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First day on Continental (ProContact with EcoPlus) tires

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by alekska, Mar 10, 2013.

  1. alekska

    alekska Active Member

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    Hi all,

    I just installed a pair of 196/60/15 Continental ProContact with EcoPlus (LRR) tires to the front. They replaced well-worn Falken Ziex ZE 912 of the same size. Falkens barely lasted 30 k miles, but I really liked the traction .

    Continental website gives the weight of 18.1 pounds for these, which is pretty good. Falkens are listed at 20 pounds. I got Conties from tirerack at $82 each plus shipping. Falkens can be found at ~ $66 now, e.g. at vulcantire.com.
    I have driven just one day on them, at 38 psi, and here is what i noticed:
    - Conties are somewhat softer riding and quieter.
    - the steering wheel turns much easier. This is hard to explain but this is what I feel, mostly at low speeds
    - Gas mileage seem to be at least as good as before, but too early to tell.
    - Dry traction is definitely not as good as Falkens. I tried emergency braking from ~ 40 mph on straight empty stretch of road and I easily locked them. Could this be because they are so new? Not broken in? Reviews are pretty good for dry traction.

    So I have mixed impressions as of now. I expected better performance from these, partially as they are more expensive, partially because of favorable reviews .

    I will update my impressions after riding them on Interstate.

    Thanks,
    - Alex
     
  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    yea... your experience is typical when switching from high traction tires to LRR tires...
     
  3. xpcman

    xpcman Senior Member

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    You had worn down tires that had better dry traction in part to being worn.
    It's hard to compare the worn tires to new tires. When TireTrack does its testing they compare broken in tires on the same car or same make model cars.
     
  4. alekska

    alekska Active Member

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    Update on Interstate driving:
    Drove ~100 miles on highway. I did not notice any significant differences with previous tires. Maybe a tiny bit less directional stability, but in general these Conties are ok on highway for me.

    Thanks,
    - Alex