Worn tires

Maintenance/Repairs
1

i have a '04 toyota prius with about 40k miles, i am going to put the 3rd set of tires on this car. is that normal

2

I expect most tires to wear about 40K miles. If I get more great, and less then I’m not going to replace them with the same brand. Tire wear is greater on heavier cars and SUV’s in general.

20K out of a set of tires seems pretty bad for a Prius. I’d shop for a different brand and you do need to pay attention to low rolling resistance to get the best out of your hybird. The OEM tires on my '03 Civic lasted only 23K miles. The Michelins that I bought next are still on the car at 82K miles. They are nearing replacement time but still easily legal. Somewhere before 100K miles I’ll replace them with Michelins since I got over 50K of good service from them.

Tirerack.com is a good site to see ratings and consumer reactions to various tires. Their prices are pretty good too.

3

By third set, do you mean third FRONT set? This a FWD and those types of cars wear the front tires 2 1/2 times faster than the rears.

4

20K out of a set of tires seems pretty bad for a Prius

It is not good, but as I recall the Prius OEM tyres are highly fuel efficient, but also short life. If the original tyres were replaced with the same model tyre that came on the car, then this might be normal.

Is the wear even across the tread and around the tyres? Who is deciding you need new tyres (the dealer?)

5

No. Have you kept the tires inflated correctly and the wheels aligned? Has the car every been in a crash? 20K miles is terrible tire mileage.

Are you replacing all four or just two? You’re not giving us much information.

6

In order to know whether or not this is normal, I need to know:

*How often do you rotate the tires?

*How often do you check your tire pressure?

*What kind of tires are you buying?

7

…and is the car properly aligned?

8

Normal For A Prius, I Would Say

Many Prius owners have had similar concerns. Click this link to one such discussion:

http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/1913809.page

It’s all about trade-offs. Save on gas and the energy in it. Waste energy and resources on tires and eventually replacement batteries.

CSA