Please help me choose a tire!

My 2006 Prius was 2 years old on 3/28/08 and currently has 124,998 miles so yeah I drive A LOT.

My stock integreties lasted 76,480 miles and I ran them at 36 PSI the whole way around. One thing that is a must is to rotate them frequently and get a 4-Wheel Alignment check every 10-15,000 miles.

I rotate my tires every oil change at 5,000 miles and get my alignment checked every 3rd oil change. When you get you alignment check asked for the computer printout for your records. They usually show all four tires with something highlighted in red when it was out of alignment and now in green being in alignment. Without the printout you don't really know what was in and what was out.

If you keep these records and say your right front is always "out of alignment" it could be you hit a common pot hole on that side or something is wrong with the caster or something else with the tire. So, keep or at least look at your alignment records.

Now, why do you need to do alignment checks so often? No, I don't work for Toyota. Prii are setup to be as low profile and as aerodynamic as possible. Which translates into being very suspectible to being thrown out of alignment by hitting curbs, large pot holes, or other "bumps" in the road.

As a matter of fact you don't even have to hit anything to throw them out of alignment. When my fiancee bought her 2007 Prius Touring Edition I made them check the alignment on it and swap out the Integrities before we bought it. The car had 6 miles on it at the dealership and BOTH front tires were out of alignment.

We talked to a couple of people and they said "Yeah, it's a good idea to always to have any new car's alignment checked when you buy it. They have a tendency to get jerked around on the haulers. Especially the Prii."

Now, onto tires. After doing much research on this website, tirerack.com and others. I went with Michelin Harmony's and went up in size to the 195/60R over the stock 185/65R. I did notice a slight mileage hit but the tire is FAR superior to the stock in all aspects, will last FOREVER and is much much more stable in crosswinds because of the extra width.

On my finacee's touring edition, we had them also put on Michelin Harmony tires and upped them to the 205/60R size. Her Prius is even more stable than mine but has taken even more of a mileage hit. The Touring Editions simply can't run as well as the "Standard" Prius in my opinion. And she doesn't have as much practice maximizing fuel mileage as I do.

I have to keep track of my mileage for work so know exactly that I have got 47.92 MPG over that 125,000 miles. Now that I have driven in "Summer" conditions I've found that the new tire is the equal of the stock tires in MPG. The MPG "hit" I mentioned above is gone.

My fiancee's touring is averging around 44 MPG.

Well, that is my $0.02 worth. I hope it helps someone out there in Prii Land

 

I have a 05 with the original tires...right now I avg 48.1 mpg, if I go with the GY TT 190/60/15 what kind of hit will I see with mpg?

 

The Prius is not the world's best handling car anyway, and the biggest difference will come from getting good tires, not from going from 185 to 190.

I can't comment on the TTs, but I put on the GY Comfortreds in 190 and took a pretty big hit. About 8 mpg.

Discount Tire was kind enough to give me full credit even after 4500 miles to switch to a set of Michelin Primacy in the original 185 size. I'm waiting on them to be shipped here...

 

8 mpg? wow...that's not acceptable.

Anyone else have a comment about mpg?

 

Free rotations are part of most all tire businesses now days. Big O, Sears, Costco etc. As for tires? There are 3 or more Michelin owners satisfied for evey GoodYear happy owner. Do a search on PC & you'll find a LOT (including yours truely) of dissatisfied GoodYear people. Costco has a great sale at least once a year. The michelin hydroedg's we bought (after our GoodYears wore out prematurly) have a 90,000 mile warranty! So even if you have to pay a tad more, they're way worth it. We have about 50K miles on ours and you can hardly tell they've been worn. Good luck!

 

"8 MPG" given as a *difference* is meaningless. Did he go from 64 MPG down to 56 MPG? Or did he go from 38 MPG down to 30? There's a huge difference between those two hypotheticals in how much more fuel is used, and there's no way to know by quoting only an MPG difference. Fuel economy should be given as liters/100 km or gallons/100 miles, because then differences are immediately meaningful.

64 MPG = 1.563 gal/100mi
56 MPG = 1.786
38 MPG = 2.632
30 MPG = 3.333

Then, if someone says they lost 0.223 or 0.701 we know exactly how bad the hit was.

(ObOffTopicRant: Isn't it wonderful that this forum software provides four dozen different kinds of smilies, yet there is no obvious way to insert a tab or to otherwise preserve a fixed amount of whitespace in a line?)

 

Did you get the hydro in 185 or 190....

 

I had Costco put the same size on as the original (nearly bald at 14K miles) GoodYear OEM's ... but I don't remember what that is w/o going out to the car.

 

Tom,
Thanks for the great recommendation. I have almost 3300 miles on my car and thought I should be ok with tires for the next three years with tires but after seeing these posts on the OEM 185/65/15 Toyota installs on its new cars I am preparing to buy another set of tires at the first sign of traction problems. I think the Tire Rack website is really a great referral, as is your recommendation for the wider tires for the Standard Prius. I originally planned to use Costco and buy Michellins but saw they don't install wider tires. I am real disappointed in Toyota using these tires. All of my previous five new Toyotas had tires that lasted anywhere from 35-50 K depending on where I was living. Terry

 

For those reading this thread keep in mind the stock Integrities work well in the Southwest where we don't have much "weather". Yeah, I'm sure a different tire may reduce the effect of wind at speed, but other than that they seem to be a decent tire with the best fuel economy. I have 19,000 miles on mine and have run 42/40 from the moment I bought my '08 (well, I adjusted it at home the same day and only live about a mile from the dealership). My tires could almost be put back on the shelf and sold as new and I'm quite happy with them. Let me reiterate that I live in a dry climate and have never driven with them in the snow.

 

well, i had new michelin primacy tires installed just before the remnants of hurricane fay (ie, several days of downpours) came through the area. next in line is hanna, we'll see how much driving i get in during the worst of that. so far i'm feeling pretty good about my choice- worth every penny.

 

Well I bought the Goodyear TripleTred in 195.

I love them. I have only driving on them for two days, but the difference in handling and ride is very nice.

I also had them put Nitrogen in the tires...I read the CR reports that it might not do very much, but every little bit helps.

Not sure if I got a good deal, but the complete install with the Nitrogen it was 603.00 tax in all.

Tonight I just installed the BT stiffening plate, very easy install.

Adding these new "features" on my 2005 Prius makes it new all over for me.

 

Hello, Just wanted to let you know that reading multiple threads on this forum the GoodYear Assurance TripleTreads kept coming up.
I don't know if it is the pattern of the original goodyear's that affected how they were wearing out but the inside of the tires were wearing lower than the center (ran psi@44). Now I am ready to get the New Triples but the tire center recommends I install shimmies, an additional $250 installed.

There seems to be two camps on this forum, 1-Listen to Toyota and leave the rear alignment alone. 2-Install shimies and try to zero your toe on the rear.

From the tire center, I am told the total alignment is based on the rear tires alignment so they want to zero those out(with the shimmies, since there is no adjustment built in). I know nothing about this sort of thing but I trust them so I will get the shimmies and tripletreads, hopefully this time they will wear out more evenly since I will do the alignment as well.
And more frequent rotations(mea culpa).

 

Re: Please help me choose a tire! 2 Free tires 185 65 15

Hello, I ended up replacing all four tires and the dealer won't give credit for unused tires.

So I have 2 Goodyear Integrity 185 65 15 tires.

I used these for about 10K miles.

I will be in Burbank/Studio city this week and next. Will be the white Prius, carrying two tires over the fold down seats. Honk if you want these.

I used the original Integrity set for over 60 miles, changed only because Left rear keeps wearing out the outside REALLY bad. Got a leak on this tire, so I replaced both rear tires with 2 new Integrities(these).
Now my originals just wont cut it, so I bit the bullet and got a whole new 4 tire set.

Now I am in the Shimmy world and grade8 bolts, or something like that; that will be part of the four wheel alignment to be completed on the new set of tires: tripletreds once the bolts arrive.

Anyway, respond if you are interested. Thanks.

 

My stock Integrity's lasted about 55k (in CA, very little weather as well).

Put on Costco's cheapest in-stock solution (Bridgestone Premier Touring T/A) and I'm at 115k with very little wear. No mileage hit (after they 'wore in').

 

At 47.5K on SAGE, she got new Goodyear TT "shoes"! In Gainesville I put out $608 and change for the tires, mounting and balancing. I'd have ordered them on line but ... already had the spare on and we were uncomfortable with the shipping time from tire rack. Oh well, at least we helped the local economy a little ...

I'll update this in a few hundred miles as to how they 'feel'.

 

I'd really like to know more about the drop in gas mileage with the Goodyear TT 195/60-15. I need to buy tires in the next two days, and the Goodyear TT are highly rated, but if the drop in mileage is that great I'll look for something else.

Can anyone who has these comment?

 

Okay, it doesn't have to be these specific tires. Anything comparable will do.

Any advise?

 

I mounted four 195/60R-15 GENERAL ALTIMAX ARCTIC (no studs) snows from Tirerack.com. No local dealer could beat their price of $277.90 w/ UPS shipping. I am sure that the more expensive Nokians or Blizzaks are great tires, but I can't afford them right now.

As we just had our first few snow storms here on the MA/NH border I have only driven in the snow on them a couple times but find that they are doing a great job. Nice straight controlled "panic" stops. I have tried to get the traction control to leave me without power as I have heard some complain about but haven't been able to get it to react that way yet. Keep in mind one thing, you still only have four tiny patches of rubber between you and the road.

I just bought the Pri so my OEM tires are pretty new but I was very concerned about leaving them on in the snow as they would throw the traction control into a fit when accelerating on wet pavement, I can't imagine what they would have done in the snow!

The larger than OEM size also helps improve handling. I no longer get blown into the next lane when there is a cross wind. They are not that noisy nor does the ride seem to be that much rougher.

Gas mileage takes a hit, but it is cold out so it is going to take a hit anyway. Plus, I have still doubled my mileage compared to my Subaru OB wagon. With my limited experience thus far, I would say that the Pri with four snows handles about as good as the OB wagon did with all season GY Triple Treads. Of course, deep snow would be the limiting factor, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the tires.

This is the first FWD car I have put snows on and I would never drive a FWD car again without snows in the winter. And you definitely have to do all four.

 

Hopefully, I can supply some useful input. I recently changed from the original tires to the Kumho Solus KR 21. I have a 2008 with 30,000 miles on it & a fairly new vehicle purchase for me.

I have several variables that changed simultaeously and I will give an update in hope it may help someone. I added splash guards & changed tires from the Integrity's 185/65/15 to the Kumho's in 195/60/15 all at the same time. We have also moved into cooler weather during all this and that is certainly a factor. I had my vehicle aligned at the time of installation.

My first trip was cold weather, extremely hilly with a gradual climb in altitude and appx. 20 mph quartering cross wind. For the first time ever, I dropped below 40 mpg on the first 150 miles. I started seeing a gradual increase in mileage over the next few miles and now have appx 2,000 miles on them & averaging 50 mpg which is a mix of city/highway. We've had lots of ice & cold during this time so I feel like my mpg is back to being very close as it was before. As I mentioned, I have only had this vehicle about 2 months now, so I do not have an extended history of mileage, etc.

The first thing I noticed was how quiet these tires are and what excellent handling they displayed. Amazing difference. Like a totally different car. The cornering, stopping & "holding the road" is significantly improved. Totally different feel. These tires seemed to do very well in the sleet/ice but I did use my pickup a couple days due to the depth of the sleet/ice/snow. DEEP ruts & I was concerned with the depth of the ice & a lack of clearance. We went several days with no mail, etc, etc. These tires do very well in wet & sleet as far as traction and they should as they are rated as an all season tire.

I will also add that I tend to be a Michelin fan. I have always had very good results & satisfaction with Michelin. So far, the improvement in handling & quietness is well worth any minor hit to mpg I may have experienced, although I am not sure there is an actual drop. I like this tire & this tire size very well. I will go back to this size of tire no matter what.

I do plan to install the stiffening plate & strut brace very soon also.



Per my Garmin GPS, the indicated speed on the moniter is 1-2 mph higher than indicated by my gps at 70 mph. When the moniter indicates 70mph, the GPS typically indicates 69 mph. It does vascillate a bit and at 75 mph seems to be about 2 mph off.