theory on crappy tires

or a positive side effect

 

 

i was just watching a legacy crash test from a link that was posted in nabisco. the side collision obviously pushed the car to the side and it left tire marks.

 

theoretically a crappier tire will allow the car to slide and should lessen car/passenger damage. this would also raise the car's safety factor.

 

any takers on this?

i say bullshit.. if a car slides does that mean it will have a higher risk of getting a roll over? But really it's just a theory I prefer a gripper tire for more control rather than a slippery one.

Actually the more slide a tire has the less chance of it rolling over since the tires woudn't hook up and cause the flip but rather just slide away. Would I feel better with a tire that slides more or has less grip? Um..NO! Maybe you would stand a chance of avoiding the accident in the first place if you had tires that stick and go where you steer the vehicle.

I talked to a what seemed to be knowledgeable salesman once and he gave me a reason for US cars getting crappy all season tires versus the same car in Europe or Japan which got a much more sporting performance tire. He said that the typical American car buyer complains to holy hell if they only get 25-30k miles out of the OEM tires on anything but a dedicated sports car, not to mention what they'd say if the car came with dedicated summer tires and they lived somewhere where snow happened. Most people would never consider the need to have a separate set of winter tires and would bitch if they needed to. The automakers tend to go with tires that appease the ignorant majority.

 

Think about it.....it makes 100% sense to me. The majority of America is filled with dumb asses, hence to have a successful product you have to appease the ignorant majority.....at the expense of the informed minority. A summer performance tire will not go over well with the majority of buyers on most cars.

^ *nod*

Even on dedicated sports cars people still bitch about it. Remember the class action suit with the NSX? Honda specifically had a set of tires designed for the NSX to work the suspension geometry. It essentially took up the preload on the tires so response was instant. It also meant that the tires were always scrubbing decreasing tire life. On a NSX, obviously you will drive it hard. So the tires lasted between 8,000-15,000 miles depending on how hard you drove. Then people began to whine and moan about the fast wearing tires and they never drove it hard, sure:spin:. The tires weren't all that expensive either, cheaper than a set of lesser performing Eagle GS-C. In the end, Honda revised the suspension setup to work with normal tires and performance suffered because of it.

it shows that a lot of ppl who buy nice performance cars are unworthy and do not deserve them.

that's laughable that someone who could manage to get an NSX and even AFFORD it would complain about the F-ing tires:lol:. Idiots. They should complain about the price of the car or the price to insure it rather than the cost of the rubber:confused:. Winston Wolf didn't complain, that in itself speaks volumes. On topic though, I would think the tires ability to grip anything changes drastically during a side impact collision. Even more dynamically depending on point of impact, angle, height of the impacting vehicle, etc. I really don't think having "crappy" tires or sticky tires will add much to that equation. So I guess I'll call BS on the "crappy tires saved my life" theory.

crappy tires in a side impact collision means ricochet into light post, or tree, or other cars

a second impact drastically reduces survivability for occupants...expended crumple zones

The basic reason for crappy tires is cost. You will notice that the cost of the stock tires (Say the RE92s) are $180 at tirerack. I guarantee you that the manuf. sells the tires to subaru (considering the quantity) and maybe a quarter that price. Not only do they get thousands of tires in sales for the cars, they also get a substantial amount of purchases through the replacement. Most drivers will just go to a shop and say 'please replace x tire(s)' depending on how many need replacing. They don't compare the brands/prices, mostly they are told they need a 'performance tire' due to the car, and they get the $180 tire. That is a hell of a lot of money!

 

I know - no one here would dare (Heck - I got some great A/S tires for $86ea) but, I'm sorry to say that this is a very small minority of subaru owners...