195/55 slowed my car down

[scape]

Originally Posted by Loren

Scape, nothing against you here, but this is a perfect example of how things like the tire survey data on the Tire Rack website should be weighed carefully. You're calling the GT Exclaim "awesome" and "confidence" inspiring where a person who has experienced a much BETTER tire would merely call them "adequate" and "not horrible".

How good a tire is depends greatly on what you're comparing it to, and there are far better tires out there than anything made by General and/or any all-season tire. You've acquired another data point... now next time spring for a really good set of "summer" tires with good rain characteristics. (you live in SFL, you don't need all season tires) They'll cost a little more, but they will blow you away with their grip and responsiveness wet or dry.

Tire temperature gets up to it's operating level pretty quickly. A mile or two will do it, especially at speeds over 45ish. Want to see how sensitive tire pressures are to temp? Set all four tires to even pressure in the shade early in the morning (cold). Then park the car where one side of the car is in the sun. See if you don't see at least 2 degrees higher temps on the sunny side in a couple hours.

exactly my point. this was not a comparison to every tire, but simply a tire that I find cheap and great at the same time. these tires blow away the re92's, and that was my sole comparison.
have you used these tires, by any chance?

[Loren]

Originally Posted by scape

exactly my point. this was not a comparison to every tire, but simply a tire that I find cheap and great at the same time. these tires blow away the re92's, and that was my sole comparison.
have you used these tires, by any chance?

Nope, never used them. I did have RE92's as OE tires on a 1993 Geo Metro... how's that for an indication of how out-of-date those tires are?

There are all-season tires, and there are better all-season tires... but no all-season tire ever compares to a good summer performance tire. (unless you're driving in the snow or temperatures below about 40 degrees) Every tire is a compromise between factors like treadwear, noise, dry traction, wet traction, snow traction, ride comfort, cost... and probably a few other things. The typical all-season tire strives to be "okay" at all of those things, but can't "really good" at any of them because it's just not possible.