My apologies for another tire thread

I'll apologize up front for yet another one of these but choosing a set of tires for our new "used" 2008 Touring is driving me crazy. Tire size P195/55R/16.

I drive conservatively and am predominantly on dry roads here in southern California but do occasionally face a wet road. Weekdays are limited to very short (less than 10 mile) local trips but weekends involve 65-70 mph trips of 120-150 miles each way. This summer will be a trip to Colorado and Utah, next summer we're going to Georgia and Illinois.

Looking around these forums as well as looking at Tire Rack and a few other sites I thought I had settled on the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus as a decent gas mileage tire with low noise and comfort. My local America's Tire that has never let me down blasted it for the Prius, though, stating they wind up replacing them quickly as too noisy and getting poor gas mileage on the hybrids compared to other tires. The Tire Rack testing I was looking at was on heavier BMWs, not Prii.

Whatever I get in that size has to be ordered so it wasn't like they were trying to sell me what was in stock. I've been a Michelin person for 35 years but I'm not convinced the Michelin Premier A/S is that great and will provide gas mileage close to the Michelin Energy Savers we had on the old car.. For the money the tire shop was suggesting the Yokohama yk580.

I can't find much of anything that gives a rough comparison of fuel economy, riding comfort, etc. to the previous Energy Savers we were happy with. Any idea of the mileage percentage hit I should expect comparing these to new Energy Savers (if they were even available)? Which of these tires is a good fit for the driving we'll be doing?

Thanks in advance.

Well, after another night of online searching I really couldn't find any reason NOT to go with the Pirellis.

I went down to the shop and talked to a different rep, the rep I dealt with for the last car (he was off yesterday). It appears the guy I talked to Friday has a thing against Pirellis in general and also was not making distinctions between the 7 different versions of the P7s. As soon as I mentioned the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus today the rep I've dealt with before broke into a wide smile. His dad has them on his Prius and loves them. His dad did notice about a 1-2% drop in gas mileage over time from the Energy Savers he had on his car previously but he's thrilled with the ride the Cinturatos give. He also said he's not seeing many he sells coming back.

Anyway, we went ahead and ordered the Pirellis and paid for them so we can get the $60 dollar rebate VISA card that goes with them this month. The tires will arrive and be installed sometime this week. With the money we're saving we're going to order the navigation screen sun visor and the OEM rear bumper protector offered in the priuschat shop above.

 

The Energy Saver A/S apparently doesn't come in the 195/55R/16 size of the 2008 Touring and I didn't want to change anything by going to a different size. None of our vehicles have seen snow in 10 years so we aren't concerned about that aspect of the tires, either.

 

No Costco membership and no Consumer Reports membership. The odds of Consumer Reports testing the Pirellis on a Gen II Prius are so slim anyway is the reason I even asked here. Tire Rack tested them but not against Energy Savers and not on a Prius.

As for paying more at America's Tire/Discount Tire, I'm willing to pay a little more for the awesome and pleasant customer service I've received in their stores across the country for now over 20 years. As a former corporate customer service trainer I understand that getting it right is not cheap and they really work hard at it, from the interactions I've had with the corporate offices all the way to the guy rotating the tires for free in North Carolina, 2,000 miles from where the tires were purchased, to the shop in Texas putting a free Michelin on my Blazer because a belt separated on a cross country trip. They've given me no reason NOT to remain a loyal customer.

As for the tire perks for employees' families, that may well be but I've been very pleased with every tire they've recommended and sold to me. Many of my friends and family feel the same.

 

You were right, exstudent. We are happy with the Pirellis, at least right out of the starting gate. Running them on a couple of 200 mile highway trips to visit family, the quiet and comfortable ride is a big difference from the Coopers that were on this car and the Michelin Energy Saver A/S we had on our past Prius.

We'll see if our satisfaction stays as the tires face the test of time. I think it will as long as we take care of them. Gas mileage has taken a hit (4 - 6%) from the Michelins but this is a different car and these tires are not broken in yet. I also may bump these up a few PSI from the 38 -36 I had in the other tires since these are max 51 on the sidewall and the others were only 44.

 

Now that we have 6,500 miles on these tires I decided to give a little update on these Pirelli Cinturato P7 A/S tires. The tires have been from here to Albuquerque to Denver and back and handled it very well. They are fine, even in 110* heat at 80 mph. They are quiet enough but the Prius isn't a particularly quiet car when it comes to road noise anyway.

The gas mileage continues to improve. I think it's going to wind up about the same as we had on our other Prius with the Michelin Energy Saver A/S. That's the blue one in my signature.

One really nice side note with these tires. The speedometer perfectly matches the Garmin GPS unit we usually take with us in the car, right down to the single mph. 80 is 80, 60 is 60, 35 is 35. That is real peace of mind for me.