Long Term Question - Smooth Ride

Our Prius is 3 years old, still rides as good as it did before. (the Prius does ride well, lots of road noise but it rides well). In my experience with Toyota and Lexus cars, they keep their composure with age FAR better than American cars, especially SUVs. I had an Explorer (A Limited, it was a nice, $40k Explorer) before I got the Lexus and by 70k miles you could definately tell it was getting old, rougher ride, rattles, the drivetrain was nowhere near as smooth as it used to be. Not the case with a Toyota.

 

Get those tires up to where they should be, and your ride will become
refreshingly harsher [although not by much]. This will be amply
compensated for by the MPG average and much slower tire wear.
.
_H*

 

Some people on this board inflate their tires to higher than the PSI reccomended by Toyota to increase their MPG. Personally I'd rather have a more comfortable ride even at the expense of a couple MPG.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(johnny51981 @ May 6 2007, 11:28 AM) [snapback]436439[/snapback]</div>

Johnny is talking about using tire pressure of of 42 psi in your front tires and 40 psi in your rear tires. That will help your gass milage and reduce wear on the outer edges of your tires without effecting the smooth ride very much. Be sure to check this pressure while the tires are cold, not after you have been driving for a long time. Buy your own tire presure guage and use the same on every time, becuase each fueling station may have guages that are slightly off.

The dealer most likely used Toyota's recommended tire pressure of somewhere around 30 psi.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NoMoShocks @ May 6 2007, 02:56 PM) [snapback]436447[/snapback]</div>

I moved from the dealer 35/33 to 46/44 and the ride is definitely much bumpier. In addition to the +2 mpg, from the experience of others here, I expect the tires to last a 6-12 months longer.