Michelin Defender

[DuckRyder]

Originally Posted By: Oldswagon
Originally Posted By: DuckRyder
O.K. everyone who has or knows someone personally with a Prius that put Defenders on it raise their hand.

Do you? You were the one who suggested a 10% loss, so if you have something to support this, I'd be interested. That's the problem though, is no one seems to have used the defenders on a Prius to report the results. Even if someone went from a LRR tire to a Defender would be helpful.


Yes.

 

[Oldswagon]

Originally Posted By: DuckRyder

Yes.


Can you elaborate on the details? What generation was the car, what tires was it running, what climate, before and after avg MPG, etc? A 10% loss would be enough for me to buy another tire. That's seems really high when my Firestone Winterforce causes a 13% loss.

 

[DuckRyder]

I posted about it here.

You can see my thread here wherein the same people pontificated about what "should be", even going so far as to say that the owner of the car didn't know how many MPGs her Car(s) get.

What "is" is that it will lose 9-10% and go from over 50MPG to about 45MPG and when you decide you hate them and use Michelins promise plan to get Energy Saver A/S on it it will nearly instantly improve to above what the "significantly more efficient" worn out OE tires got.

Don't get me wrong I love Michelins and the Defender is a good tire, but you're going to lose significant mileage on a Prius.

 

[Rand]

thats the same person that said she got the same mileage in the winter and summer?

IMO that whole post of yours was 2nd hand and unreliable IMO.

I'd rather you were the one with the car and did the calculations yourself. That would be dependable.

 

[DuckRyder]

Originally Posted By: Rand
thats the same person that said she got the same mileage in the winter and summer?

IMO that whole post of yours was 2nd hand and unreliable IMO.

I'd rather you were the one with the car and did the calculations yourself. That would be dependable.


Look Richard...

She is much more dependable than you, I've driven the car quite a bit and it pretty much always gets 50-51.

So for you to imply that she is unreliable only further proves you have no idea what you are talking about on this subject.

The OP is free to take my advice or not.

BTW can you raise your hand to my question?

 

[sciphi]

Check out the tire threads on PriusChat if you haven't already. Instead of arguing, look at what the folks with the same car and same tire you're interested in think of that tire on their example of the car...

Ahh, some links! Throw this search string into Google: defender siteriuschat.com

http://priuschat.com/threads/michelin-defender.112901/

http://priuschat.com/threads/replace-michelin-defender-with-what-tire.115029/

 

[Rand]

Who is richard?

I wasnt implying anyone was lying

I was stating that since the person in question's prius does not follow the laws of physics and presumeably the Op's prius does..
your recommendation should possibly be taken with a grain of salt.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=187986&Number=2873585

no car gets the same mileage with worn out and new tires and in all seasons.. not possible.

 

[Oldswagon]

Thanks for all the discussion, and for reposting that thread. I had actually commented on it, but totally forgot about it. The prius chat threads were helpful. There seems to be mixed results, some as much as a 10% loss, some less, some no loss after tires are broken in. We do see a major loss in winter, like I posted about 13% in winter, but we also go through pretty harsh winters.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find Energy Saver A/S's and like I said previously, I would sacrifice a little fuel economy for better handling, traction and longevity. So far, the only real option other than the Defenders, is the Bridgestone Ecopia EP 422's which are probably the cheapest option. I could also probably easily get the Goodyear Fuel Assurance. I am not sure how these tires will hold up over the long run though.

 

[sciphi]

I have the OEM version of the Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max on my Cruze. Even starting with 9/32" of tread they've gotten me about 35k miles so far, and have another about 15-20k miles left. The non-OEM version should do better. Light snow traction has been mediocre at best. The tires do handle well, and ride pretty well, good enough where I'd consider another set for my 3 season tire with some snow capability.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: DuckRyder
Originally Posted By: Rand
thats the same person that said she got the same mileage in the winter and summer?

IMO that whole post of yours was 2nd hand and unreliable IMO.

I'd rather you were the one with the car and did the calculations yourself. That would be dependable.


Look Richard...

She is much more dependable than you, I've driven the car quite a bit and it pretty much always gets 50-51.

So for you to imply that she is unreliable only further proves you have no idea what you are talking about on this subject.

The OP is free to take my advice or not.

BTW can you raise your hand to my question?


Sweet Jesus, I am thankful that I don't drive a vehicle that people go on like this about the effect of bloody tires on fuel economy. This is INSANE

This is tire choice, not who has their PhD. Maybe narrow it down to people who actually own a Prius and are behind the wheel 100% of the time so that they can testify to the legitimacy of the effects on fuel economy? Otherwise, it is ALL just speculation and conjecture. And REALLY PERSONAL speculation and conjecture apparently. You boys need to relax!

 

[durallymax]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
Check out the tire threads on PriusChat if you haven't already. Instead of arguing, look at what the folks with the same car and same tire you're interested in think of that tire on their example of the car...

Ahh, some links! Throw this search string into Google: defender siteriuschat.com

http://priuschat.com/threads/michelin-defender.112901/

http://priuschat.com/threads/replace-michelin-defender-with-what-tire.115029/


I think this may have been what you were looking for

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=defender+site%3Apriuschat.com

 

[meep]

wish I'd seen this earlier. I just pulled 4 defenders off our van--- they all had 30-50% tread remaining... they were scary when the roads were wet. great tire dry, good mpg (I could achieve 24mpg normal and 27mpg when really trying in the 3.8L town and country). These had to be several years old... hard, aged rubber, which may explain the poor weather traction. IDK how old, or how many miles. But they were bad enough that my wife wouldn't drive the car if there was a chance of rain, so pretty bad.

 

[Smokescreen]

Uhh...didn't the Defender just come out in 2012 ?

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: meep
wish I'd seen this earlier. I just pulled 4 defenders off our van--- they all had 30-50% tread remaining... they were scary when the roads were wet. great tire dry, good mpg (I could achieve 24mpg normal and 27mpg when really trying in the 3.8L town and country). These had to be several years old... hard, aged rubber, which may explain the poor weather traction. IDK how old, or how many miles. But they were bad enough that my wife wouldn't drive the car if there was a chance of rain, so pretty bad.


Must have been a different michelin. Thats impossible.

 

[Dominic]

I have had nothing but fantastic luck with this tire in P185/65R15 on our Nissan Versa. 10,000 miles on it, driven in pouring Alabama rain and Pennsylvania snow without any fear or problems. They seem to be wearing like iron and balanced without any weights except on one wheel! I recommend a quality installer with a roadforce balancer and to get your rebate online for the $70 back. Michelin got my rebate to me 15 days after purchasing the tires!

I will absolutely buy these tires again. Quiet, comfortable, and worlds better than the OEM Continentals that this car came with originally.

And for those wondering about mpg differences, we got a 5% boost of 2mpg on the highway with them.