2020 "Best Tires" / Prius C

I’ve read about the Avid Ascend GT as being one of the best tires Tire Rack has tested. But I’m considering them as replacement for my wife’s Infiniti which has run on flat tires that we both hate. I have Nankang SP-9 on the C. The dry grip and wet performance is considerably better than the Hankooks they replaced. Also they are really cheap on Amazon.

 

I'm not sure about "best" but what I've got is the NANKANG TIRE CROSS SPORT SP-9 175 /65 R15 88H XL BSW and I've been driving them for about 15k miles and have had no issue in rain. they were pretty cheap when I bought them around Christmas time last year and commute about 120 miles daily on them for work. total for 4 was 275$.

 

Just shopping for new tires for my '13 C... replaced stock with General AltiMax RT43 at 60k... now at 140k two tires still have 30% thread left, rear ones are at 5%... should have rotated them a bit more. Awesome tires... $240 for a set of 4, shipped.

 

Are you going to stick with RT43?

 

When it comes to tires, "really cheap" is not a plus in my book.
Are these LRR tires......probably not.

 

They are not LRR and actually they are safer because of that. LRR tires tend to have low grip in wet situations whereas these SP-9s are great in the rain. They are very affordable, that doesn’t mean they are “cheaply made” cutting corners. They have great reviews from people ranging from Priuses to Minis. The MPG hit was minimal to none in my driving circumstances.

 

To each his own.
I SLOW DOWN when it is raining hard.
Having good grip on wet roads does NOT also equate to good resistance to hydroplaning, necessarily, and thinking you have good traction might lead you into a situation where you have NO TRACTION.

This is similar to the first couple of ice/snow events in the north each winter.......where the first vehicles you see in the ditch or in an accident are the 4-wheel drive ones where the owner thinks that makes them invincible.

 

I had good luck with the General AltiMax RT43. For an all season, they were surprisingly good in the snow, and the treadlife is good. Performance in the rain was less than optimal requiring a little more caution than usual. If you have to deal with a long snow season and you put snow tires on the car in Winter, the Michelin X Ice Xi3 were also very good tires, allthough with much shorter tread life. i believe they have been discontinued in 175 /65 R15 so you may have to search harder to find them, or choose an alternative size.