Low Rolling Resistance replacement tires: Current List

To maintain tire pressure do you keep a compressor at home?

 

Yes, but my pancake compressor has many more uses than just for filling tires.

 

I have not heard much about the Nokian Entyre, which is a LLR tire with the factory promise of increased MPG's.
Has any of our forum members have any info?

 

Interesting manufacturing process. Not too spendy and comes in 205/50/17!

There is also the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus which is a newer tire. Tire rack has it listed as all season grand touring. Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus



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Hi. I just thought I'd add one more opinion of the Continental ProContact with EcoPlus. I've had them now since January. I have not had them in really bad weather conditions of the sort that got me stuck with the original tires (mostly because I didn't know how to disable traction control, but also because they sucked in snow) but have driven with them through some snow and crud.

The new tires are dramatically better in any wet or snowy weather. Safety is important too. These got a great write-up in Consumer Reports for traction. They did worse than the Michelin defenders only in tread wear and were better in two other categories, one of them being snow traction. I can live with worse tread wear after reading that the defenders cost someone on this forum 5 MPG.

Anyway, I've now had these for over 2,500 miles. For the first 2,000, with brand new tread and cold temperatures, I was worried. The gas mileage during that period was significantly worse than with the old tires. But, so were the conditions under which I was driving. So, I tried to ignore that.

From the time that the weather warmed up, I have been tying or beating record gas mileage from the original tires. One one approximately 100 mile trip on a fresh tank of gas, I watched during the flat drive on cruise control at around 63 MPH as the MPG gradually increased to just over 60. It wend down from that for the rest of the tank. But, that was a clear record for me. Previously, I had gotten 59 on a similar drive.

I would also add that the car feels better through corners than it did with the original tires. And, I liked the way it felt before. Now it feels great.

So, now that the tires are broken in and we seem to be getting the same or better mileage than before, I can say that I would highly recommend these tires, especially for anyone who ever drives in bad weather.

 

Talk me out of this F8L! I just got through going America's site about three hours ago. How ironic that you just posted this:

I have a set of Lexus hybrid 17" that I just ordered snow tires for the 3-4 months I might use them. Some one turned me on to the 17" $90 Michelin Xice2's at Tire Rack.
I am right on the verge of going in tomorrow to America's Tire (Discount Tire) for their big two day sale and getting:

TSW 16X7 Mallory Wheels
$153 X = $622
Bridgestone Ecopia 422 195/55/16
$118 X 4 =$472
Total = $1,094
-$100 Wheel Rebate Card
-$50 Wheel Using America's Tire Card
-$75 Tire Rebate Card
-$25 Tire America's Tire Card

Final price but before mounting/bal. TPMS
$844.
I am thinking the Ecopia 422 195/55/16's won't give me too much of a hit in the good driving months especially since they are 195's. Talk me out of this. I already applied for and got approval for an America's Card.

 

They talked me out of the 195's at America's because they said the load rating was too little for the car. Too bad, I was looking forward to a thinner tire.The good new is that the 205 Ecopia was less at America.
Going from a 6 1/2" rim to a 7" and a 195 to 205 plus the 35mm offset has me a bit concerned about clearances. I am not going to lower it cause the Warden (wife) has not seen a curb she does not want to be more intimate with....So I think I will be OK.
So I got 205/55/16 422Ecopia set for $332 after rebates at America's
Got the TSW wheels for $420 after rebates at Discount Tire Direct.

 

Just noticed on TireRack, indicated as "new": Bridgestone Potenza RE97AS (Grand Touring All Season), available in both 215/45R17 and 205/50R17, and listed as LRR.

Is this a new offering? I'm not that up on it.

 

*News Flash* I now have the Michelin Energy Savers A/S on my Prius! I had called another Costco location and heard the same story - they would have to order them but they were not available at the warehouse or even at Michelin. So today I thought I'd give the Fredericksburg VA location another call just on the off-chance that they might still have the four ES tires they were holding for someone. They told me they had four of them - I asked them to check that they weren't on hold and they said that no, they were available. So I drove down there ... it's about 70 miles away and should have taken about 1 hour 10 minutes - but it took me 2 1/2 hours because of horrendous traffic. Anyway, they did the exchange - I had had the Primacy tires for 15 days and put exactly (39421 - 40421) miles on them. My trip down there (more downhill but horrible traffic) with the Primacies ended up with 50 mpg on the display. My trip back, mainly uphill but no traffic jams, ended at 53 mpg. Of course, it isn't a fair comparison because of the different conditions.

And I was refunded $33 because the ES cost less!

I'll keep y'all posted.

 

I still believe that the best possible tire for the Prius is the Michelin Energy Saver AS tire.
I know for a fact that you will get 65,000 miles out of this tire. On my 2nd set now with 15,000 miles on them
so far and they are wearing perfectly and MPG's are 2-3 mpg over any other tire out there that I know of.

With my first set I had nearly 70,000 miles on them and I never had a flat and they wore perfectly. They don't
wander at high speeds like the Ecopia 422's did when I had them for 3,000 miles during Costco's 30 day money back guarantee. The Michelin's that I replaced them with only cost me about $50.00 more and it was money well spent.

I am pretty sure I am probably the only forum member who has 85,000 miles of use from these tires.

 

That's great! My only concern is that I will probably need to get snow tires for the winter months if I continue my commute to Harpers Ferry WV. What sort of weather conditions are you driving in?

 

I think it looks like a good all season and like the LRR rating but I haven't been able to find many reviews anywhere, must be a newer product. Tire rack has had them for a month or so but no reviews or survey yet. I'm holding out for info but may just go with the MXM4's since Michelin has the $70 rebate and they're definitely agreed to be pretty good by the forum.

 

^ There's a couple of reviews at TireRack, first one very positive, second a grumble about snow traction.

Are you using 17" rims? They don't come in 15". Our Canadian model (there's currently no way to show in my signature) is Touring, same 17" rims as US V model.

 

Mostly wet roads, we get very little snow on the coast.....

 

I think for those of us who care about driving in snow, the Michelin Energy Saver is out. It gets horrible ratings for that in Consumer Reports. PriusRos, I'd check out the Continental ProContact with EcoPlus. My wife and I both agree that these do far better than the original equipment tires on snow and even in rain. Consumer Reports agrees, giving them a slightly higher rating than even the Michelin Defenders.

The Continentals also appear to be beating the original equipment tires on fuel efficiency now that they're broken in. And, if I remember correctly, they're also slightly better rated on treadwear than the Michelin Energy Savers, though far worse than the Defenders. Others here have posted that the Defenders are horrible for gas mileage though. So, we decided that the Contis are the best balance of efficiency and safety.

As an aside, I had never before considered any tire other than Michelin or Pirelli. So, I'm surprised to be so happy with my choice.