New tires?? Need help!

With 5/32" remaining tread depth you'll be fine for some time, at least through to fall. But good to start researching. Nothing special about dealership's tires, good chance their prices will be a bit higher. Don't completely discount them, but look around too.

 

Rolling resistance is important, especially with a lot of hybrid owners. The stock tires were likely chosen at least in part for the low rolling resistance, and if you just replace them, most tires will be higher rolling resistance, impact your mpg.

Also road feel, noise. And to some extent "handling", though personally I don't care too much about high speed cornering, lol.

Plug in your car on TireRack, see what they're suggesting. You can set it to filter results, show only LRR for example. Regardless of where you buy, TR is a good window shopping resource.

I've ended up at Costco tire center for the last few years, though I did buy our snow tires through a dealership, since I was getting rims as well, and there were some fit questions. They are most knowledgeable about Prius, Tire Pressure Monitors Sensors, and similar. And Costco installers can be right pains, and make stupid errors too, so...

 

Tires are crucial in determining a car's handling and performance envelope and I think you're too readily dismissing their impact. For example; with ADVAN AD08 tires installed on my car, braking distance, cornering stability, and steering response was tremendously improved and windshear became negligible. However, running tires that sticky (they are considered near-racing tires and many people use them in competition) has very significant impact on milage (and a higher rolling resistance tire will have more resistance to acceleration as well).

That said, most typical passenger car tires from major brands are pretty good. You can buy from pretty much anywhere and get them mounted anywhere with a mounter. I would recommend you go somewhere tire rack recommends since those shops tend to be at least minimally careful about not damaging your TPMS sensors.

I highly recommend getting winter tires if you live somewhere that gets significant snowfall - it makes an enormous difference in the car's capability in the snow.

 

New tires have a tread depth of 10/32". Used tires reach the legal limit tread depth at 2/32". Hence your tires still have ~40% tread life left if you are only concerned about what is legal.

If it is raining, you would want a minimum tread depth of 4/32" for safety. If it is snowing, 6/32" is considered the minimum safe tread depth.

Hence, if you do not expect much rain or snow where you are going, no worries about buying tires at this time. However check the tire pressure and bring it up as needed. I use 44/42 psi on my Prius tires.

When it is time to replace the tires, I usually buy either from Costco or Discount Tire (aka America's Tire in California.)

 

don't buy some cheapo import junk tires. get name brand tires: bridgestone, Michelin, continental, etc. I wouldn't trust my life to tires made in china or korea. and the junk oe integritys make me nervous as heck. you get what you pay for with tires.

 

there's a lot more to tyres than mets the eye. read about peoples experiences here, you don't get a second chance.

 

Another tidbit about tread depth, if it makes a difference: In my state's commercial drivers license manual the requirements for tread depth are 4/32 front, 2/32 rear.

I'm on my fourth set of tires on the Prius and have bought them either from Costco or Discount, always different higher end options, and have never noticed a difference or had a problem.

 

Consumer Reports provides the best info on tires. Pay little attention to unscientific "opinions".

 

Ditto on the recommendations on Tirerack.com.
Do some research, shop around (I go to Mavis Discount Tires), and, as mentioned, stay with brand name tires (I have Michelin Defenders).
You still have enough tread to get you through the summer, so don't sweat it.
The dealer's "special" tires probably have a markup for the dealer's boat payment. With a comment like that, I would take anything that dealer says with a big grain of salt...

 

You don't really say where you are located. Nor, do you really say what type of driving you do, but you do say you want comfort. So, if weather is not a big issue and MPG is not a big issue, I would say Goodyear ComfortTred.

But, any of the following, which were taken from the discount tire website, will do "O.K."
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Continental ControlContact Tour AS

Fuel Efficient Tire

Average Customer Review

For Your Vehicle (2) 9.5

For All Vehicles (22) 8.8

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Size 185 /65 R15 88T SL BSW
Warranty 90,000 Miles
Load Range SL
Speed Rating T*
Availability In Stock
*Meets or exceeds original equipment speed rating.

Delivers long wear, reliable safety, and uncompromised performance. ECO Plus technology.

About Our Pricing

$101.00each

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Michelin Premier A/S

Fuel Efficient Tire

Average Customer Review

For Your Vehicle (1) 9.0

For All Vehicles (4) 9.2

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Size 185 /65 R15 88H SL BSW
Warranty 60,000 Miles
Load Range SL
Speed Rating H*
Availability Special Order
*Meets or exceeds original equipment speed rating.

Delivers the safety that Michelin is known for.

About Our Pricing

$124.00each

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Michelin Defender

Fuel Efficient Tire

Average Customer Review

For Your Vehicle (10) 9.0

For All Vehicles (131) 9.0

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Size 185 /65 R15 88T SL BSW
Warranty 90,000 Miles
Load Range SL
Speed Rating T*
Availability In Stock
*Meets or exceeds original equipment speed rating.

Confident driving through exceptional safety, longevity and a quiet comfortable ride.

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$114.00each

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Goodyear Assurance Touring

Average Customer Review

For Your Vehicle (1) 8.7

For All Vehicles (22) 8.9

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Size 185 /65 R15 88H SL VSB
Warranty 70,000 Miles
Load Range SL
Speed Rating H*
Availability Special Order
*Meets or exceeds original equipment speed rating.

All-season, affordably priced tire with great traction, handling, and wear.

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$105.00each

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Goodyear Assurance ComforTred Touring

Average Customer Review

For Your Vehicle (0) Not Reviewed

For All Vehicles (8) 8.4

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Size P 185 /65 R15 86T SL VSB
Warranty 80,000 Miles
Load Range SL
Speed Rating T*
Availability Special Order
*Meets or exceeds original equipment speed rating.

A premium tire offering a smooth, quiet ride and refined handling.

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$120.00each

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Michelin Energy Saver A/S

Fuel Efficient Tire

Average Customer Review

For Your Vehicle (1) 8.4

For All Vehicles (28) 8.4

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Size P 185 /65 R15 86T SL BSW
Warranty 65,000 Miles
Load Range SL
Speed Rating T*
Availability Special Order
*Meets or exceeds original equipment speed rating.

All-season tire for passenger cars & minivans.

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$108.00each

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Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max

Fuel Efficient Tire

Average Customer Review

For Your Vehicle (4) 6.1

For All Vehicles (18) 7.2

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Size 185 /65 R15 88H SL VSB
Warranty 65,000 Miles
Load Range SL
Speed Rating H*
Availability Special Order
*Meets or exceeds original equipment speed rating.

A fuel-efficient tire that provides confident wet and dry traction.

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$88.00each

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Michelin Defender

Review this Tire

Size 185 /65 R15 88T SL BSW
Warranty 90,000 Miles
Load Range SL
Speed Rating T*
Availability Special Order
*Meets or exceeds original equipment speed rating.

Confident driving through exceptional safety, longevity and a quiet comfortable ride.

About Our Pricing

$119.00each

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How come no Bridgestone tires on that list? Shop around for the best deal, Costco usually has good deals, and look for manufacture rebates. You can search on the web, by tire brand.

 

I haven't taken the time to read through the responses yet, so hopefully I am not repeating anything, but one thing I want to point out is that many users will say getting a "low rolling resistance" (LRR) tire is critical.

Take it from a guy with two Prii, one with Michelin Energy Savers (LRR) and one with Firestone Affinitys (just about the cheapest tire you can buy, definitely not LRR, very poorly rated anywhere you look); LRR does NOT make a big difference. The Firestone Affinity tires I have (again, terribly rated online, I only have them because they were on the car when I bought it) perform just as well in every regard as the Michelins that were twice as expensive and very highly rated universally. I have been behind the wheel for over 10,000 miles on each of those tires, and there is NO discernable difference whatsoever.

The Prius with the Michelins had Pirelli P4's before. The Pirellis (not LRR) got about 3-4 MPG better (and the Michelins are well past the break-in point by now), although they were noticeably louder.

Another thing is that user reviews on tires are often pretty terrible. People are very prone to justifying their purchases of pricey items by viewing them through rose-colored glasses, and I don't blame them. If I paid $120/tire when I could have paid $60/tire, I would look for every reason I could find to love those $120 tires. I have to be getting SOMETHING for that extra $60/tire, right?

I know this isn't helpful in you choosing, because basically I'm telling you to ignore all the advice you're going to get. My simplest advice would be to go to a local tire shop (I go to Discount Tire, personally), find a tire that's rated for the type of driving you're going to be doing, ask them which tire in that class is generally viewed most favorably (by them and by customers), and go with that if it meets your budget.

Tirerack is a good resource as well, but it's a little easy to get sucked into a researching black hole there. I spent hours on that site researching before I ended up pulling the trigger on the Energy Savers, and it turns out all the reasons tirerack reviewers praised the Energy Savers were a bunch of bologna. They're good tires, sure. But I could have saved a lot of money and gone another route if I hadn't trusted the user reviews so much.

BTW, since I'm telling you to disregard all the advice you're going to get, you can go ahead and ignore everything I just said.

 

Because the list was giant-sized -- so I restricted it to Goodyear, Michelin and Conti

 

I was talked out of my usual go to tire for Goodyear Assurance tires. They suck. Not a nice ride. Have had the best luck with $60 Kumho's. Have them on all my cars. Awesome nice & quiet ride and good wet tire too but don't wear well. I don't care about wear I want a nicer ride.
G2 Prius is unforgiving ride.