2017 Prime Tires

All seasons reduce fuel economy in the summer and provide poor traction in the winter.

Get a set of good eco tires for the summer and a set of quality winter tires for the winter.

 

Welcome!

Where you live, I'd get four winter tires for snow and four summer tires for summer, especially if you use snow tires on your other cars. On a snowy road, you want traction on all four corners, not just the front. In fact, losing traction in the back is worse than losing it in the front. Either way, you will, at some point, have to stop. Stopping distance is already increased in the snow; no point in increasing it even more.

As for all-season and fuel economy, I have Yokohama Avid Ascend GT all season tires and average 5.0 miles per kWh (often much higher), which is the same as I had with the Toyo Nanos the car came with. They are spectacular in the rain and did fine in the light snow I got to drive in one time since getting the tires.

 

Yap, I agree with others. Get 4 snow tires for winter. If you have never used snow tires on your car, you will notice a huge difference in ability to stop and maneuver on snowy roads. I have lived in area that get plowed very quickly and salt heavily so for a several days of snow, 5-6 times during winter can be handled without snow tires. But after having dedicated snow tires on my car, there just is no way going back to all season tires in winter time, even only for 10-20 days at most on driving on snow/ice in our area.

This thread will help you which or what snow tires you should get: GET YOUR DEDICATED SNOW TIRES NOW !!! | PriusChat
It's coming soon, so don't wait. Then you have all winter to think about which summer tires you should buy comes spring. You will most likely ends up buying all-season tires. Some are claimed to have LRR or eco tires, but you can decide what is the most important feature you are looking in tires. For winter tires, it is the winter road grip and stopping ability, but for summer, it can be economy, or long tread, or comfort, or if you really want performance, then summer performance tires maybe right for you.

 

You could check out tires that are all weather tread such as Michelin All Weather or Nokian All Weather. I use the Nokian all weather low roll resistance and after charging I show 59 plus kilometer ev range always! They give excellent traction during winter months and are not noisy during summer mths. I've used thei tire brand for 14 years !

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Please DO NOT put winter tires only on the front axle. This is dangerous.
The imbalance in traction between front and rear makes your car super prone to spinning out.

Have a look at this video:

IMO, the best option is 4 winter tires for the winter and 4 summer tires for the summer.
Most cost effective in the long run and safest option.

Balancing cost/performance, I usually pay extra for a good set of winter tires and settle for an average set of summers.
Keep in mind you'll take a pretty good hit on fuel efficiency with non eco summer tires. The advantage to non-eco tires is they tend to last longer, cost less and have better traction.

I'm not a fan of the "All Weather" tires. They're expensive, wear out faster and perform poorly in both winter and summer.
Only advantage I see is you don't have to change your tires every season.

 

I know I'm going to be odd man out here, and I even know folks will say I'm wrong or nuts. But here we go.

I started using Michelin X-Ice 3 tires on my 2005 Prius sometime around 2015. I put them on an extra set of Gen 2 wheels I bought at that time, planning to get summer tires again and swap twice per year. Never had to! They're great in winter, summer, and everything in between. I put on 195/65 rather than the 185/65 which is stock on Gen 2. I forget exactly how long they lasted, I think 45K or so, and I could have squeezed more out of them, but (thanks to a sale at BJ's Wholesale Club, a rebate, etc.) I chose to put new sets on two cars at once, namely:

In September 2017, I bought a Prime. I immediately bought a set of them for it, again one size up from stock, 205/65R15 XL 99T.

I put them on with 707 miles on the car, and sold my stock Toyos with 707 original miles on them to a member of this forum who liked commuting from ME to MA on them. I think he was happy to find the exact type the car comes with, made in Japan? From my experience on the Gen 2, I knew I'd run the 205/65 Michelin snows year round, so I put them on the Prime's original wheels, and put a new set of 195s on my 2005. Then I signed back up to Priuschat and posted about it. Plus about the stupid fob design change that caused me to lose a fob for the brand new car. ;-)

On a solo roadtrip of 8338 miles in May of 2018, I took them right up to the rev limiter (at 104mph indicated it acts exactly as if you'd set the cruise control on 104, I saw it overshoot to 105 briefly only once) in Nevada, and outran faster cars through steep hairpin switchbacks in the Arizona mountains in crazy triple-digit heat. Despite that and other times I ran them hard, they lasted me 63K miles, all at 50psi. I was shocked at the performance and the durability, having thought that 45-50K was likely after my Gen 2 experience with the 195s. But I think due to the XL designation on this size and the extremely high load range 99, it barely deforms under the weight of the car and hence lasts longer. Maybe it would wear out at 45K on the SUV/minivan-weight vehicles its load range is primarily used on.

I know I'll hear "Toyota doesn't recommend that size, your speedometer will be wrong and your braking and acceleration will be terrible" or "only maniacs use 50psi" or "snow tires don't last" or "snow tires don't handle well in summer, my XYZ brand blah-blahs are better" or "snow tires shouldn't be driven above 77mph" or "you're taking an mpg and performance hit in summer". These are T-rated 118mph tires, 10 load ranges stronger than stock, and make the Prime handle like a race car year round at 50psi. I have no idea how they do at 35psi, because I've only driven them at 50psi.

My mpg is superb, especially when you consider that my speed is higher than indicated (or actually, just not less than indicated as is true on stock tires, per GPS) and the distance covered is actually higher than indicated (per Google Maps). I get 61mpg cruising at 61mph; 42mpg at 84mph, and around 80mpg at 40mph, all day long except in dense New England winter air. Last week, I twice drove my most common round trip of 108 miles, on 0.91 gallons one day, and 0.95 gallons another day. So if anyone wants to say I'm only getting 50mpg, then they'd have to also say I'm getting 70 miles of EV range, which is not the case.

When it came time to replace them, I got the same brand and type, but went even taller with 205/70R15. I do not recommend the 70 series for most people, but upping the ground clearance one more time was worth it to me. This is a different car, and to me a better one, after you don't have to worry as much about breaking stuff underneath it from lousy ground clearance. It's another reason I go to 50psi. The taller sidewalls made the 205/70 a bit squirmy and sloppy relatively speaking, while the 205/65 is more along the lines of "twitchy fast reacting" which is typical of any tire run at 50psi. If that bothers you, pick a tire pressure.

To date, none of my friends who have taken my advice in person to get the Michelin X-Ice 3 for any type of Prius, have regretted it, whether they went with the stock size or one size up. They all love them, and they love not swapping tires twice a year or slipping around on all-seasons in the winter. If anyone here took my advice in 2017 and it didn't work out, I've not heard about it yet. But tires are a personal choice, inflation pressure is a personal choice, choosing ride vs handling is a personal choice, lowering versus lifting ride height is a personal choice, etc. So, all I can say is that I stumbled onto a tire choice that I ended up loving, and I dread the day when they are no longer available.

 

Good write! I agree 100%. I do similiar, but not so aggressive.

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My Blizzak WS80s were almost worn out this spring, so I ran them all summer. They didn't wear any faster in the summer than in the winter. They were not the best tires for any season. They were loud and didn't have impressive grip in snow or on dry pavement.

The best tires I've ever used are Michelin LTX MS2 on my SUV. They were better in the winter than the Blizzaks on the Prime, although it's hard to compare very different vehicles. And they never let me down off road, despite not looking anything like all terrain tires. So it makes sense that Michelin can make a tire that works well in all seasons even if it's not marketed that way.

I just put on a set of the new X-Ice "Snow" tires. As the normal pressure, 36psi, they feel a little like I'm driving on Jell-O. Grip seems good so far. I'll give higher pressure a try. So anyone else reading this might want to pick up some well-proven Xi-3 if you can find them, at least until some more people can report experience with the "Snows".

 

X-ice will be excellent snow and ice tire. I pump mine too 47 lbs. And the car rides and feels great. Just experiment till you like it! P.s. i don't use Mich. but maybe next set. I have Nokian g4 on know. I use these winter and summer. They are all weather. I'm going too park my prime for the winter as the windshields and nose break too easy. I did have a 3- m bra installed too protect the paint however! I'm not sure if that will help the glass nose

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