Tire Talk from Car Talk

[shatto]

In case you missed the latest from the Click and Clack brothers of Car Talk;

They answered questions from a Prius owner who was told the only place he could get
the proper 'low resistance' tires for his car was the dealer. And, simply, that ain't true no more.

They said tests were done and the info is available at: http://www.tirerack.com/
There are a number of tires that give better performance
than the original factory installed rubber.

In the search box, enter: "When Round and Black Becomes Lean and Green."

[CapriRacer]

First, here's a link to the letter:

http://www.cartalk.com/content/today...ic-prius-tires

and a link to the test:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=121

A word of caution: The term "Low Rolling Resistance" (LRR) really means better RR compared to tires with the same wear and traction characteristics. You can find tires with very low RR, but you have to sacrifice Treadwear and/or Traction to get that. Attention to what compromise you want to live with will pay dividends.

[shatto]

Thanks. I didn't look far enough to find your test results, maybe because I'm not in the market for tires.

[bowtieguy]

mis and un informed consumers...

there was a guy here locally asking a question on another car talk show about his prius. he was asking why he only got ~40 mpg of gas on the highway, and near or above 50 in town.

here's the kicker, the give drove insane miles all over the country, mostly highway miles of course! 2 strikes...you didn't do your research and you bought the wrong car. borrowing from theclencher..."what a 'tard!"

[VX_Arky]

Only an idiot would buy a car that clearly shows it gets better city than highway mileage and expect it to do the opposite. Do people really spend $26,000++ and not know what they're buying????

Our species sometimes amazes me. We can walk on the moon, invent the Internet, talk on cellphones that recieve signals bounced from satellites that orbit the earth, but still manage to tie a knot when tying our shoes.

[JanGeo]

It's funny but every time I drove my friends 2007 Prius I got 10 mpg higher than her and it was over 60mpg highway!