LRR Tires Best for Prius Second Gen

[broski499]

I bought my 2008 Prius back in September of 2014, it only had 35,000. So about a month ago I get the low tire pressure warning, which is a surprise because I check my tire pressure like a crazy person, pumped it back up but a few hours later it went back down. Got it patched, then a different tire went low. Then I noticed how bald my front tires were. With El Nino approaching I new I needed new tires.

I went to Costco and got the Bridgestone Ecopia LLR tires.

My last tank of a miserable 41 mpg but that was with driving with an under-inflated tire for half a tank. Hoping my new tires will improve my overall MPG.

Anyone scene any decent gains from Ecopia Tires.

[Daox]

The Ecopias are pretty good tires. If I had to replace mine right now I'd probably go with them. Bald tires have very low RR, so new tires usually do hurt FE a bit.

[S Keith]

+1 to bald LRR. Their slightly smaller diameter also translates to more revolutions per mile, so speed and miles travelled are artificially high (slightly). All that adds up to bald LRR giving what seems to be the best mileage ever!

I would expect a ~3mpg hit on new LRR tires for the first 1000-2000 miles or so.

[gone-ot]

...also, nearly bald (low tread depth) tires exhibit lowest energy consumption because their lower tread depth does MUCH less "squirming" which converts energy into heat within the tire, consuming power...so, they're BEST LRR.

The worst is when the tire is brand new and its tread depth is highest, so "squirming" is greatest.

[Insight for life]

+1 for the ecopias from costco. I changed mine about 5 months ago and have been pleased with the ecopias, I had old Yokohama AVIDs.

[redpoint5]

Since new tires are the worst and cost the most, this might be a good reason to buy used. Finding decent used LRR tires might be a challenge though. Perhaps there is some bonehead that swapped out the OEM tires on the Prius for some performance tires.