Mochelin Harmony tires

http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&saf...h=priuschat.com

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lowbone @ Nov 3 2007, 08:59 AM) [snapback]534273[/snapback]</div>

I put Michelin Harmony tires on my Prius 2 months ago. They provide a quiet smooth ride. Virtually no slippage especially compared with the orignial Goodyear Integrity tires. My mileage improved as well.

 

I've had the Harmony's on my car for about 6 months and am very happy with them. They replaced the original tires on the car, and I lost about 2-3 mpg after the switch, but perform very well.

 

I put Michelin Harmonys on my first Prius (04), they are a good tire. I put Yokohama TRZ tires on my 07 prius after much research on Tirerack and Consumer Reports. According to Cons Repts, they are even a better tire tham the Harmony, and at a somewhat lower price.

The tire survey results on Tirerack seem impressive, but realize that they are strictly subjective results from the impressions of the customers. The Consumer Reports test results are objective, scientifically measured results that can be proven and duplicated by any laboratory. Therefore I put much more trust in the test data from CR.

Somehow, the good test results for the Yokohama TRZs have escaped the attention of most of the members of this forum. Everybody talks about the HydorEdges (expensive and noisy), the Tripletreads (expensive), and the ComfortTreads (squishy handling, lower gas mileage). Some others talk about tires that would be more appropriate for sports cars, not the normally driven Prius.

You do have to go up from the 185/65R15 to the 195/60R15 size, because that is the smallest size available. There were no disadvantages apparent when driving with the slightly wider tires. The speedometer reading went from approximately 1/2 mph
higher than actual, as measured by GPS, to 1 mph higher than actual speed. I did lose about 2 1/2 mpg, but upping the pressure from the previously used 35/33 psi to 38/36 restored the previous gas mileage. As an engineer, I'm sometimes puzzled by people here recommending pressures as high as 44/42 and then wondering why they have problems with rattles in the car, or the car being blown around by winds and trucks. Toyota engineers worked long and hard to come up with the recommended pressures, and I'm sure they had good reasons or they would have recommended different values. Their values considered the whole car and the driving experience. Think how much more punishment your suspension components take with overly hard tires, just so you can brag about the extra few mpg you get. The percentage difference in the amount of gas money saved probably will not make up for the cost of future repairs.