The hunt for hydroedges :/

About 3 years ago I bought a set of HydroEdge tires for my 2004 Prius. They don't seem to show much wear and the traction on wet roads is better than any tire I have owned. As others warned at the time, the tires are a bit noisy. However, the traction and wear advantages make up for the sound, at least for me.

Also, I noticed a slight drop in mileage at first (about 2 MPG). Again, the trade-off was worth it to me for safety on wet roads. I still consistently managed 50 MPG in warm weather.

I found mine at Discount Tire. I'm not sure who carries them these days. I'd buy them again. Good luck!

 

Costco.

Is that the OEM size? If you go with the slightly wider, you have to back off the other number (so, instead of, say, 190/65, you go with 195/60) to keep it within the specs.

 

185/65-15 is a nominal 24.46 inches in diameter.
205/60-15 is a nominal 24.68 inches in diameter.

The 205/60 will make your speedometer read 1% slower which should make it more accurate than stock.

You also need to consider rim width, that's the inside width that the tire seats against. It is probably cast into your wheels. One chart I looked at said 205/60-15 was good on a 5.5 to 7.5 inch rim. IIRC, Prius Gen2 rims are 6 inches, but verify that.

 

yes, but the original prius tire sizes are not in sync with the speed anyway. you'll notice the difference when you are reading your speed off a GPS and your speed from the speedometer.

I got some 205/60/15s and my speedometer is now accurate.

 

There's a percent of difference that Costco is "allowed" to allow in tire sizes, and if you change the ratio too much, something "bad" happens :shrug:

I know we've had ours for over two years (went with the slightly changed numbers - went wider) and they work great.

 

Tire Details - Discount Tire Direct

$122 each. No tax, free ship

Also: any thread that includes "The Hunt For..." must have some Sean Connery

 

I quit buying tires at Costco about 12 years ago when they would only sell me the same size that came on my truck. The size I wanted made the speedometer and odometer more accurate, was better match to the wheel width than the stock tires and had a higher load capacity. I went a few blocks away to an America's Tire (AKA Discount Tire in most states), got better service, usually better prices and haven't been in a Costco tire shop since.

The 'something "bad" happens', as 'splained to me by the Costco shop manager, is that the shop manager gets a demerit or worse for not being in lock-step with Costco's safe for Costco but not always sensible policy of sticking to stock sizes.

 

They look scarce. Looks like 3 or fewer total in their entire system.


Arizona
Less than 2 In Stock
(usually ships in 3-5 days)

Ohio
Less than 2 In Stock
(usually ships in 3-5 days)

Texas
Less than 2 In Stock
(usually ships in 3-5 days)

 

I have been trying to buy these tires all year. The fellow at Costco said they were canceling the HydroEdge in this size (What?!?)

Called Michelin and they said this was untrue; However, they DID say that it had been a while since they made them and there were no plans, at this point (looking out 4 weeks), to run more. Maybe that will change? Who knows.

The customer service at Michelin put a $70 rebate on hold for me for 2 months. I just call them when/if I buy tires.

 

I had the same problem when looking for these also.Michelin told me the same thing in June. I then saw the consumer report study posted on this site and decided on the hankooks. I got them from gripston.com. I am very particular about tires and I must say so far I love them. I've put over 10k on the car.

When I first bought the car it had the integreties? on them, and wow those were junk. The traction control came on like crazy, they squelled like no other, and I thought I almost was going to die in the rain one.

With these tires I feel extremely safe. I have not had a problem. The winters here are horrible, so I am glad they preformed so well in the snow/ice tests( better than most of the winter tires).

Good luck!
Herb

 

Since they still haven't produced the stock size (my last email from them said July/Aug), and the rebate was ending 8/9/10, I went with the HEs in 205/60-15. While I might lose a little mpg, the increased traction is well worth it. So far, I see a 1-2mpg hit over the stock tires (I had a spare set of take-offs I was using, hoping the HEs would come out in stock size), but they're brand new, once they get a few K on them, the hit will be almost nil. At least that is what happened with the HEs on my 04, and the last time on my 06.

 

So, the hunt for tires continues. Costco only has the 3 season tires (not including the X-radial) available. They say they can't get the Primacy in this size and I don't know that they'll let me go up to the 195/65/R15 tire because they're picky.

Sam's club seems to be out of most of the tires suitable for the Prius.

What's going on?

 

You need to read the tire threads more carefully. More people than just me have gotten 205/60-15s and been happy with them. They even correct the speedo.

While Sam's might not stock them in HEs, you can order them online to arrive at your local warehouse, as I did a couple weeks ago.

 

TireRack.com has the HEs with Green X in stock in the 195/60R15 size, which is the size I would get anyway if I were getting the HEs:

Michelin HydroEdge with Green X

 

I used to think the 195s were a better choice, but they're not. They're smaller than stock, so will throw the speedo off even more. It's already bad enough with the stock tires.

And if you put 195s on a brand new Prius, you'd lose out on a couple K miles of warranty due to the odo racking up the miles faster.

The only advantage 195s have over 205s is slightly less RR, so they might get better mpg. I wonder how much (little, that is), though, since my weeks-old 205s are following the same mpg loss-gain as the 185 HEs I first got at 4K miles.