Highest treadwear, LRR tire for the money! Researched suggestions please

Ive has the Bridgestone Turanza Serenities on it 2010 bought from Costco on our Prius for 70 k miles now and there is still 6/32nds still left on them.

600 tread wear rating and they are quiet.

$360 out the door when we bought them and have gotten them rotated and balanced for the life of the tire at Costco, so another bonus.

Averaging 50 mpg too.

If I still have our Prius when these wear out, I’m buying another set.

 

Maybe something in this article will help.

"The longest-wearing tire was the Pirelli P4 Four Seasons Plus, which could last about 100,000 miles."

The Truth About Tire Treadwear - Consumer Reports

 

It's a good question, and I am enjoying the replies, but how does a person even begin to weigh treadwear vs rolling resistance vs price? For instance, is 10% better mileage worth 10% less tread life over a 50,000 mile lifespan when the tires cost $360 and fuel averages $3.00 per gallon? The math is too much for me!

 

IMHO, way too many variables to be taken into consideration. No average drivers have enough experiences with different models of tires under the same conditions. If you are looking for professional test results, that also seem irrelevant for many average drivers, for those test results often do not reflect real life treadwear or mpg. Even the cost of tire fluctuate from day to day for the same tire. That's just my 2c.

 

Yeah, these threads pop up from time to time. There's no single correct answer. Lots of pros and cons. What you get will always be a trade-off.

I think I'm outa adages, lol.

 

it's a simple calculation of total cost where one accounts for tire replacement and fuel cost. All it's needed is tire cost, tire life, fuel price, and MPG.

 

Math might be simple, but the collecting meaningful data is not. Tire cost change everyday, tread life is not as advertised for many, fuel price is never constant, and MPG hits also quite variable. Even with the exactly the same tire brand and car model, if you ask those questions to 100 people, you will probably get 100 different answers.

 

Ecopia EP422s? They are inexpensive, very low rolling resistance, and should have good tire life. They won't win a tire life competition versus the very best, but they may very well may save you enough fuel over their lifetime to make up for it.

 

Treadwear is elusive at best. What the manufacturer says and what people actually get can vary greatly. I have never got more than 55,000 miles out of all the tires I have ever bought including Michelin. I don't care about the mileage warranty, I end up changing them because of age or if I loose one a lot of the time I will change them all, I hate mismatched tires.

 

I have taken advantage of treadware warranty, once: Michelin's at the wear bars at half the warranted miles. Tire store contacted Michelin, and got the next set for half price. Nowadays though it'd be hard for me to take advantage of warranty, for various reasons. Also, makes you wonder about their mileage claims.

 

Since you asked...Michelin Defenders...hands down. Have had then on several vehicles (including both Gen III Prii) and the TCO and road safety for these wins every time. You can buy " Best MPG" tires and pick up 2-3 mpg but the trade off is less mileage/warranty/use. This is like an oil thread...pick your own poison and justify that choice how ever you want.

 

30,000 on my Continental True Contacts. They don't even show any signs of wear. I average 47mpg.
Don't really know if they are noise because I listen to podcasts. And I guess it's louder than any noise.

 

I have near 70,000 miles on Continental PureContacts and still legally good, but will have to be replaced before winter. but slightly more noisy than average and NOT LRR! lost about 10% MPG on them (in city driving, less on hwy) vs stock ecopias that lasted about 40,000 miles. my quick calculation gives me I lost way over $300 on that MPG hit in those 70,000 miles, that would buy me a set of ecopias that are LRR, but wearing quicker. It's a wash considering fuel price at this level. if fuel cost goes up, LRR tires are a bit cheaper.

 

I would be happy with 70,000 miles! But I think I'll get more than that if the 30,000 is any indicator.
For me, my Prius is pretty quite. A lot more than my 2002 Town & Country with 380,000 miles.
Having to wait for the lazy stupid people at walfart to install the tires is a royal pain. I have mounted, balanced,
and installed, do the paper work in an hour for all 4 wheels, easily. It takes them 2 hours. That's $300 of my time!!!
The LESS I have to go there the better.
I would replace my tires during my lunch break, AND eat, in that hour. I'm looking into getting a used tire mounting and
balancing machine so I can do it myself.

 

For me Ecopia 422 Plus was a biggest disappointment. I had them on Gen3 replacing OEM Ecopia EP20, and later on my old Civic Hybrid. First, they have at least three different iterations of tread patterns and specs bearing the same exact name. If you are not careful, you can end up with mix of totally different tires on your car. Second, my Ecopia 422 Plus with 60k miles tread warning lasted only ~35K. This maybe due to alignment issue I had on the car, but still I doubt they will last 60K even on a perfectly aligned car. Third, while they were extremely fuel efficient averaging 52mpg on my Gen3, they became extremely noisy as tread worn out. Fourth, even with plenty of tread left, tires were very slippery on snow or on ice. I kept them on two winters, but never felt sure footed.

I just put Michelin Xi3 snows on my PRIME, and the OEM Dunlop that came off had 4/32-5/32 tread left after only 20K miles on them. I can probably get one more summer season from them but that's it. I am starting to look for next set of summer tires now. By giving enough time to shop around, you can usually get very good deals and never pay MSRP on brand tires. At this point, I am thinking of getting something more comfortable than economical. Goodyear is having black friday sale now for many of tires. Goodyear Assurance ComforTred Touring which gets good review on comfort ground sells for $114/tires but now they are discounting $100 off plus $160 rebate on set of 4 purchased on Goodyear credit card. That's $49/tire. Fantastic deal. Assurance ComforTred Touring Tires | Goodyear Tires

If I did not purchase Xice for winter already, I would have tried Goodyear Assurance® WeatherReady. This tire has snowflake with mountain logo suitable for snow, but it is all season tire. Tire Rack consumer reviews rated this tire at the top crown. It sells for $129, but with Goodyear deal now, you get $100 off and $200 rebate making it only $54/tire. Assurance® WeatherReady® Tires | Goodyear Tires

 

I liked the Bridgestone Ecopia EP20, at least for feel and mpg, but they do wear pretty fast, get noisy when worn, and are treacherous in snow when worn. And they only come in 195/65R15, so a limitted market.

And yeah, the "multiple flavour" EP422...: they seem like a company just "mailing it in", that mess drags on, they don't seem to care.