Replacement tires - Continental TrueContact

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Rubble, Nov 12, 2017.

  1. Rubble

    Rubble Junior Member

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    Last August I bought 4 new replacement tires for my 2014 Prius 2. I depended on Consumer Reports and some Tirerack videos to make my decision. The replacement tire I bought at a local Sullivan Tire outlet was the Continental TrueContact, 195-65/15. After a $70 rebate from Continental the set cost $380 including mounting and balancing. Here is some information that I hope may help others. I'd also like to suggest that other priuschat members post their real-world fuel economy experience with replacement tires. It would be helpful for others. I found the existing threads on replacement tires pretty useless -- lots of opinions, but no data.

    Fuel economy facts:
    First 2821 miles on Bridgestone Ecopia (back in August - November 2014 when both the car and the OEM tires were new): 51 mpg. Actual fuel consumption was 55.144 gallons.
    First 2824 miles on Continental TrueContact (August - November 2017): 50 mpg. Actual fuel consumption was 56.537 gallons.

    Conditions:
    Same car: 2014 Prius 2, although it now has over 76,000 miles.
    Same size: 195-65/15
    Same inflation: 38 - 40 psi
    Same drivers: my wife and me
    Same type of driving: daily errands around town, plus some long trips on Interstate Highway system.
    Same time of year: August to November

    As of 2017, Continental TrueContact is just below the Michelin Defender in CR ratings of all-season passenger car tires. Unlike the Michelin, it is advertised as a low rolling resistance tire. It is much more attractively priced than the Michelin, but the downside may be tread life. The Ecopias were down to about 3mm after 48,000 miles.
     
    #1 Rubble, Nov 12, 2017
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  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk MMX GEN III

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    Michelin assigns the GreenX "badge" to the Defender, fwiw. It does with a few others as well, the Energy Saver A/S and Primacy MXM4. For the Premier A/S it uses the description "Michelin Total Performance". I'm not clear what the difference is, if there's overlap. The blurbs say that "Total Performance" encompasses" more criteria, not just rolling resistance.

    It'll probably take a firm hand at federal level to quantify rolling resistance more objectively. It'd be real nice if someone like TireRack would include RR in their survey categories. They do include comparative mpg results when doing tire comparison tests.

    Just looking now: Defender's are "greenX", the new Defender T+H are "Total Performance", in some sizes, not including 195/65R15. And the Defenders are maybe being discontinued?
     
    #2 Mendel Leisk, Nov 12, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2017
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  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i can only tell you that my new energy savers run about the same mpg as the oem bridgestones, but are a thousand times smoother and quieter. they were $500. installed.
    otoh, i saw a noticeable improvement on my wife's hycam on a 500 mile trip to manhattan with new premiers.
    49 mpg on the dash vs 45 last time we took the same trip in similar weather on the oem's.
     
    #3 bisco, Nov 12, 2017
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  4. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    we have the TrueContacts as well from TireRack. Two mild winters so far but no complaints.
    If I understand there is a wear strip indicating when your winter road tread is gone, if I get a chance I will have to check this year as it'll be our 3rd winter with them. Tire Rack replaced one tire on warranty when we had a road debris flat,so we got one newer tire in the mix.
     
    #4 wjtracy, Nov 12, 2017
  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk MMX GEN III

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    That's good mpg for HyCam.

    @The Critic weighs in (fairly positively) on the Premiers here:

    Need New Tires - Primacy MXM4 vs. Premier A/S | Tires & Wheels | Bob Is The Oil Guy

    In his follow up comments (page 2), after having them on for 16K miles mentions mpg going up a bit, vs his previous Primacy MXM4.
     
    #5 Mendel Leisk, Nov 12, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2017
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