is there a replacement tire for the 2001 Prius, the recommended Protenza gets about 13.000 miles, expensive?

Question

Because of the weight on the 14in. tires only the protenza is deemed safe and there is no other tire reccommended

Answer 1

US 2001-2003 OEM Prius tire:
Bridgestone Potenza RE92 XL (Extra Load)
P175/65 R14
84S
Treadwear 160
Temperature A
Traction A
50psi max. cold pressure

So yes, this is a 14" tire. If you ask Toyota USA, they'll say that you can only get this, or the Bridgestone Blizzak snow tire. The reason: the load rating of 84. If you are getting a replacement Bridgestone Potenza RE92 tire, make sure that it has the XL rating - there's a non-XL version that's sold for the Echo.

Although the OEM tire is supposedly warrantied for 40,000 miles, I can say that I've only heard of one owner actually getting that much. Most owners tend to get in the mid-20,000 mile range on this low treadwear (160) tire.

Since you only got 13,000 miles, I'd suggest a few things:
1. Check your tire pressures more often. At a minimum, keep the tires inflated to the Toyota specs of 35psi front, 33psi rear (as always, when measured cold). Many owners report rapid edge wear even at these specs, so you may want to slightly increase the pressure (to no more than the max. cold pressure indicated on the tire sidewall). Favorite settings of other Prius owners tend to be in the 40psi range (keeping the +2psi bias in the front).
2. Have your alignment (front and rear) checked before putting new tires on.
3. Avoid hitting curbs, potholes, and the like.
4. Although it's easy to not realize your speed in the Prius, try to slow down a bit more while going through turns, to avoid extra wear to the edges of the tires.
5. Follow the scheduled maintenance guide's recommendations of rotating the tires at every oil change interval.

For a replacement tire, you'll want it to have a load rating of 84 or higher. In this size (P175/65 R14), it's difficult to find. You may have to go to a slightly wider tire to find the load rating.

(I recently put Nokian WRs (the only all-season tire that's also a snow tire) on my 2001 Prius, and I had to go up to the P185/65 R14 size to beat the load rating (in this case, 86, and athough I could've special-ordered the same tire in P175/65 R14 in the XL variety, I didn't). )

Some suggested Classic Prius tires are here:
http://john1701a.com/prius/prius-tires_classic.htm

Answer 2

go to any good tire shop and ask what the best tire will be for that car