Hybrid Tyre Wear

[Cyker]

People may have thought them slow a few years ago but I doubt they do any more! When I'm on the motorway I find HSD drivers are about a 50/50 split between the calm constant speed ones that sit in the left/middle lane and the rabid sport-racerish ones that fly past me like I'm standing still

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I think the Prius got a reputation for being slow due to US reviews. They still class it as just about acceptable, probably because V6's proliferate and a 0-60 time of 7-8 seconds is their norm, compared to 10-13 seconds here. Obviously we have much faster cars and some slower, but the average Prius sized car is about 10-11 seconds.

And who here doesn't enjoy burning off a chav at the lights? :)

[johalareewi]

We had an Auris Touring Sports Hybrid to test drive.

We were suitably impressed and have ordered one.

A hybrid is a non-starter for me as I spend time on German autobahns. The Auris hybrid will not go with the flow there, I'm sure a Lexus 450 hybrid would work but my pockets aren't that deep :-(

If the Auris hybrid won't go with the flow on the autobahns, a lot of other non hybrid cars will be in the same boat.

There are hybrid cars that will go with the flow, but they ain't cheap.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Exactly.

"Ah the hybrids are crap cos they can't do 120 mph on the autobahns, or tow a trailer or go off roading". But neither will many other cars. The number of people in Europe who regularly go over 120 mph on the German autobahns are a significant minority.

The question the naysayers should be asking is why doesn't my petrol (or diesel) automatic family car get 70 mpg (or 60 or 50 mpg even) on an A road.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

The question the naysayers should be asking is why doesn't my petrol (or diesel) automatic family car get 70 mpg (or 60 or 50 mpg even) on an A road.

Even after 5 months of ownership I never get bored of never getting below 70MPG in real life calculations when filling :D

[Andy H777]

only had car for a few days but was going to put all season on as they wear, will this affect mpg much? using as taxi.

Day one I went round the lanes and few hills and was showing 60-65mpg then took it down to the coast on A roads and it has dropped to 58 after 130 miles.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Yes all seasons will affect economy. But you have to balance that with the cost of your taxi insurance excess and time off work if you put the car in a ditch. If you were a low mileage user then stay with summer tyres. As you're a high mileage professional driver it's prudent to have the best tyres on in winter.

[Andy H777]

Thanks for that, When they wear I will put all season on, last time we had snow I anchored up in cab at said lamp post at 30 mph then did same in much heavier volvo with all season and it stopped in between a third and a quarter of the distance, very impressed!

[Grumpy Cabbie]

The other side is that LRR summer tyres offer amazing mpg's and you should get up into the mid 70's if you take it easy in summer on an A road run.

I presently have A/A rated Bridgestones on my Prius and they're really economical. Much better than the C rated LRR tyres I had before. If you're choosing AllSeasons, then choose one with a C or over economy rating. E rated tyres do badly affect your mpg's.

But it's your car and your choice.

[PeteB]

I've done about 1600 miles on my winter tyres now, and the economy seems slightly better than last winter, which so far has been similarly mild to this one.

The main change is that since last winter my mother had an accident and is now in a nursing home, so while I still do a lot of very short cold start journeys, it's less than half as many as last winter, so that most likely accounts for it.

My summer tyres (Dunlop Sport BluResponse) were rated B for ECO, A wet braking and 68dB noise, but the winter tyres (Nokian WR D3) were C/C/72. They aren't noticeably noisier on most surfaces, but on coubik chipped and concrete surfaces they are much noisier.

The other thing I noticed straight away was the car seems more affected by ridges in the road and crosswinds than before - is this something others have noticed on winter tyres?

At the point the winter tyres were fitted the wear on the summer tyres had been so even I didn't consider having the tracking checked. However, I plan to have them swapped back at the end of March, when the car gets its first MOT, and I may well have them checked then as it will be approaching 40k. Normally, I'm an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" guy, but after this mileage I'm thinking a check is in order.