OEM Joint Designed Tires

[FlyPenFly]

In my experience, at least for Porsche, there doesn't seem to be a wide difference in price between the standard tire and an N rated tire which is designed with Porsche. So I'll pretty much always go with the N rated tire if it's available in my preferred brand and model.

Really interesting video that goes deep into this area with a M3.

 

[daves87rs]

Interesting!

 

[CapriRacer]

First, OE tires are built to the vehicle manufacturer's specs - and frequently, what the vehicle manufacturer wants is NOT what the average consumer wants.

The average OEM wants a tire that is great for rolling resistance, which is obtained by sacrificing treadwear and grip, especially wet grip. The average consumer wants a tire that wears good to great, has good grip, and they will take fuel economy (rolling resistance) if it doesn't sacrifice the wear and grip much.

In this video, BMW is not the usual OEM. My experience with them is that they want good grip, and don't care much about wear and fuel economy.

I don't think Mr Benson did a good job of explaining why this test was an anomaly when it comes to the question about OE tires. In fact, he didn't mention how weird BMW is at all!! What I think is that Michelin used Mr. Benson as an advertisement. What Mr. Benson got was a video at a low cost. It's a win/win for those 2, but a loss for the truth!

 

[johnmyster]

When I was young, my dad was a tooling engineer for Michelin. They'd retool for OEM variants of an otherwise retail looking tire. This was >30 years ago, and for cars like Honda Accords...not just M3 and Porsche. It was an iterative process beginning with his beeper going off during dinner, a special run of tires, and then some testing data a few weeks later.

Some of it was compound changes to get better grip and or make a tire quieter...better consumer reports reviews, etc. Sometimes they were adjusting harmonics to get rid of certain resonances, etc. These days I'm sure rolling resistance/CAFE ratings play into it. How long the tire will last isn't really evident on a test drive or auto journal review. Many other things are.

 

[John105]

This was quite fascinating. A few years ago wow maybe 6, my buddy's wife had an Audi loaner and she curbed a tire. My buddy jumped on tire rack and asked me should he get OE, or regular, as it was quite a bit more for OE. Secondly, would the dealer notice? I said I'm not sure what the difference is but I'd go with the cheaper one, it's the same model anyway, and he did.

I guess if it were my car, I still might go aftermarket as if I had a M3, likely it wouldn't see the track. My 335 has Pilot Super Sports and for my driving they are super.

 

[FlyPenFly]

First, OE tires are built to the vehicle manufacturer's specs - and frequently, what the vehicle manufacturer wants is NOT what the average consumer wants.

The average OEM wants a tire that is great for rolling resistance, which is obtained by sacrificing treadwear and grip, especially wet grip. The average consumer wants a tire that wears good to great, has good grip, and they will take fuel economy (rolling resistance) if it doesn't sacrifice the wear and grip much.

In this video, BMW is not the usual OEM. My experience with them is that they want good grip, and don't care much about wear and fuel economy.

I don't think Mr Benson did a good job of explaining why this test was an anomaly when it comes to the question about OE tires. In fact, he didn't mention how weird BMW is at all!! What I think is that Michelin used Mr. Benson as an advertisement. What Mr. Benson got was a video at a low cost. It's a win/win for those 2, but a loss for the truth!

He has another video where he goes through just that.

 

[Marcozi]

In my experience, at least for Porsche, there doesn't seem to be a wide difference in price between the standard tire and an N rated tire which is designed with Porsche. So I'll pretty much always go with the N rated tire if it's available in my preferred brand and model.

Really interesting video that goes deep into this area with a M3.

Holy crap!!

 

[930.engineering]

In this video, BMW is not the usual OEM. My experience with them is that they want good grip, and don't care much about wear and fuel economy.

I wonder why my BMW/star marked PSS show low wear and noticeably low rolling resistance (I often push the car in my garage, also the car easily rolls on the slightest slope when I release the brake pedal).
BMW ('efficient dynamics' 2007/2008) doesn't care about fuel economy? I would understand if you would talk about GM, Chrysler or Ford. Jonathan Benson is much more of an expert than many forum "experts".

ps
Yes, I'm aware BMW M is NOT average BMW. There are markedly differences paricularly when it comes to tires.

 

[nthach]

almost 40 years ago, Goodyear and Toyota developed the Eagle GA for the Lexus LS400 - which then became a popular OEM tire with the Americans, even cop cars used them. Toyota wanted the tires to help with NVH - their aim was to make the LS the quietest car for the time. Ford and Goodyear developed the Eagle LS in the 1990s, and the Integrity was developed with Mopar for the Chrysler minivans - but Goodyear also sold it to Toyota for the gen 2 Prius. LRR was the focus.

The Japanese and American OEs are focused in not losing CAFE credits, hence the focus on rolling resistance. BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Audi(VW) want more than LRR. The Germans have tougher specs than the Japanese.