Well then, I apologize for jumping the gun this time, but yes, online where no emotions can be seen, your unbiased and cold responses can sometimes come off a little... Proper-English-Snooty. I see where you're coming from, regarding looking up all of my mentioned tires though - can't blame you a bit.
I have to say, I think tread life is my biggest concern, because I could care less if I can't take a freeway exit at 45, or stop from 60-0 in 3 feet, but as long as the tire gets me where I want to go, that's all I can ask for - so long as it was gotten at a reasonable price, and I won't be replacing them every Summer.
I think I was most pleased with my own comment above; "I have an all-season car", which is absolutely true. Maybe those Indy 500s belong on so many Corvettes, and are so great, because (like you said) those cars are only driven 3 months out of the year by mid-life-crisis men and Grandfathers - which I can't agree more with. I've never seen a Corvette abused, which stand to reason why no one has negatives about a tire they hardly "use".
- Usually, dry traction (usually a result of thread compound choice, softer compounds offering better dry/warm traction) comes at the expense of thread life.
- Wet traction (a result of actual thread design, usually aggressively grooved to help evacuate water) comes at the expense of low road noise/dry traction. Stiffness comes at the expense of comfort.
- Comfort comes at the expense of stiffness and cornering ability (a more comfortable tire will usually have softer sidewalls, which in turn will tend to give earlier in a corner).
Those are 3 absolutely excellent summaries, which I fully agree with and have actually explained to many people in my current position. I think the issue here is, I'm a terrible shopper. I'll research these tires until Winter, where my goal will long become obsolete.
Having read the rest of your responses, I'm safe to say you want something that will last a long time (high mileage tire) while not getting a suicide block. Unfortunately, forget dry traction/wet traction, just look at Threadwear stats and price based on your list. Again, not something I've shopped for nor something I have experience using on my cars in the last 12 years (H22A swapped Integra, all work done myself, Subaru Impreza WRX) so I'm hardly the good person to ask for what is the "best" in that category.
I hope I will have at least given you information going forward. And yes, I'm wary of user reviews for a reason : A user rates stuff based on subjective opinion. Traction to a user is not an objective measure. One guy going through a corner at 30 mph might call his tires "A+ traction!" while another user will say it's "D-, piss poor, my car is better than that with XYZ tire". Same goes for thread life or any other stats really. If reading user reviews, don't just look at ratings and scores, look at what the people are actually putting these tires on and how they drive the cars (Corvettes are rarely if ever tracked/driven hard, being mostly owned by old men who like sunday drives while you'd be surprised at what the Subaru guys even using Legacies put a tire through).
Also, beware of the manufacturer traction ratings. Read about what they actually mean. One test for this is to simply drag the tire sideways on a rig and measure the resistance it offers. These never really translate to real world examples. I've seen some of the best handling tires only having "A" traction ratings while some POS chinese crap has a "AA" and yet can't stick to the road worth a damn.
Once more, TireRack.com reviews are exactly what you noted above. I've tried to weed out the people who review the tire after 500 / 1,000 miles, those who go on to end up reviewing an entirely different tire, and the extremist ones that rate a solid 0 or 10, based on biased love or hate. The opinions of others there are terrible.
Here, getting someone who isn't just rating one product is a lot nicer than someone blasting or love-fest-ing on one tire.
"
One test for this is to simply drag the tire sideways on a rig and measure the resistance it offers." - That's hysterical. I've heard of some extremely non-real-world tests, and that one is right up there with the best.
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In closing, thank you again for your typical advice, and I apologize once more for taking your comments as rude, though, you do seem to have it out for me - you do find me a lot.
I really appreciate the help, all. I think I'll be able to make a decision sometime soon. I'll report back here with results and why I picked what I did, for those interested.
The
1010Tires.com Reviews section was also extremely helpful as well. The number of tire reviews available seems overwhelming, but you can narrow it down so easily that you get exactly what you're looking for quickly. That made my hands-down final decision for me.
