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Why is Michelin tires so much more expensive than others? They are 300 each, while others can be as low as 100 each. Why?
What are the concrete advantages of Michelin tires to justify the 3x price?
They aren't. It's category of tire, Michelin mostly makes higher quality tires. For my car which has smaller wheels Michelin PS4s are $240-260 whereas Bridgestone RE-71RS are $240-250 (staggered setup, rears cost more). Very similar price for comparable tires. The All-Season ones are $180-220 and $170-210, slightly cheaper. The Ryken Raptor AS are billed a similar high-performance All-Season in the same category as the Michellns or Bridgestones which is your $100-ish tire. Tire rack though describes it as:
"The Raptor ZR A/S was another significant step back, yet again. From the first turn, there was no doubt the tire lacked the traction to drive with any haste. When pushed, the performance was edgy, with abrupt breakaway when the modest limits were exceeded. The best strategy for our team was to slow down and carefully drive within the window of grip provided by the tire."
Note that's just from a test of budget performance all-season tires. I've never run them but I have used the Kumho PA51 which are pretty popular budget performance tire. They're okay but really more of a longer lasting summer tire than a real all-season one. They don't do well in even light snow at all but they're around $150 rather than $250 and last twice as long as summer rubber so it's really more like $150 versus $500. For that price as long as you don't really need an all-season tire I can definitely see why they're popular. I used the PA51 on the Mazda3 for 120 of the 140k miles I put on it. The OEM rubber was probably some $100 (nowadays) tire. I put about 20k on them as I hate throwing out tires with life left on them but they were really not good at all.
No one who sells or services tires for a living will EVER tell you that it is okay to drive on a tire older than XXXX years old. They're just not going to do that. How many millions of tires are sold every year? Can you imagine the liability?
If your tire tread is chipping that's a good sign you need to get rid of it. A softer tire will last longer on a properly aligned car because it has more give on the road surface.
Engineers used to put in a certain percentage of "safety" factor to account for abuse of a product so that it would last but the last few decades lawsuits have taken center stage.
If you want to buy tires every 5.8 years then by all means buy them.
If you have a car with old tires and don't or can't afford a new set then drive the old ones keeping an eye on them every few days. Most tires that blow have given warning signs before they went. They're not hand grenades. In fact due to lawsuits and stuff tires are probably one of the best manufactured items in the U.S.
LOL. This reminds me of an anecdote my DW passed along where her friend's daughter burned up her car motor. DW's friend was chewing the girl out and says: "B**** you gotta put oil in it!"
Okay, so if you don't want to know about that 4,000 lb juggernaut you're herding down the road and a little of the hows and whys then yes. I would suggest buying tires every 4 years to make sure that's the last thing on your mind.
Explain this movie scene: Car's engine is revving loud, the car is trembling, there is white smoke coming from the back wheel wells; looks like driver is burning tire, but the car is sitting there at the same spot.
What is going on with the car? I have seen this several times in movies, but I can't figure out what is happening. Is the driver hitting gas pedal and brake pedal at the same time?
Yes, people do this. Another thing when we were kids my cousin used to "borrow" a car, throw it in reverse, then slam it into drive and floor the foot-feet. Smoke?! Whatchu talkin' 'bout? It looked like an inferno. Probably wasn't too good on the tranny either. LOL.
Theoretically after 7 years. In reality - I generally don't. Can you theoretically have a blow out with a tire over 7 years old - yup. Has it ever happened to me? Nope. IN fact I have not had a blow out nor knew anyone who has in more than a decade. If you have a blowout what happens? You pull to the side of the road and change it or call a tow truck. Sure you theoretically can lose control of the car and get in an accident. It even happens occasionally however it is thoudands of times less likely than getting in an accident where one or both drivers were looking at their phone, or futzing around with their overly complicated car computer screen, or dealing with a child without pulling over or. . .
Yet we tell everyone replace tires more than 7 years old to be safe, but do nothing about phones, screen, or children all of which are far more dangerous and far more likely to occur. Perhaps the tire industry has something to do with this urban wisdom.
I'm gonna just shoot out related tire questions as I have them. Please feel free to pick up any topic and offer your advice.
I found that many -- not all but many if not most -- tire and rim spec data don't refer to the WIDTH of the rim. Is this because once the RIM DIAMETER is determined, the width is also limited to a range that the tire will fit the rim?
Right now I have 225/55/16; I don't know what the rim size is. Online I see different data. I hope to change the tire to 275/45/16, which will give me the same tire diameter overall. I see these tires: https://www.americastire.com/buy-tir...xes-tq/p/88244 but the tech data does not mention rim size. Can I assume they will fit just because the rim and the tire are both 16"?
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