Goodyear or Michelin is usually not worth it, as you'll pay 20% more for a tire that's only 2% better, if money is no option and you have kids in the car than of course you don't mind paying 20% more for something that's 2% better.

Brands that give you good value for money are Bridgestone, Yokohama, Continental & General. BFGoodrich and Dunlop also give you good value for money but their tires are more performance oriented.

Another factor to keep in mind is where you're gonna park, if your car is always exposed to sunlight your tires will take a UV beating and the rubber will break down quickly, so buying an 85K mile tire may not be worth it as the sidewalls will deteriorate way before the tread wears down, you will be smarter to buy a 45K mile cheaper tire. If you are lucky enough to park out of the sun most days than go ahead and get the nicest tires you can afford, just keep in mind that in life you usually do get what you pay for. As evidence of this I present my current tires, the sidewalls on my 4 year old spring/summer/fall tires look much worse for wear than the sidewalls on my 6 year old winter tires. (no sun in the winter)

Everyone on the site raves about Goodyear Fuel Max and Michelin Energy Savers but those tires are expensive, I'd like to see someone show me a reward/cost analysis to show us how many miles it takes to recoup the initial investment.

Take my washing machine, a hi tech thousand dollar front loader that saves me a lot of water every year, but the high spinning damages my clothes, between what clothes I have to throw away and what I spend on the tailor to repair zippers I have to say i greatly regret buying it and want my old fashioned top loading agitator washing machine back.

 

Actually the Goodyear Fuel Max tires are not expensive. They are nicely priced within the range of similar high quality tires at approx. $78-$90 each for a 185/65/15. The Energy Saver AS is no longer available in most Prius sizes but may be considered prohibitively expensive as you indicated above. I've performed calculations for payback period on high efficiency tires vs. normal tires that may be slightly less expensive and if you drive over 15,000 miles a year then a tire that gets 3mpg more than the competition can easily save you money in the long run assuming fuel prices stay high and you are not comparing a 40,000 mile tire that is very expensive to a 100,000 mile tire that is very cheap or has rebates. There are also other factors besides economy to consider like simply saving fuel for environmental and national security reasons.

 

I'm pretty sure that paying a little extra for LRR is worth it. The tirerack LRR test, When Round and Black Becomes Lean and Green , there was a 7.5% difference in fuel economy amongst the tires they test. It's particularly interesting in that they only tested good tires, I'm certain that some cheaper brand/models would show a even more variation.

So lets take just a 5% fuel economy difference and say the tire life is 60 kmiles and the nominal FE is 48 MPG. The fuel saved over 60 kmiles is 0.05*60000/48, which works out to 62.5 gal. At $3.80 per gal that's nearly $240.00.

So I'd definitely pay a bit extra to get a proven good LRR set of tires.

 

I had the Hankook 727s installed on my 2005 Prius a few years ago. I went with the 195/60/15 size to replace my worn out Michelin Destiny tires of the same size.

I guess it depends on what tire you're used to. The switch to the Hankooks was such an improvement over the Destinys that I couldn't have been happier. So based on my situation, I would highly recommend the Hankook 727s. I really liked them.

 

My last set of tires were Hankook Optimo K415 and I was pretty happy with them. The K415's are a low rolling resistance summer tire (as there's no snow anywhere near me). These tires were already on the Prius when I bought it S/H. Not sure what mileage they already had on them, but I put another 70,000km on them and averaged about 54 MPG. So no complaints at all there!

I cant comment on the H727's as I've never used them, but plenty of people here at PC have said good things about them. From what I can gather they're a winter tire that's probably not as lower rolling resistance as the K415's. Can anyone using the K415's comment on their fuel efficiency?

 

Hi mabordo. Take a look at the following thread: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...0-how-your-hankook-h727-tires-holding-up.html

Most people were reasonably happy with the H727's but many people did report some loss of MPG's over the stock tires. Considering that other options may give an MPG boost (over the original tires) then the economics of a 5% difference in FE that I posted above may be close to the mark here.

 

That's great to hear. Thank you for reporting back and please keep us updated after you get 10k or more on them. It would be interesting to see how good they get when the tread wears done to what your old tires were at.