I ask because I have them on my car (Saturn Aura). On the positive side, they handle well, and have good traction.
However, they have a lot of isadvantages:
-they are very noisy
-they provide a stiffer ride-you feel the bumps
-they wear faster than standard tires
-they are delicate-you bump a curb, and you lose 5-6 PSI
I am seriously considering going with a less agressive tire, when i have to replace them.
The tires are goodyear Eagle LS2.
I doubt they handle better or have better traction than regular old tires. So there goes your one positive. They look cool, which is the main reason I thought people bought them.
I think a slightly low-pro tire looks cool, but they’ve gotten ridiculous. People drive around in SUVs with giant wheels and tires that are only 2 inches thick, removing the off-road capabilities that are supposed to make SUVs cool in the first place. They don’t even look like pneumatic tires anymore. The only logical conclusion of this trend is to go to solid rubber tires. After that, maybe metal wheels, but those won’t work, so they’ll have to go to wooden wagon wheels instead.
There is a point where any benefits of short sidewalls, like less lateral flex, are overpowered by things like greater unsprung weight from larger, heavier wheels.
Extremely low profile tires are just a fashion statement.
Vast majority of SUV owners never get anywhere near taking their SUV off pavement, many of them are not even 4WD.
Most racecars don’t use them. Look at NASCAR or Formula 1.
Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. To see the top technology in high performance tires, look at race cars.
No. They use what the rules tell them to. That’s not to say you’d see and F1 car on 24" spinners with 25-series sidewalls if there were no rules, it’s just to say that “what racers use” is more accurately “the best they can get away with under regulations”
The primary point of low profile tires is decreased sidewall flex which makes for a more accurately handling vehicle. Almost everything else listed could apply to any tire.
Tread pattern and rubber compound have much more to do with road noise and tire wear. Most low-profile tires are meant for fairly aggressive applications, so yeah, you’ll see mostly rubber compounds that favor traction above noise and comfort - but the low-profile aspect really doesn’t have much to do with that. Correlation not being equal to causation, you know.
There is a disadvantage in how big a pothole you can hit with low-profile tires, but you’re not likely to lose air pressure any more rapidly than any other tire. You are, however, more likely to damage the wheel as there (obviously) less rubber and air to cushion the impact.
I’m sure I could find you an obnoxiously loud, unreasonably stiff tire that will wear to the threads if you drive through a puddle in just about any profile. As far as I can tell, and ralph124c seems to agree, the Goodyear Eagle LS-2 is one such shitty tire.