Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Get the Summer Tires - 2015 Porsche Macan S Long-Term Road Test
Edmunds.com
Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
Get the Summer Tires - 2015 Porsche Macan S Long-Term Road Test
Edmunds.com conducts a long-term test of the 2015 Porsche Macan S and finds that its all-season tires take the
Tagged:
0
Comments
Some people may have delusions of using all-season tires all year long, but it is completely dependent upon the local climate. Sure, in Southern California, go for it, switch to summer tires. If you head to the mountains in the winter, get a set of good snow tires. But summer tires are useless and even dangerous when the temperature remains below 45 degrees F. In many parts of the country, you can expect overnight temperatures and early mornings below 45 September through the end of April. All seasons are a better compromise for those drivers, so that they only need to mount ice & snow tires from late November through March, at worst. Better all-seasons are available in most sizes as upgrades over the very compromised OEM tires. Not everybody lives in the lower Sunbelt and desert areas where summer tires are the best choice.
Ah, the last point in this post says it all. Instead of the Q5. The reality is that very, very few Macan drivers will care one way or another about about how the car performs. They want a car they can afford that says Porsche on the back and can be used day-to-day by families that need space for kids and stuff. That's it. As with the Cayenne, we see the S and Turbo at launch so they can get top dollar out of the people who absolutely must have this car early in the run. But, as with the Cayenne, there will be a base model in due time and it will we a whole lot like the Q5 in more ways than the tires. And you know what? That's going to be the volume seller.
Were I able to afford a new Porsche of any type then I could also afford an extra $1,000 in spare tires.
But to speak to your generalized comment about American's and all-season tires. I cannot afford a new Porsche and I don't have a garage, and I live somewhere that, unlike LA, has actual seasons. So it's all season tires for me as it is for vast numbers of Americans who need tires that can perform adequately on wet or snowy or dry roads and can't afford to spend many hundreds of extra dollars for the luxury of tires that are only uselfull a few months of the year under ideal weather conditions.
Not true. Actually many Europeans do use all season tires (mainly city cars), and they use it for essentially the same reason- summer tires wear down more quickly and not everyone can shell out at thousand bucks every few years. Separate winter tires, of course. But it doesn't make sense to a lot of people who have very minimal braking requirements to need summer tires on their non-sporty car.
I actually swapped out the default max-performance summer rubber on my Fiesta ST for all-seasons, and have no regrets. The Michelins have enormously improved ride quality and traction in cold and wet weather, and the dry traction is surprisingly close to the OEM tires. Been very pleased.
Obviously, they're not Super Sports, but they're pretty darn good.
Did Porsche say why they chose those particular Michelin's for the Macan?
As for American "peculiarity", perhaps the Europeans have a better system and the time for dealing with switching tires per season (in-home tire switchovers, etc.)?
I also suspect some Edmunds folks will be pushing to make this Macan a true track car once the long term tests are done.
a very good all-season tire will likely perform quite closely, if not exceed, the cheapest summer tire. so, the statement is not categorically true. i do love winter tires, though. use them on our e90 rwd and makes all the difference. i think it IS categorically true that any winter tire will blow the doors of any all-season tire in the snow and slush; at least for traction and safety.
i think the fault is not necessarily with the all-season category but the particular tire porsche chose.
This is one area (and there are a few) where opinions of automotive journalists and the general public will diverge. For a Edmunds editor, evaluating tires, selecting new ones, changing them, reevaluating and writing about it is part of their job. Conversely, purchasing new tires and having them changed is an expense and a burden for most people.. Sure there are exceptions. Performance enthusiasts, those destined for the track. But those are exceptions. For most buyers all season tires are a convenience and, despite some of the points made here, actually an improvement in safety. They may not be the safest tire in every condition but no tire is. They are, however, the safest in the most conditions.
Further to my previous point, Motor Trend tried swapping out the all-season tires on their Accord Sport for summer tires and their Lat accel went down; though 0-60 braking improved:
"To see if I could improve the Sport's already solid handling and braking (lateral acceleration of 0.88 g, 60-0 braking of 129 feet), I swapped the OE wheel/tire package (8 x 18-inch alloys shod with 235/45 94V Michelin Primacy MXM4 all-season tires) with a set of Yokohama Advan RSII alloys wearing Continental ContiSportContact 3 summer tires. (Both the Advans and Contis were OE size.) .... but didn't pay off as much as I'd hoped at the track. Lateral acceleration proved less sticky, sliding to 0.85 g, while 60-0 braking improved to 116 feet."
60-0 braking improved...
Problem is with those tires - they're a subset of all-season tires...all-season SUV tires, which are extra bad. I'm sure that a set of Pilot Sports A/S 3s would have been fine. Those Latitudes are crap.
i'm going to take a S.W.A.G (Scientifically-wild-[non-permissible content removed]-guess) and say that to take the heavy accord's front suspension to the .90 and beyond would take more than just a tire swap (or at the very least much much wider tires) looking at lat acceleration of two of the quickest sedans i can think of off the top of my head the STI 0.93 and the M5 is just under 1.0 they have more than just sticky tires working for them. I do agree that there are cheap summer tires that are crap compared to good all season tires on the market but very few these days i think the accord is a bad example tho because the accord just understeers way too much to take advantage of any additional grip
i agree! they arent bad tires just bad for hauling [non-permissible content removed].
they are a convenience because they are cheaper than two sets of tires and/or wheels and also you dont have to worry about getting caught with your summer tires still on during the first snowfall or extreme cold. Most people dont drive cars with big power numbers so they don't have to worry about traction and the performance of most all seasons suit majority of people's needs to transport their vehicle safely. Most people just want tires that will last a long time and they dont slide around too bad in the rain and even some of the worst tires on the market can do that if you don't drive like an idiot. But this is a Porsche after all you should at least feel confident behind the wheel at speed if your driving a porsche and porsche missed the mark with these oe tires. i wonder if these tires are exlusive to the 20 inch tires or if the 19 inch tires have the same model tire
Get some proper All seasons on this thing and be happy. I suggest Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure I have had good luck with them and as long as you keep the tire pressure 80 you get excellent wear and they are dead quiet and ride well.
You would have to switch to a single tire size of LT285/60R20 but that's for the best I think.
Remember sidewall is your friend.
Because these Macans are headed for the American market, so Porsche decided that they do the American consumer thinking. Then, when the knowledgeable buyers opt for the summer tires, they know it will be an extra payment. CHACHING to Porsche's bank account.