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When it comes to tires there's an alarming number of people who don't give it much thought when it comes time to replacing them.
A lot of people will just buy the same tire that came on the tire from the factory, which can be okay.
Or they might try a cheaper option that your local tire store may have on the shelf to save a few bucks, because all tires are the same, being black and round right?
[SOUND] To debunk that myth today were at Michelin's Laurens Proving Ground in South Carolina to experience how two mystery all season tires perform back to back.
Both tires are part of the same consideration set and price comparably, the side walls have been shaved so we don't know what tires are on the car, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say that one of them is a Michelin.
For a bigger scope of how our tires perform we'll not only be running them in new condition but also worn ones buffed down to 3/32 tread depth putting them near the wear bars, this will give us an idea of how the tires perform throughout their life cycle.
And to make it more interesting, today's test will take place on wet surfaces.
The first exercise is a braking test in Toyota Camry's.
We'll be doing full ABS stops from 45 miles per hour, using a GPS performance box to measure stopping distance on worn, low grip pavement, with one millimeter water flowing over it For tire A in new condition, it stopped from 45 miles per hour in 81.2 feet, in 91.6 feet worn.
So that's a little more than a 10 foot difference.
Tire B stopped in 99.3 feet new, and 127.5 feet worn, for a drop-off of nearly 30 feet, which is substantial.
Interestingly, a worn tire A outperformed a new tire B. For the second test, we'll tackle a wet handling course, with the tires mounted on Nissan Jukes.
Here, we'll see how they perform through the slalom, around sharp and gradual turns, and under light and hard braking.
Basically, we'll be running them through daily driving maneuvers, and some accident-avoidance moves on every lap When it comes to tires in new condition, there is a difference.
The a tire has quick turn and lots of grip, and the back end likes to stay planted.
But on the other hand, the b tire isn't as sure footed.
It's quicker to under steer, and the back end likes to step out causing stability control to cut in.
When it comes to the worn tires a performance is not that bad.
Grip levels isn't as high as a new one, but it's still very capable and comfortable.
In contrast the B tire performance falls off drastically.
There's a lot of slipping and sliding while turning through the turns and when powering out of the corner.
It's just not very confidence inspiring.
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It's the end of the day we've had some hard numbers and experience performance differences between tire A, which we found out to be the Michelin Premier and tire B a Goodyear Eagle Sport.
The Michelin in both new and worn conditions stops quicker, it feels better on the hailing course but most interesting of all, worn performance doesn't fall off drastically to ultimately make for a safer ride throughout the lifetime of the tire.
Doesn't mean you should run out and buy Michelin tyres not exactly but take it more as lesson that not all tyres treated equal when it comes to new and won performance because variation and trend design compounds and footprint shapes.
So before you buy a new set of tyres do your homework because important safety decisions maybe the most important safety decision with the tyre being the only physical thing that connect your car to the road.
And that's something you probably shouldn't skimp on.
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