205/60R15 Tire Feedback

I'm about to put 205/60R15 Toyo Extensa Tires on my 2005 Pruis. Over the years, I've read about many other Prius owners putting 205/60's on their Gen II Prius's. I have only seen positive comments about this tire size so far. For example, I've have not heard anyone say that the tire ever hits the wheel wells.

I want to double check though. Has anyone had bad experiences with 205/60's? Positive or negative feedback would be appreciated.

I am almost positive that these tires would work fine on the Gen II Prius. The radius of the 205/60 is .15 inches longer than the OEM 185/60R15. That means it would extend about 1/8th of an inch more into the wheel well, which does not seem like a problem.

The OEM size for the Gen II Prius in Europe and Australia is 195. 195 also is an option in Japan and North America. This means that the Prius Gen II is designed for a 195 tire. The 205/60 is about .3 inches wider than a 195/60. That means the width of the 205/60 would be about 1/8th of an inch more toward the interior and exterior sides of the tire. This also doesn't seem like a problem. As noted, every post I've read about 205/60's says they work well on the Gen II. (But I might have missed some negative ones.)

I put 195/60's on my car last time. They worked well. I'm leaning toward the 205/60 this time because it will partially correct speedometer over read, give about 1/8th of an inch more ground clearance, and improve handling, safety and appearance.

Again, any feedback about this tire size would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks! I figured 205/60R15's would work very well on the Prius. Many PC members have said they do. I just wanted to double check to see if anyone has had problems with this size before installing them. My only concern is that the tires might hit the wheel wells.

But this seems highly unlikely, as proven by the fact that apparently no one has reported this.

The design tire size for the Prius Gen II is 195/55R16. This provides the 855 revolutions per mile of the US OEM size (185/65R15), but is .4 inches wider.

Comparing the 205/60R15 to the 195/55R16, the 205/60 would extend about 1/8th of an inch higher into the wheel well, as well as 1/8th of an inch toward the interior and exterior sides. I didn't think that an extra 1/8th of an inch in height and width on each side would cause wheel well scraping.

However, based on what others have said on PC, installing the 205/60R15's on the OEM 6 inch rims will enhance performance, safety and appearance, while causing little if any reduction in mileage.

 

I put 205/60R15 Toyo Extensa's on my Prius about 5,000 miles ago. The mileage went down at first. Now it's about the same as with the 195/60R15 TripleTred's I had on the car before.

I love the Extensas because they provide a super quiet and comfortable ride. The TT's handled a little better on dry pavement. But the Extensas are much better on snow and ice.

The difference in noise level is like day and night. As the TT's aged, they got loud, even at 10 mph. The Extensas make no noise at low speed and hardly any noise on the highway. Plus they take bumps much more smoothly and quietly. At this point, I'll be sticking with Extensas for a long time.

 

Hi jfogal,

I love the 205/60R15 Toyo Extensa's. I wrote a long post about my experience switching from the OEM (lack of) Integrities to the 195/60R15 TripleTreds, called "Tire Upgrade". The TripleTreds are excellent tires. But I think the Extensas are much better. Once again, I did a lot of research. Personally, I can't think of a better tire for the Prius than the Extensas. Of course, other owners have different criteria and preferred tires.

The Extensas are much better in the snow. They worked great this past Winter. As the TT's aged, they quickly got worse in the snow. The Extensas seem to have a much better tread pattern for the snow. Also, it's a much better tread pattern for minimizing road noise, not only when new, but as the tires age.

Toyo is a Japanese company that has been around a long time. They make mostly high performance tires. But they do an excellent job with passenger tires too. Plus Toyo sounds just like Toyota. It seems like a good match.