Tires

Thanks ..Ray O..

I currently have a goodyear 92T rated tire and the X's are the same rating. I go 75 at the fastest.

New tire compounds are most often bettter, look for over ratings , google them . How can anyone here know all tires, here you find Idiots anyway , except a few folks.

Ray O had been spot on for years with advice on my Camry and other people's toyotas. I've had the drain tubes blown out on my sunroof (by the way) and it never leaked again ..Thanks Ray..

You're welcome!

A reputable tire dealer/installer will not sell or install tires with lower ratings than the original tires, regardless of the speeds driven by the owner. There is more to a tire's performance than just sustained speed -

Jack G.

I've run into that argument at Sears, where they said that they were only allowed to sell a tire that had one speed rating lower than the ratings on the original tires, which were Z-rated on my car. I bought the W-rated tires (168 MPH max) even though the car will not go that fast.

I could buy the argument from a legal point of view that the tire rating should match the vehicle's top speed, but personally, I think the argument that a replacement tire's speed rating has to match the original rating is a scam to force customers to buy more expensive tires.

Michelins are a good choice. Don't drive with anything less. Cheap tires are cheap for a reason. You should check the manual for specific sizes/rating.

Costco for one, will NOT put anything less than the H-rated tires in this case. Other smaller shops might. Tire ratings are more than speed ratings. Tires are a part of the suspension design and I'd go with the H, even if you dirve at less than 50% the rated speed.

Am reviewing tires to buy for my car before winter sets in. 2010 Prius bought in Oct. '09, went through last winter with original tires - Yokohama Avid S33 - & although last winter was not all that snowy, driving with them was -not- good. Actually, have never liked the tires that came on my new Toyotas (often Integrities, which were also lousy in snow). After switching to all-seasons (vs. studded snows which I used before before radials came on the scene), always wound up buying new tires that were better suited for snowy winters. And dry roads/cornering, for that matter. Liked the Goodyear Regatta & Regatta II the best.

Have whittled it down to 2 all-seasons and 2 dedicated snows. All-seasons in the running: Yokohama Avid Envigor and the Goodyear Assurance TripleTreds. Snows: Michelin X-Ice Xi2 and Dunlop SP WinterSport 3D. All have TireRack ratings in various categories ranging from 7.5 - 9.2. I've done a mini spreadsheet to compare them, & it's basically a wash. Will need to check local prices.

Anyone know if there's a way to retro look up the ratings for the discontinued (several years ago) all-season Goodyear Regattas that I bought for my '90 & '98 Corollas, by any chance? Would give me an even better idea re: choosing the new tires, since I was happy with the Regattas in all road conditions, summer & winter. Held dry roads well, & were good in snow.

I also looked up the ratings for the tires that came on the Prius: the Yokohama Avid S33. Holy crap - no wonder I dislike them so much! Their ratings range from 2.9 - 6.1, with only 3.1 - 3.3 for snowy conditions! Arghh - *why* they're supplied on cars destined for snowy winter areas is beyond me.

Cathy

Up here in the Canadian Sub-Arctic, in Edmonton, the majority of drivers, at least in urban areas, do NOT use snow tires. We simply carry a shovel in the trunk for that maybe once in 5 years it is necessary to use it, instead of waiting for a tow. Simply modify driving habits to allow for greater braking and accelerating distance and NO NEED to spend hundreds of bucks on snow tires plus to labor to change them twice a year. All seasons rule except for those who do a lot of driving on rural side roads OR have a lot of unsanded hills to deal with. Hype from tire manufacturers aside.

Let me guess: English is not your native language.

Thats because you're so used to tuning out reality.

Ask him/dbu (dbu' or dbu. or dbu"....) about the existence of temperate rain forests. ;-P (That argument goes back years - acc. to dbu (and his various usernames) the only rain forests that exist are jungles/tropical rain forests.

Cathy

Ummm... you two don't seem to have noticed that - with the exception of the tires that initially come on the cars - I mentioned that I've been switching to/using all-season radials that have good ratings, incl. for snow - of which we tend to get a lot ("lake effect" country here), for the last 20+ years. If, OTOH, you want to pay no attention to that sort of detail & don't care about how your tires drive in snowy conditions, feel free to go slip-sliding around on snowy roads. I don't recommend it, but hey - to each their own, n'est-ce pas?

Thanks for your ever-so-helpful replies.

Cathy

Actually, there are temperate rain forests:

Temperate rainforests are rainforests in temperate regions. They can be found in North America (in the Pacific Northwest, the British Columbia Coast, and in the inland rainforest of the Rocky Mountain Trench east of Prince George), in Europe (parts of the British Isles such as the coastal areas of Ireland, Scotland, southern Norway, parts of the western Balkans along the Adriatic coast, as well as in the North West of Spain and coastal areas of the eastern Black Sea, including Georgia and coastal Turkey), in East Asia (in southern China, Taiwan, much of Japan and Korea, and on Sakhalin Island and the adjacent Russian Far East coast), in South America (southern Chile) and also Australia and New Zealand.

Here's a map of where they are:

Yeah, I know, but good luck convincing dbu of their existence. ;-) No matter what evidence given to him a few years ago, he adamantly contended that tropical rainforests are the only kind that exist.

Yes, Dooby or dbu if you like was, and is, a piece of work. Good to hear from you again. Retirement going well? As for dealing with "our" winter climate, otherwise known as Syracue, Rochester, and Buffalo (Albany for you if IIRC), Blizzacks gave me excellent performance (on a Camry) for two or three seasons per set, average thereafter as far as I could tell. Did have a set of Pirelli snows on a '90 Passat (fronts were studded) that did wonders for the Passat in snow

TAK

I misread what you wrote, and got it backwards. My bad.

I decided to buy new tires for my '05 Prius, replacing the Integrities with Bridgestone Ecopias because I found out that they are used on the '10 model year, and my impression was that the '10 Prius gets very good MPG. Unfortunately, that impression was wrong. If the '10 gets over 50 MPG, it is in spite of the Ecopia tires; not because of them. My MPG dropped from 50 MPG in the summer to 46 and from 48 in the winter to 44, the seasonal difference being a function of the gasoline quality here in California. And the summer gasoline season seems to be getting shorter and shorter.

One more thing - - I found a gas pump that often agrees with the MPG display on my Prius. That pump is golden! All other pumps I've had the misfortune to employ tend to produce an MPG 3 or 4 percent lower than my dash display. Why must it be rare to get your money's worth out of a gas pump these days?

You're forgiven. ;-)

Am reviewing tires to buy for my car before winter sets in. 2010 Prius bought in Oct. '09, went through last winter with original tires - Yokohama Avid S33 - & although last winter was not all that snowy, driving with them was -not- good. Actually, have never liked the tires that came on my new Toyotas (often Integrities, which were also lousy in snow). After switching to all-seasons (vs. studded snows which I used before before radials came on the scene), always wound up buying new tires that were better suited for snowy winters. And dry roads/cornering, for that matter. Liked the Goodyear Regatta & Regatta II the best.

Have whittled it down to 2 all-seasons and 2 dedicated snows. All-seasons in the running: Yokohama Avid Envigor and the Goodyear Assurance TripleTreds. Snows: Michelin X-Ice Xi2 and Dunlop SP WinterSport 3D. All have TireRack ratings in various categories ranging from 7.5 - 9.2. I've done a mini spreadsheet to compare them, & it's basically a wash. Will need to check local prices.

Anyone know if there's a way to retro look up the ratings for the discontinued (several years ago) all-season Goodyear Regattas that I bought for my '90 & '98 Corollas, by any chance? Would give me an even better idea re: choosing the new tires, since I was happy with the Regattas in all road conditions, summer & winter. Held dry roads well, & were good in snow.

I also looked up the ratings for the tires that came on the Prius: the Yokohama Avid S33. Holy crap - no wonder I dislike them so much! Their ratings range from 2.9 - 6.1, with only 3.1 - 3.3 for snowy conditions! Arghh - *why* they're supplied on cars destined for snowy winter areas is beyond me.

Cathy

Cathy,

During the winter I was unable to climb my driveway with the OEM tires so I bought a set of Bridgestone Blizzak snow/ice tires and a set of rims. They completely solved the problem. Since then, the dealer who sold them to me (Tires Plus) has switch tires for me each spring and fall at no charge. Next best thing to chains.

Al