Last few days with constant rain and drizzle, the OEMs are absolutely worthless...Im sliding to stops, and spinning on acceleration...traction lock kicking in..etc...i i dont even drive hard...its like driving on ice...one tap on the brake sends the car sliding on rain slick surfaces...i only have 6k miles on them...i'm getting them replaced tomorrow...muy pronto...with the Goodyear TT...and its not even winter yet...
What PSI ware you running at? At 44 PSI, I didn't have problems that bad. Even the snow handling was fine. It certainly wasn't fantastic. But it wasn't bad either. So I suspect softer isn't as good. Nonetheless, higher traction tires are a better choice.
Where I live we drive on wet pavement most of the time. I have almost 13,000 miles on my OEM tires and have never seen them slide when stopping or spin on start up. If yours are spinning on startup there is something wrong with your car. Any time mine attempts to spin the traction control stops them and the car just goes on. They do not slide when stopping because of the anti lock brakes.
Last time I checked, mine were at 35/33 which, I believe, is the recommended PSI. Constant rain/drizzle where I am and, like seasala, no problems with spinning or sliding.
We have had some very heavy rains in Southern California in October. I had no more problems driving in the rain in my Prius with OEM tires than I had with my previous car which had Bridgestone Potenza RE930i tires on it.
No problems here. Lots of rain/drizzle on pavement that has oil built up on the surface and never an issue.
an update: after getting car up for tire replacement...2 fronts were seperating tread,they were not moving water out of the way for grip... on the inside and spreading to the outside...tires in the front were defective for whatever reason..(it looked like the indy 500, and we dont drive like it ,either).Looks like it went relatively quick,in the last day or so...We've always had good pressure in them from day 1...and given there was 9/32 on them yet...seeing how i am(was at a goodyear dealer...he gave me 1-1 replacement plus i pay $40/per on TT, and we went ahead and replaced backs as well at discounted price...he said he has seen this once before on integrity...so the bottom line is i came out at about 1/2 price across the board...for the hassle and safety issue...the dealer was going to send the 2 back for research because he wants to know what the deal is too...today i would have felt the steering going south if i would have kept them on...lucky i guess...at any rate...the Triple treads 195 60 15 are a world apart...what a difference...and the rain continues...btw alignment perfect.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wb9tyj\";p=\"51551)</div> Now THERE is a good dealer. A lot of people wouldn't care, not their problem, they didn't make the tires, too much work. Kudos.
I took delivery of my Prius the beginning of October, which happened to coincide with monsoon-like rain here in Manitoba. I had a very scary episode exiting the TransCanada onto the Perimeter Bypass of Winnipeg. I know for a fact what the VSC sounds like and feels like under such conditions! I exited at 50 km/h and just about lost it. According to Tire Rack surveys, the Integrity has poor rain performance. A local Goodyear dealer describes them as "complete s***!" I also had twitchy handling, but the Toyota dealer confirmed my camber was WAY off. My Toyota dealer offered a VERY good trade to Michelin Harmony all-seasons, and driving under the same conditions I feel in complete control. I've tried the same exit at 70 km/h with no drama at all in heavy rain. For winter I'll either run Cooper WeatherMaster ST/2 studded or Dunlop Graspic DS2 studless. A note about tire pressure: I've played around with different pressures, up to the maximum 44psi cold rating, and different f/r delta (+3psi front, +3psi rear), and have returned to 30 psi f/r. The car rides much better at this setting, the handling is rock solid (Thanks to the Harmony tires). With temps +17C, I've driven at 110 km/h for 3 hours and then stopped. The tires were cool to the touch.
