Sound insulation makes for a great Prius Two

I recently added sound insulation to the floor and doors to my 2015 Prius. The insulation I used was the Boom Mat self sticking and the Boom Mat foil/fiber on the floor. The biggest sound improvement was the tires.....the Michelin Energy Savers....not the All Season but the standard Energy Savers.

My lease was coming up and the factory tires which were Goodyears, were not very good tires. Noisy and not well handling tires and I was planning on turning the 2015 Prius Two in for a new 2019 Prius Prime. The 2015 was kind of noisy and did not handle well. It felt cheap and tinny. The new Prius was excellent but I really did not want to spend $34K for a car.

After talking to friends who have Prius, they all said get the Michelin Energy Savers. They are not cheap...$670 for 4 tires. Michelin does have a tire rebate of $75 and so I decided to try the tires before I make my final decision to either turn in the 2015 or keep it. Glad I tried the Michelin tires.

What a difference. The car rode much better. The road noise was so much less. I wish I knew this when I got the car as I would have changed out the tires first thing.

The next project was sound insulation. Summit Racing is about 20 miles from me so I decided to check out their sound insulation products. I decided on the Boom Mat products. I know that I spent more than I wanted on this but in the end it was worth it. I have about $475 worth of sound insulation in my 2015 Prius. I have the exterior sheet metal covered and also the interior doors. On the interior trim panels I have the boom mat self sticking rubberized foil mat and then put the Boom Mat foil/fiber mat with spray adhesive over the self stick.

On each door, I changed out the speakers. The speakers on the 2015 Prius Two are very light and cheap. There is almost no magnets on those speakers and I guess the speakers weigh in at around 10 ounces. Great for MPG but terrible for sound. The speakers on the front doors of the 2015 are 6 x9 and are in a specially designed frame to fit the door. I took the speaker connections from the factory speakers and installed them on the new Pioneer 6 inch speakers. I had to fabricate a new mount as the door has a 6x9 opening for the factory speakers. Made that out of wood and screwed that into the door. I kept the factory plastic to prevent water infiltration so the speakers and inside of the door panels will stay dry.

I also installed the self sticking Boom mat to the rear wheel wells and the trunk area. I then added the Boom Mat foil/fiber mat and stuck it in with spray adhesive.

I have to say, I am glad that I decided to keep the 2015. I am getting better mileage with the Michelin tires and the car now feels and sounds solid. You can tap the doors with your knuckles and all you get is a thump instead of a ringing sound. The added weight of the sound insulation does not seem to affect the MPG. I am averaging 57MPG overall and on some trips I have gotten 78 MPG. Road noise is now in the same league as a Lincoln MKZ hybrid with very low road noise.

I highly recommend the Michelin Energy Savers and I also highly recommend sound insulating your Prius. They built them light for great MPG....but the extra few pounds of sound insulation does not seem to have effected the MPG numbers. When it rains, the splashing of the tires in the wet road is almost totally silent. The car feels so solid and it rides so much better. The speakers made the base factory stereo sound pretty good but I do plan on changing out the stereo to a Kenwood with a better back up camera and direct Android bluetooth. Also on my to do list is leather seats from Katskin and heating/ac on the seats. I already have added a lumbar support to the drivers seat.

I plan on purchasing the car after the lease is up. After all, I know the history of the car and I took good care of it. I already paid for the depreciation and besides, I love this car...even more so now with all the changes.