Are these Bridgestones the same?

I've recently changed my front tyres with what I think/thought were the same - Bridgestone B250's.

However, since fitting these new tyres my mpg has dropped quite significantly. This has baffled me and I am taking the car to the dealers on Monday to investigate whether there is a fault with the car or whether the tyres are to blame.

Now I thought the tyres were the same but upon closer investigate I noticed that the original tyres were Bridgetone B250 Ecopia's (made in Japan) and the new ones are Bridgestone B250's (made in Poland).

Am I right to assume that these are actually two different type of tyre and that the Ecopia's are an eco tyre and give better mileage?

Would appreciate your earliest comments as I see the dealer on Tuesday

 

lol, it's the old colour/color, labor/labour, Specialise/specialize thing isn't it. do not know why there are different spellings in the same language.


I have done nearly 1500 miles on these tyres and the economy isn't improving. Am seeing the dealers on Monday to try and sort this issue out. If they're recommending the wrong replacement tyres to all the Prius's then Toyota are probably wasting their time designing an eco car for it to be messed up later.

I have checked the UK Bridgestone website and they don't do a B250 ecopia, so don't know if they still sell these or whether they only sell the ecopia's in other countries. If they do still sell them somewhere in the world I could always order them.

 

You're right - the brands and models of tyre differ depending on country.

I am still only getting about 42-43 (UK mpg) mpg

I thought they seemed to be improving as they bedded in, but no I was still getting 42mpg on average. On a long run I managed 50mpg where I would normally have got 60mpg! I have today been to the dealers who thought they'd replaced the fronts with like for like Bridgestone B250's.

It appears the B250's on the Prius as new and the B250's sold in the UK are COMPLETELY different tyres. Word of warning to UK (and maybe Europe) Prius owners - Do NOT replace with B250's - they are not the same. The Japanese version the Prius comes with is a B250 Ecopia (low resistance tyre) whereas the UK (made in Poland) B250 is an economy (as in cheap) tyre.

Been in communication with my dealers since the tyres were changed two weeks ago as the mpg loss was worrying. Been to see them today and they have agreed to replace the new B250's recently fitted with some new Bridgestone ER300 Ecopia's to see if this will rectify my very poor mpg. To assist they also replaced the engine oil with 0w20 just incase they'd accidentally filled it at last service with 0w30. They don't believe they did but thought it a small costing to try and rectify the mpg.

So, we shall see if the Prius will return to its super mpg or whether I now have an expensive car that gets the same mpg as a diesel Avensis.