Hey guys, new to the forum. Wanted to ask what tires you guys are running on the Prius 5th Gen. I have a 2024 LE FWD and I live in Salt Lake City so mostly dry driving with a bit of wet and very mild winters. Im trying to find tires that focus on fuel economy because so far my MPG has been excellent and Im wondering how much further I can push it, especially with the price of gas and insurance right now. Currently, Im averaging 63-64 MPG each tank according to the Trip Computer. Napkin Math puts it closer to 62 MPG. Work is only 7 miles from home but I do take long trips once in a while such as going to Colorado once per year. The car is at 35K miles and the Toyo Extensa Tires that came from the dealership are pretty much completely dead. Since its the LE, the tire size is: 195/60R17. This oddball size does limit your options a fair bit. Tires I am most interested in so far: Top Pick - Bridgestone Ecopia EP422-Plus - Lowest Rolling resistance rating available in this tire size while still being a GT All-Season tire with decent grip in all conditions. 600 Treadwear Rating and known to last about 60K miles. Tires were released in 2015 so they are well-established. $195 Each Hankook Kinergy XP - A much newer tire technology released early 2024. It doesn't have a specific eco or rolling-resistance certification like the bridgestone, but it does have a more modern and more advanced Silica compound, is known for decently low rolling resistance, has a 720 treadwear and a 75,000 mile warranty. They even cost less at $180 each, but they can't offer the same fuel economy as the Ecopias, so over time the Ecopias fuel savings would likely make up the cost difference. Least Likely to buy - Goodyear Assurance Maxlife Gen 2 - Hugely Long lasting with an 820 Treadwear Rating and an 85,000 mile warranty, but its clearly compromised in exchange. The tires are known for sub-par heat dissipation and are known to be quite loud and firm. They also have the worst rolling resistance of the 3 options. They are also the most expensive at $200 each, but you can't help but be impressed by the tread life.
I’ve got 12000 miles on Ecopias. They seem to be working out so far as far as wear and mileage. Time will tell.
Thats decent but not all that impressive. Do you do mostly highway driving? Im mostly in town so my 62-64 MPG is because I can use EV Mode a lot when driving (40-55 MPH are my most used speeds). If you are averaging 58 MPG while mostly traveling at 70+ MPH where the car hardly ever uses EV Mode, then that is actually pretty impressive
I could but wouldn't 215mm width tires lower fuel economy, thus defeating the point of trying to find low rolling resistance tires?
Oh okay, thats insane. Sorry, didn't even realize it was a link, I thought it was just text. Well with incredible figures like that, the choice is pretty obvious. Ecopias it is. With the price of gas now even an extra 5 MPG saves you so much money that you can effectively pay for the tires in a couple years if your mileage is high. Plus Tire Rack is offering an $80 prepaid debit card with the purchase of a set of four right now. So I think I will go ahead and pull the trigger, thanks
215/55 is a common tire size. If you expand your tire selection from 4 to 120, you may be able to find something you like even though the tire is 3/4 of an inch wider. Have you done the arithmetic? If gasoline is $5 a gallon and you drive 20,000 miles per year, getting 55mpg only costs $152 dollars more per year than getting 60mpg. If gasoline is $4.50 a gallon and you drive 15,000 miles per year, getting 60mpg only costs $87 dollars more per year than getting 65mpg. As soon as gasoline gets cheaper, you drive less or you start from better efficiency than the examples, your savings decrease.
@Winston Smith , of course, it isn't really about saving money, it's about putting up the big numbers.
I didn't actually do the math, I just guessed savings over a 3-year period with high milage (20K Miles per year) for a total of 60K miles or the expected lifespan of the Ecopias. You are right, the savings are not quite as huge as I expected, but thats because the percentages are different than what I am used to. This is the first car Ive ever owned with anything like this kind of fuel economy. Generally I drive cars that do typical 35 MPG or so figures on the highway. Because 35 MPG is so much less, adding an additional 5 MPG makes a bigger difference because 5 is a mich larger percentage of 35 than it is of 60. 5 is about 14% of 35 where as its only about 8% of 60. So ur only saving 8% on annual fuel costs rather than the much larger 14%. 14% Fuel savings over 60,000 miles with the current cost of gas is enormous. But thats why my estimate was off. I did look at 215/55R17 and your right, there are a lot more to choose from. The Continental TrueContact 54 is an excellent low rolling resistance tire in that size. Plus I like contis. I had the ExtremeContact DWS 06-Plus legendary Ultra-High-Performance All-Seasons on my Civic Si for nearly 5 years. Incredible tire, but unfortunately the 215mm width plus the extra weight of the larger size (Ecopias in OEM size are 17 lbs per tire, Contact 54s in 215/55R17 are 24 lbs per tire) is very likely to impact fuel economy. So again the entire point of finding low rolling resistance tires is ruined. If I go 215/55R17 then I might as well go high performance to make the Prius more sporty rather than try to focus on low rolling resistance and weight to save fuel. And no, its not just about posting big numbers. It is about money. Fuel is expensive as hell right now. The Mid-Grade that the prius requires is literally just shy of $5.00 per gallon in my area. Can you imagine driving a big gas guzzling dually truck right now? Honestly, I don't think I could even afford it. Just going to the next major city and from my house would literally cost about $30 in fuel alone (90-mile round trip at 15 MPG). So lets do the real math then and see how much money I could save with the Ecopias over their lifespan. Currently, I average 62-64 MPG Per Tank. Lets go in the middle and call it 63. Now 72 MPG has been recorded on the Ecopias, but driving conditions are obviously different for each person. Tires alone are unlikely to make a 9 MPG difference. So lets say I begin driving a bit more economically plus combine that with the new tires and end up with slightly less economy at 70 MPG even, a 7 MPG difference. This also makes math pretty easy since 7 is 10% of 70. So, at 70 MPG, 20K miles per year (gas is supposed to continue rising in price under Trump administration so I am going to say gas will cost on average $5 per gallon during this time) will cost a total of $1428.57. at 63 MPG it would cost $1587.30. Thats a total savings of $158.73 every 20K miles, or $476.19 over the expected lifespan of the tires. Okay, so the savings aren't so incredible if you aren't talking about a standard 35 MPG car. Ya thats a bummer, but its still a decent amount of savings. The Contis in size 215/55R17 are $175 per tire so I wouldn't even save much money going with the Contis in the optional size anyways. The Larger, heavier tire will pretty much cancel out the low rolling resistance technology and Ill likely end up right back at the 63 MPG Im at right now on those. So the options are to save $100 while getting an overall better set of tires, or save about $475 on fuel, effectively cutting the cost of the Ecopias in half (Im buying 5 to have full size spare). Overall, the Ecopias in OEM 195/60R17 size seem to be the most cost-effective option. And who knows, maybe now that 5th gen has been out for a few years, we might start seeing a few more options in this oddball tire size in the next couple years. We can only hope. Either way, for now the Ecopias are the obvious choice.
I grok chasing marginal efficiencies. We just shouldn't lose track of their marginal quality. Exactly. If you got 5mpg more in a Chevy Suburban that usually returned 15mpg, that would be a big deal. I came from a car that got a bit better than 40mpg, and 60mpg is neat, but economically significant. If we were really focused on economic significance, we wouldn't be buying new cars. I don't foresee me getting 60k miles from a set of tires (especially not with a tire that begins at 8/32 tread depth), but I'm a fan of lateral acceleration. That Conti 54 in 215/55 has an 840 treadwear rating and tread depth of 11/32, fwiw. A nearly bald low rolling resistance tire in a place with a little snow and occasional freezing loses all its economic advantage the first time you slowly slide off the road or into someone and need a bit of paint and sensor recalibration. I briefly considered just getting another set of Toyo Extensas in the fall, but their grip is modest in rain and poor in ice and snow. I don't know what insurance is like in your state, but that can easily dwarf fuel costs. I do see an economy in buying and carrying a spare. The potential costs in lacking one can stack up quickly. Just my two cents; not telling you what to do.
