Tires

I am very pleased with the OEM Goodyears on my '05 Prius. Car tracks well and is much quieter than my son's Honda Accord or my wife's old minivan on the highway. I have run tire pressures from stock to 40/38 with excellent results. As a bit of background, I am a lifelong car enthusiast and I have owned everything from hard core sports cars to luxury cars over the last 30 years. My favorite brand of tires is Michelin, they are more expensive than many other brands, but I've had nothing but excellent experiences with Michelin. Their Energy MXV4 is a low-rolling resistance tire that, IMHO, would be a better match for the Prius than the Falkens.

 

sorry visitor, you sound like a tire salesman not a concerned Prius owner, no phone number! IMHO...

 

Visitor, I think maybe you should rethink your price. You can buy brand new Integrity tires on Tirerack.com for $51 a tire

 

He quoted $57 for the Falken, not the integrities.

 

I did some research on the Falkens and they have received excellent reviews. I also see they have silica and a low rolling resistance. And priced at half the Michelins. Visitor, please post your impressions after putting some miles on these Falkens, including any changes in your mpg.

 

I don't know Dan... In his second post it sounds like he was trying to sell his old Integrity's for $57???? But I guess it could be either.

 

Well, if I have to replace it now, I would pick
Yokohama Avid H4 (#3 on the list)
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresult...y.jsp?type=HPAS
See the review among high-performance all season (#3).
#1 is Yoko V4: there is no 185/65-15
#2 has the size but 460-A-A is not as good as the #3's 500-AA-A rating. Not to mention, you save about $4 per tire compared with #2.

I would go to Wheel Works and ask them to match the price of tirerack.com. You can walk out of there for about $250 (all included)+Tax, knowing that you have a good choice possible.

Michelin? They are good tires but sometimes, overrated and othertimes, too expensive for the extra. The Michelin that came with our '01 Odyssey MXV(?4) was really aweful. It screamed at turns, lost of traction when starting offline, etc. I kept complaining to my wife, and she always said, "slow down!". When it was time, I replaced them with BF Goodrich at Costco for a whole lot less ($80 installed each). That really opened her eyes. The old problems are all gone. My co-worker also had the same Michelin on his Odyssey, I encouraged him to do the same, and he did. Boy, did I make him a believer now, believing in "Michelin is either over-priced or overrated."

However, I must say that if you want great tires assuming money is no issue, Michelin do have certain great tires, especially ultra-high performance ones. I am on my 5th set of tires on my '98 BMW 540iA with 70K miles. I have tried many brands. The best bang-for-buck is ... Korean! Kumho-MX. What a surprise! But, if you know Kumho produce racing tires, you won't be puzzled.

 

Hello,

After looking at many different tires, I have decided on the Michelin
Hydro Edge.

All my investigations involved salesmen, tire reps and owners observations
on many E- threads.

I live in Minnesota, so wet, icey and snow covered roads are always a issue.

I have driven the Integirdys in the rain and I am not impressed with turning traction and trying to get up a steep driveway. These tires wander at highway speed if the road is textured.

Even my wife commented on slippage while turning a corner when the street was wet. (the first indication is the VSC cutting in and out).

The Hydro Edge has very high wet traction rating and high rating for snow
also there is a $50 rebate from Michelin until Sept 3, 2005.

Just my two cents worth of opinion.

Tom

ps I also get a 30 day trail on these tires so I can always change my mind

 

HNDRICKS10,
I am sure you have read this test,
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testRe...chelin&x=18&y=5
HydroEdge did well in the test ($98 per tire).
The 2nd place Bridgestone is not far off at $69 per tire.
HydroEdge is a good choice for $30 more.
$50 rebate helps, of course.

NOTE: HydroEdge has UTAQ rating of 70-A-B. The "B" is not impressive. You don't want to drive too fast for too long with them....

 

The stock tires are fine and wil last 40,000 miles.

 

My stock tires are dying at 30,000 miles on my '04 Prius -- I'm very interested in what visitor's impressions of the Falken's are. I too do not like the noise level of the Goodyear OEM tires.

Jeanne

 

The Goodyear Integrity appears to be a common "low bidder" installed as OEM on many cars. Nothing special about it.

Up here in Winnipeg we get "real" winter conditions, so ideally you run winter tires, preferably studded, in winter conditions. It really doesn't matter what the tire maker claims about their "all season" tire, in temps colder than -20 C, especially near -40, all-season tires become worthless. They just spin.

They Integrity on my '04 Prius did very poorly in our first surprise blizzard near the end of last October. I was backordered for winter tires and thought I'd swap the Integrity to Michelin Harmony.

At the same inflation pressure I noticed the Harmony rode a bit softer (Not as harsh), the highway tracking seemed much more stable, and the snow/ice traction was somewhat better. There was no difference in fuel economy.

In December my Dunlop Graspic DS-2 tires on steel rims finally arrived and I put them on. There is no comparison between dedicated sticky winter tires and "all season" unless you do the swap yourself and drive on slippery, heavily drifted over streets immediately afterwards.

As far as the Integrity being "special" or Low Rolling Resistance, they're also one of the cheapest tires out there. If they were that "special" they'd cost a whole lot more.

 

Let us know how you make out. The Integrity tires do SUCK big time. Cheap crap!! I changed mine a month after I bought them. I live in the NE so I bought Nokian 4 season tires. They're GREAT!!!!!! (say it like Tony the Tiger).

 

I'm nor sure if there was no further replies, or this is one of those posts that are missing right now.

At any rate, I did some research on TireRack.com and called around some resellers of GY Comfortreads. In the end, GY matched the cheapest price including the trade-ins. On top of that, GY is offering $50 mail-in rebate through Oct 10, so the total of 4 Comfortreads + installation/balance - trade-in - $50 mail-in rebate came down to $235, which is less than $60 per tire. I think this is a great deal...

If anyone is looking to trade in your Integrities for GY tires, now is a very good time!!!

 

I thought the Integrities rode fine, but was dissapointed when the wear bars came through at 20,000 miles-daily 3000 foot climb on a rough road.

I replaced them with supposed LRR Zexius tires and went from 49 MPG to 43 MPG with the same psi. Just a word of warning. I wish I had stuck with the Integrities.

 

This month Consumer Reports reviews tires. Their top pick was the Goodyear TripleTred. I still like my GY ComforTred tires. Good handling and low noise, even better than the TripleTred.