Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - View Single Post - Prius 15's are better than aftermarket 17's! (Wrong wheels/tires can wreck your MPG)

silverdelight · 01-08-2013, 09:51 PM

I haven't seen anyone mention the new Michelin Defender tire. I'm trying to figure out if they are responsible for about a 5 MPG loss on our 2007 Prius. We bought this car about three weeks ago and put new tires on it a day after purchasing it. Since we had only driven the car for a short time while trying it out, and then about a 2 hour drive home (mostly highway miles) we can't actually say what the "normal" MPG is for us. The car said the average for the person that had it before us was 42, and we seemed to continue to get that on our drive home. But since putting the Defender (185/65/15) tires on, I am lucky if I get an average of 34 MPG!

Now most of my driving is 10 minutes to work and back, or 5-10 minutes running errands from work, so I'm probably not going to get the best MPG's with that type of driving. But does that seem normal? To me it seems like I have lost considerable MPG when we put the Defenders on. I have about 7 more days to decide if we want to keep these tires... I'm thinking of going back and having them put the Michelin Energy Savers on which were spoken of in an earlier posting.

One more thing... I did read that my MPG is expected to drop due to winter gas, and cold temps. But again, could that be responsible for the loss we are experiencing, along with driving mostly short distances? Or do my tires have something to do with it too? I only saw one other posting on these tires from another Prius owner (after we bought ours), and he stated he lost 5 MPG when he put them on. A few other postings mentioned they thought they got the same, or a little better, but they didn't say if they were Prius owners, so it's hard to go by their comments. There isn't much feedback on the Defender tires yet.

Looking for any advice that will help us decide what to do.

01-08-2013, 09:51 PM	#58 (permalink)
silverdelight EcoModding Lurker Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Michigan Posts: 4 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Michelin Defenders I haven't seen anyone mention the new Michelin Defender tire. I'm trying to figure out if they are responsible for about a 5 MPG loss on our 2007 Prius. We bought this car about three weeks ago and put new tires on it a day after purchasing it. Since we had only driven the car for a short time while trying it out, and then about a 2 hour drive home (mostly highway miles) we can't actually say what the "normal" MPG is for us. The car said the average for the person that had it before us was 42, and we seemed to continue to get that on our drive home. But since putting the Defender (185/65/15) tires on, I am lucky if I get an average of 34 MPG! Now most of my driving is 10 minutes to work and back, or 5-10 minutes running errands from work, so I'm probably not going to get the best MPG's with that type of driving. But does that seem normal? To me it seems like I have lost considerable MPG when we put the Defenders on. I have about 7 more days to decide if we want to keep these tires... I'm thinking of going back and having them put the Michelin Energy Savers on which were spoken of in an earlier posting. One more thing... I did read that my MPG is expected to drop due to winter gas, and cold temps. But again, could that be responsible for the loss we are experiencing, along with driving mostly short distances? Or do my tires have something to do with it too? I only saw one other posting on these tires from another Prius owner (after we bought ours), and he stated he lost 5 MPG when he put them on. A few other postings mentioned they thought they got the same, or a little better, but they didn't say if they were Prius owners, so it's hard to go by their comments. There isn't much feedback on the Defender tires yet. Looking for any advice that will help us decide what to do.