Advice on new tires for my wife's car?

cnh

Ok boys. It's a slow day, and I have to get my wife's car (a Prius 2007--yeah I know, it's not a V8 lime green Charger) new tires. Original tire size P185/65R15/86S.

Now a little history and some requirements: We have less than 40 K on these tires and the original tires are SHOT (some of the worst tires I've ever seen--don't remember what they are). And I rotated them every 5K?

I need a tire that will last at least 50K if not more!

I need a tire that has some excellent traction because I live in the land of ice and snow and, again, the originals sucked!

It should be gas mileage friendly and also be good in downpours--we get our fair share of T-storms in the summer.

I am not trying to buy the MOST expensive tires in the world, but I don't want to "skimp" either because safety is important.

So what do you guys think? Open to almost anything "good"!

Thanks, I know we have some experts here. I am NOT one!

cnh

mark090852

I would suggest you go to Tirerack.com and review all the tires that are available for her car. They all will have hundreds, if not thousands, of owner reviews where they rate all the properties of the tires that are important. That will give you a much better feel for what tires would be best, as opposed to a couple dozen anecdotal opinions that you might get here. There is a wealth of information on Tirerack.com.

gdb

Longevity usually comes at the expense of best traction, in my experience. I always buy Michelins at Costco for a decent price and have never had a complaint. (yet)

gdb

PS: One very nice thing about Costco tire service is that they'll rotate AND re-balance your tires for life. They also use nitrogen instead of compressed air to inflate them with.

CCNJ

I agree with Mark on Tirerack.com. It is an excellent source for research and reading reviews. I ended up choosing the continental extreme contact tires. Decent ride and excellent in wet weather and light snow. Good luck.

codyc1ark

Cooper. The only US made tire. Why people want a 100k tire is beyond me. I buy 40k tires, because they will be superior to any other tire in terms of handling, noise, traction and ride quality. (blanket statement) besides, most people that buy high mileage tires let them dry rot before they get the use out of them.

Don't be a cheepo on this one, your tires are the only thing that touches the road!

disneyjoe7

Just picked up a set of Michelins Defenders at Costco and love them. Quite and smooth, 90k warranty rated 820 A/B great tire IHMO.

Conradicles

Cooper all the way. American made baby.

cnh

mark090852 wrote: »

I would suggest you go to Tirerack.com and review all the tires that are available for her car. They all will have hundreds, if not thousands, of owner reviews where they rate all the properties of the tires that are important. That will give you a much better feel for what tires would be best, as opposed to a couple dozen anecdotal opinions that you might get here. There is a wealth of information on Tirerack.com.

Thanks guys. I took a look at this site, the bestsellers are Goodyear, Continental, Yokohama, and Michelin.

Kind of leaning toward the Michelin. But I am also going to do a little research on Cooper, as suggested. Have a week or so to decide. As far as tread wear, personally, I've never seen a "good" tire wear out before 50K. You really think 40 is acceptable? That's about 3 years of normal driving? And most tires should be good to five, no? After five they may still have tread but they start to lose integrity pretty fast as I understand it.

Keep 'em coming!

cnh

Gadabout

Michelin Defenders - 2nd vote - http://www.michelinman.com/defender

They have the long life tread compound that you want and also have an decent traction rating. Friend of mine just bought them for his CR-V (on my recommendation) and loves them. The same tread compound is being used in the Hydroedge but has different tread pattern for dissipating water under the tire. Might be needed if you get heavy down pours to avoid hydro planing.

They are 80 / 90 k tires and if your worried about cracking before your done with them they are guaranteed for 6 years (still going to have the car in 6 years or not going to drive 15k miles a year?)

Cooper Tire is not the only US made tire. They might be only producing tires in the US. Goodyear, is an American company too. Most brands of tires that you buy in the US are manufactured in the US.

Also, there is something to be said about longer life tires, being harder and therefore having less traction than a softer compound. That is generally true. However, in the last 5 years there has been a lot of engineering that has gone into tread patterns. So, the longer life compounds have far better traction than they used to, but will perhaps never equal the traction of a softer / sticky compound tire.

My job takes me to lots of different tire plants, for different manufactures. I spend about 4 months out of the year in them. Not going into specifics but there are only 3 brands of tires I would run on my car. I run Michelin's on my car and it is my preferred brand.

Hope that helps a bit,
Scott

Syndil

Haven't read the entire thread, just posting what I know based on the OP's question. I had a similar problem with my Protege when it was new. The factory tires on it were VERY sticky. Made for a helluva performing car, but they only lasted 25k before the belts started separating from the tire. Not just wearing out, but actually separating, like you see semi-truck tires do. They were Bridgestone Potenza RE92s.

Anyway when it came time to replace them I went with the higest rated tires for mileage I could find, which are Kuhmo Ecsta LX Platinum. When the RE92s wore out at 25k I put those on there, and they still have plenty of tread left on them with the car now at 90k.

Now with the Prius being a hybrid, I'm sure it came with low rolling-resistance (LRR) tires, so you have that to think about as well. If you go with long-life tires you could very well be trading off some of your MPG due to the higher rolling resistance.

Anyway those are the things you need to look for: Treadwear ratings and rolling resistance.

That said, the OEM Goodyear Integrity for the 2007 Prius had a treadwear rating of 460. The only LRR tire I can find that will fit your car and with a higher treadwear rating (800) is the Yokohama Avid Ascend:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Yokohama&tireModel=AVID+Ascend+(T-Speed+Rated)&partnum=865TR5ASC&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&autoMake=Toyota&autoYear=2007&autoModel=Prius&autoModClar=

mark090852

Don't know if you saw this survey or not, but it gives a nice comparison of all the tires in this category.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=ST

jbooker82

I have a set of no name mud tires on my 46 willy's jeep that were put on there before I was even born. (1982) They are hard as a rock and wear like iron. This is great for getting long life but that makes them suck on Ice.

If you want a tire to preform well in the winter time it is going to be a softer tire. Softer tires don't last as long. That is why you take a dedicated snow tire off in the summer time. It would melt and wear down really fast when being ran on 100+ deg pavement, but the ultra soft compound is part of the reason why they work so well on ice and snow.

NotaSuv

hhhhmmmmm tirerack has great info as everyone has what they think is the best.some many variables to consider when finding what will work best for you,driving style,all season or not,you use seperate snow tires in winter etc etc etc....this is kinda like going to a auto board and asking what kind of dac I should buy...............

Now a little history and some requirements: We have less than 40 K on these tires and the original tires are SHOT (some of the worst tires I've ever seen--don't remember what they are).
Theres no name brand on the tires???

cnh

There is, but I haven't gone out to take a look yet because I've been booting around on Crutches due to a torn Achilles that has been surgically repaired. But I'm starting to get more mobile so I may take a look today. It goes without saying, that I have not be driving much the last few weeks.

cnh

Jstas

Dude, go to Pep Boys and get yourself a set of Cooper CS4's or the Futura 2000 LTE's.

They are currently having a sale, buy 3 get the 4th free so it's gonna be hard to beat their prices. Plus, both tires are 60K mile warranty or better. Pep Boys should have them both in stock too since they have a deal with Cooper. I'm pretty sure Cooper makes Pep Boys Futura brand tires now too.

I just got a set of Cooper Discover HT's from Pep Boys on the Escape and they are stellar. Also, cheapest set of tires I could find for it but one of the highest satisfaction ratings.

cnh

Thanks John,

I'll check that out as well!

cnh

tonyb

I guess it's only prudent before giving out tire advice for the wife's car, to ask....How much do you like your wife ?

cnh

tonyb wrote: »

I guess it's only prudent before giving out tire advice for the wife's car, to ask....How much do you like your wife ?

Good one Tony!

Enough to make sure "nothing" happens to her. Celebrating our 20th anniversary next year. Hope to celebrate our 50th if I live that long?

cnh

Syndil

Better stick with LRR tires on the Prius. I wouldn't go out and just buy whatever is on sale.

Jstas

Syndil wrote: »

Better stick with LRR tires on the Prius. I wouldn't go out and just buy whatever is on sale.

Says the genius who isn't paying for them.

Syndil

Apparently I am a genius, as no one else even bothered to mention rolling resistance, which is a primary concern for high-efficiency cars like the Prius.

http://priuschat.com/threads/total-lifetime-cost-for-fuel-and-tires-over-150-000-miles.109353/#post1559508

Anyway LRR tires are like $70-$90 each. Hardly breaking the bank.

tonyb

Syndil wrote: »

Anyway those are the things you need to look for: Treadwear ratings and rolling resistance.

Thats twice today I'm agreeing with you......either I bumped my noggin or your apparently well informed. Could be both, I dunno.:cheesygrin::cheesygrin:

cnh

OK, the originals were Goodyear Integrity (made in Japan, of course). And I'm definitely not giving those a good rating. I am aware that recommended tires for a Prius are LRRs.

Still weighing the options. Probably go out later or tomorrow and see what we have in my area.

Maybe you guys could clear something up for me. What is a Road Force Balance? Some reviews seem to complain that they "should have done this" as there were flat spots on the tire and so on.

And, just like our cable debates here, for EVERY TIRE there is a Naysayer who claims regardless of make the tire sucks, blew up on him, doesn't have good traction, wore out too fast, had weak sidewalls, __________ fill in the blank!

cnh

Jstas

Syndil wrote: »

Apparently I am a genius, as no one else even bothered to mention rolling resistance, which is a primary concern for high-efficiency cars like the Prius.

http://priuschat.com/threads/total-lifetime-cost-for-fuel-and-tires-over-150-000-miles.109353/#post1559508

Anyway LRR tires are like $70-$90 each. Hardly breaking the bank.

Because low rolling resistance tires are garbage and not worth the extra cost (they are more than a regular set of high mileage tires) and they actually have reduced traction and reduced foul weather handling because of the stiffer sidewalls and are harder tread compound.

I'm stuck with LRR tires on my MKX until I can afford to replace them and I would love to do so as fast as humanely possible.

On something like a Prius though, they will make negligible differences in mileage over a set of 80K mile warranty tires. The 80K tires will also be more compliant ride-wise and make less noise overall while handling foul weather better and offering more predictable behavior in corners and under braking.

If your car handles like a pig on roller skates, LRR tires are like taking off a set of skates with urethane wheels and putting on those old metal wheels skates that needed a key.

In all my experience with tires from driving an absurd amount of miles in my roughly 19 years of driving to actually selling tires for a living I would never recommend a low rolling resistance tire. I've had to deal with them and I hate them. I've sold them but it's usually to sniveling, weenie hyper-milers who won't take anything else.

But here's a cookie for you because, you're know, you're a **** smeller and all.

Jstas

cnh wrote: »

OK, the originals were Goodyear Integrity (made in Japan, of course). And I'm definitely not giving those a good rating. I am aware that recommended tires for a Prius are LRRs.

Still weighing the options. Probably go out later or tomorrow and see what we have in my area.

Maybe you guys could clear something up for me. What is a Road Force Balance? Some reviews seem to complain that they "should have done this" as there were flat spots on the tire and so on.

cnh

Road force balance is where an arm with a roller on it applies pressure to the tire while it is being balanced to mimic the force of the weight of the car on the tire when it impacts the road.

Some say it's better because it mimics real world conditions but honestly, I don't see a real benefit. The road force balancing forces the tire out of round which will affect how it rotates and thereby affect balancing.

If your car has a vibration problem as it's driving down the road and you tires zero out on the balancer, your tires aren't the problem. You probably have a bent wheel, bad steering linkages, bad ball joints, bad shocks/struts, broken springs, bad wheel bearings or any number of other problems. Even dragging brakes can do it too. So when someone tells me that road force balancing would have fixed their problem I usually have to choke back laughter.

gdb

Get Michelins at Costco, call it a day. You won't be sorry. OH YEAH....buy a big container of cookies while they're mounting yer tires too !!!!

tonyb

I've never owned an LRR tire, so can't comment on them. Have had Michelin's for god knows how long and always satisfied but recently I've noticed a slight downward trend in their quality.

Since you and I and a handful of others are the only ones that seem to like our wives, buy her the best and tell her why. Then go to your nearest High School and score some little blue pills because you'll be in for a wild ride after those new tires. Well, you may have to throw some new shoes in the glove box too.

Syndil

tonyb wrote: »

Thats twice today I'm agreeing with you......either I bumped my noggin or your apparently well informed.

Apparently that depends on who you ask. ⇈

Gadabout

That said, the OEM Goodyear Integrity for the 2007 Prius had a treadwear rating of 460. The only LRR tire I can find that will fit your car and with a higher treadwear rating (800) is the Yokohama Avid Ascend:

Just as a side note when looking at the tread wear rating numbers. There are several different acceptable tests to measure this. A manufacturer will pick one of the methods and stick with it. Tread wear ratings, if close, can only be compared within the same brand of tire. Meaning, if a Goodyear tire has a rating of 500 and a Pirelli tire of 540 you can't necessarily say that the Pirelli tire will last longer because of the higher number. (They use different test methods)

That being said, I'm sure that tread wear of 800 from any manufacture is going to outlast a tread wear rating of 460 from a different manufacture.

Scott