Tire buying advice for a newbie Prius owner

I researched the Nokian WRs and decided to go with another solution. Here's what I found out:

1) The Toyota dealers can get them and will install them, but the price is high (about $125 each installed, but I threw away my notes). I found a contact through the search function here at this site where a Nokian dealer would mail order the tires for under $100 each. Mounting an balancing would then be up to me, of course.

2) The dealers that I spoke with will not take the OEM tires in trade.

3) An experienced Nokian dealer I spoke with (not a Toyota dealer) told me that the WRs do not hold up well if driven year round. He stated that the summer temperatures will cause them to wear quickly. He advises his WR customers here in Rochester to take them off before June.

4) Reading the tests in Consumer Reports over the years, I've found that Nokians usually don't come out on top for winter tires. I decided to try the Viking Snow Techs (their #2 rated snow tire), about $45 each from Mavis Tire, and bought a set of take off Prius wheels on ebay for about $70 each including shipping. Mounting and balancing cost me $12 each, but I now have two complete sets of wheels and tires for the cost of just the WRs alone.

Unfortunately, this year has seen a bit of a snow drought around here, especially since I bought the tires, but so far they seem fine. They are high quality tires, made in France, and two out of four needed no weight to balance. The other two used a single minimal weight each.

I used the stock tire size (and the Nokians are also available in this size).

 

I have no doubt that the Nokians you are going to buy would be better than the OEM Goodyears on ice and snow. But to me the real question is how much better? We had about 3 weeks of ice and snow in December (this is my first "Prius winter") and I was all set to replace the Goodyear Integritys with some good winter tires but decided to give them a try first. I was fully prepared for the worst after reading some of the posts here, I was plesently surprised. They were nowhere as bad as I expected and I have decided not to replace them until they wear out. I have seen some other posts that agree with my experience. BTW the ABS and VSC work very well.

If you are not going to get anything much for them anyway why not give them a try? I think ice is just as slippery here as anywhere, and I would say the OEMs are not as good as winter tires but not as bad as some other all season radials I have owned.

I don't know why there is such a discrepancy in posted opinions about this tire, here are some possibilities:

1. I work for Goodyear or Toyota-absolutely not, never have never will
2. I am totally insensitive to tires-possible but I don't think so
3. Goodyear has improved the tires since last winter-also possible my car was manufactured in Aug 05 and manufacturers sometimes change things and don't tell anyone
4. Since I'm an old guy and learned to drive on tires that were so unsafe you couldn't even buy them today I would think anything was OK-most likely, as much as I hate to admit it.

I hope some of the others that don't mind the Integritys will reply with their opinions.

 

My car has VSC and, of course, ABS and I found the Goodyears to slip on icy conditions way more than I was comfortable with. Trying to make a turn into a driveway at low speed, I almost wound up hitting the curb on the far side and missed the driveway completely.

I don't find storing an extra set of wheels to be a problem, but I have a decent size garage and am used to it.

If I was going to buy an all-season replacement tire, I would look at the Michelin MXV4+ (which also are low rolling resistance), or the Michelin Hydroedge. Both of these have been rated, at one time or another, to be decent on ice and snow by CR. I'm sure the Nokians are fine tires, but I just haven't seen any independent reviews.

If you find that the dealer won't take your original tires in trade, it doesn't seem that there's any harm in trying them out to see how they do. It only takes a few days to get new tires via mail order, and my local shops all could provide the correct size Nokians with same day service.

Knowing the topography of Ithaca (it's only 90 minutes from here), I'm almost sure you will be unhappy with the stock tires. If I lived there I would definitely want dedicated snow tires and might even consider studded ones.

 

I know that many of your probably detest studded tires... but in my experience... nothing compares in ice. We put them onto all our vehicles every year (except for the BMW Z4 which is never driven on ice/snow). We buy extra wheels and then there is no charge to change them over and balance them every year at our tire dealer (Les Schwabe). We also buy sets of tire chains for each car... but with studded snow tires, we never have to use them. However, sometimes they are required to be carried in the trunk to cross the passes. Another great thing about Les Schwabe is that they will let you turn in your unused chains for full credit.

Since we are going to wear though several sets of tires over the life of the car... I see little downside to getting season specific tires and then just not worrying about having good winter traction. The only significant downside is storage space for those of you with that problem.

/Jim