I live in Europe and my RAV4 Hybrid is still on its way but I was wondering what I could get for summer and winter (mandatory from a legal perspective here)
I added these to favorites:

• Winter - Continental WinterContact TS 850 P 215/55R18 99V XL
• Summer - Continental PREMIUMCONTACT 6 FR 215/55R18 99V

Not sure if these are available in CA, but you should try and check at least.
I'm a fan of Continental for a lot of years. I tend to think that the summer ones saved my bacon for a couple of times!

 

Thanks. For Winter I was thinking Michelin Xice3s. They’re supposed to be low rolling resistant tires and they’re one of the best. I really like the Continental TrueContact all season tires as well. Once my stock tires need replacement I think I’m going with Continentals.

 

I am super late. I run the michein xice3s. I LOVE them. Had them on my prius before and run em on my rav. The warranty is amazing and they wear out MUCH slower than the Blizzaks that are quite popular as well. Worth their weight in gold.

 

The Continental TrueContact tires on my '16 Prius are just as LRR as the OEM tires, they are far better on snow, and they are noticeably quieter and smooth over expansion joints and road patches better. I do know that they come in the 225/65/17 size for my base LE rav HV. Consumer's Repoerts and Tire Rack tests and Tire Rack's crowdsourced ratings all give them good marks. That said, I have Michelin Lattitude x-ice on my LE HV, and they are very good: LRR, great on snow & ice, smooth and quiet too.

 

The problem with low rolling resistance tires is that traction iis compromised in snow and wet conditions. Any tire is definitely going to be a compromise in one area or another. To get great gas mileage you need to sacrifice traction.

Goodyear assurance weather ready tire (Mountain snowflake) I have found this tire to be outstanding all year. Severe snow rated 60,000 mile warranty you can use it all year my mileage has only decreased by about 0.5 miles per gallon winter driving on average.
The huge difference in traction is well worth the small decrease in gas mileage. Like I said tires are a compromise in one area or another.

 

Nokian R3s.Great Winter Tire

 

I like my Nokian R3 very much. Good ride, quiet and awesome in snow.

 

The Xice3's are on sale right now at my local CanadianTire for $624 (for 4). The Continental TrueContact Tour is $860 (not on sale). The Continentals have a 145,000km rating while the Xice's are closer to 60,000km. I'm ok with replacing my Winter tires every 4-5 years or so (I travel about 12K-15K per-year). With a tire with a really high milage rating I always expect to replace them much sooner because road noise gets louder as time goes on. I've had 2 sets of Xice2's in the past and they've performed fine over the course of the 8 years total I've used them. Would it be worth the extra $220 to get the Continental's? I expect they'll both be equally awesome for the first 2 years. The question is if I'll want to keep the Continental's more than 4 years. I didn't realize the Xice3's had a good low resistance. I think I'll pickup the Xice3's and when its time replace whatever comes with my RAV4 I'll finally dive into a nice set of Continentals.

 

Oh and my goal is to swap these 18" Winters on the stock Toyota wheels, and pick up some LP2 Aventure wheels for April and run them with the stock tires.

 

There's not a straight forward answer. It depends on your driving goals. Things to consider...your driving style, your local weather conditions, how you use your car, how many miles a year you drive, do you want a good rain tire/snow tire/performance tire/ultra smooth ride (like my OEMS)/smooth ride...lot's of give and take. For example:

My car came with Firestone Destination LE 2s which some people really like, I found them too mushy/bouncy, not a performance oriented tire at all. I wanted more precise handling, shorter stopping distance (particularly in the rain), better cornering and I was willing to give up MPGs to get it. And I was looking for the same thing in a winter tire and was willing to give up ultimate deep snow performance (the Seattle area doesn't tend to get harsh winters) to get it. I choose Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus for summer, a 3.5 season tire and Hankook Winter i*cept evo2 for winter, a 3 season tire.

Cheers,

 

I'm very happy with the Continental VikingContact 7 here in the Canadian Prairies. Car in front of me was struggling to get up an icy exit ramp from a parking lot, just barely made it up. I drove up with zero slipping.

I have Nokian Hakka R2 on my other car, these are every bit as good.

 

Are they as good on dry roads? That’s the one thing I didn’t like about Blizzaks was their dry road performance. The Nokians were way better in that regard.

 

I also got the Continental vikingcontact 7 in Vancouver. I think i paid around 900 with steel rims. They have been excellent.

 

I had my 2017 RAV hybrid AWD with Nokian R2 and now with Rav4 2019 hybrid AWD Nokian R3. I ordered my next RAV4 prime with Nokian R3 and both R:s are good, but I feel R3 are better. They are real winter tyres, not just M+S. Estimated arrival for RAV prime is august. So good to have good winter tires ready to rock.

 

Would love to do all-weather tires but it doesn't seem there are many available in the RAV4h Limited size.

 

My local tire place (Jack Williams) has Nokian WRG4s which is an all weather tire in size 235 55 19

 

I will add another two cents worth in here. I'm just running my Michelin X ice latitude tires year 'round. I can vouch that they are indeed LRR tires because my last two tanks I've been driving the car carefully, and I've gotten mid-50 miles per gallon for the tanks. If the tires were not LRR I doubt I could be doing that well.

 

Blizzaks and x-ice in my opinion. As for the LRR/traction debate, I think it’s a bit silly. The mpg loss of a tire with better traction is negligible and can be easily made up by driving more mpg-conscious. If you need the traction because of inclement weather, your safety and vehicle’s performance should always take priority over 1 or 2 mpg. I’ve driven my Prius in Alaska for years and there was only a slight drop in mpg with dedicated snow or studded winter tires. Never left me stuck or stranded.

 

I live at ski resorts in the winter, driving a 2019 Rav4 LE Hybrid. I run Nokain Hakkapelita 8 factory-studded winter tires. Studded tires get a lot of bad press, but when you're driving on ice and snow most of the time, they are a real lifesaver! I go straight up and down hills. The main hazard is that I must dodge the other cars that are slipping and sliding askew all over the road.
My fuel economy drops about 5% in winter and the studs sound like I'm driving on gravel. No problem if they give me the confidence to arrive at my destination safely. In my experience, studs improve traction during acceleration, braking and cornering. No wonder 90% of cars in snowy Finland run studded tires in Winter.

 

I'm a big fan of the "studless" Hakkepalitas "Studless" is a strange term. These are not snow tires without studs. (well, they are, but that's not the point) These are snow tires that are so "grippy" that they don't need studs. They probably don't work quite as well as studs on real glare ice. I think they work better on hard packed or polished snow. On reason for this is that while studded tires have maybe 4-6 studs in contact with the road, the studless tire has the entire contact area working. Blizzak is the other big name in this, and now other are making them. I think the concept has been around for about 25 years. I've heard the the "all weather" tires are pretty good as well. (not be confused with "all season", which are not.) I think that there are some all weather tires that have the snowflake.

 

Once again, I'm the guy with the studded Nokain Hakkapelita tires on my RAV4. I forgot to mention that I run "studless" Hakkapelita tires on my other (non-Toyota) car. The studless Hakka tires are far less noisy than the studded version and are excellent in Winter conditions, but not as good as studs when driving on ice. This difference really shows up when you hit ice that is above freezing, with some water on the surface. Studs also have an advantage in lumpy, icy parking lots (I cannot explain this).

 

Studs also have an advantage in lumpy, icy parking lots (I cannot explain this).

That actually does make sense. The "studless" tires need contact area. Bumpy poky stuff that keeps the tire from sitting flat on the ice would limit the area in contact with that same ice.

I have the studless tires and I really like them. One thing that's weird, but normal about them, is that sometimes you have to spin them to get out. I've never ever had my tires polish themselves into a glossy hole and then get stuck. Somehow they seem to be able to chew there way out. And I'm not burning the tires either.

 

Nokian WRG4

 

I’ve never had to spin my studless snow tires to get going. At least not my Blizzaks. The Nokian R3’s traction isn’t quite as good in my experience but they do last longer.

 

I have a fairly steep, uphill, unpaved driveway and I have to stop at the top. That's pretty much the only time this happens. My main point is that you can do this without getting stuck, unlike an all-season. With the all-season, I would have to back down and start over. It's just a unique difference from most tires, where spinning will almost always get you stuck.

 

Studded tires don’t make sense for most people. They have less traction on dry roads and tear up roads and garage floors.

 

Winter I run the factory wheels with 225/60/18 Nokian R3 SUV. Excellent snow and ice traction and low road noise.

Summer I run aftermarket wheels with 245/55/18 Nokian WRG4's. Also have excellent traction and low road noise in any weather. The aftermarket wheels are lighter than the factory Toyota, but the larger WRG4's are a bit heavier than the stock 225/60/18 Michelin Primacy A/S. Overall I am still lighter than stock for the summer set, and my fuel economy is the same or better in some cases, even with the larger footprint. 22km hi-way driving to city with roughly 30-40 minutes of city driving I am averaging 5 - 5.2L/100km per trip. Not bad. Hi-way only I am getting 5.8 - 6L/100km.

 

Many times it can be trivial but some tires are costing people 10, 20% and up to and over 30% mpg loss. That is not negligible and voids the fact you bought a hybrid due to the Non-hybrid models getting the same if not better mpg. That is Impossible to make up for by Driving more "mpg-conscious" and can Only be prevented at time of Purchase. I drive over 2,000 miles a week in my Hybrid Rav and would not consider Anything that costs me MPG.