Summer Tires

[CoconutRob]

Hello all, I've never had summer Tires. Can someone explain to me when I should not use summer Tires. Obviously not in the snow but I live in Southern Delaware and we don't get extreme cold here. Does this mean I would have to get another set of tires for winter cold road driving? How much difference of performance will I really see with summer Tires compared to all season tires with normal driving? And does anyone know if there will be some sort of performance all-season Tire option available?

 

[CoconutRob]

I thought the Stinger was supposed to be a touring car which I would think would be good in all seasons rather than a sports car which only concern is performance. I just feel for 50k I don't really want to buy another set of wheels and tires. I read somewhere that summer Tires a really not to be driven on roads under 40 degrees Fahrenheit is this correct? In my area we do reach temperatures below 40 in the winter time. Any feedback would be appreciated thanks

 

[Kia Stinger]

I'm not sure how this works up north but here in Florida I've used extreme Summer performance tires year round without any trouble. I don't know how this would work in cold weather but I imagine the tires that come on the Stinger from the dealer will be safe for any time of the year. I can't imagine an automobile company in 2017 selling a car to somebody with tires that should not be driven at certain times. The car sold out of the dealership is safe to drive year round no matter where you are. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong...

edit: One exception might be the Dodge Demon...

 

[Chris]

You should NOT drive summer tires in weather under 40-45 degree weather. Look up the term "glass transition" basically the rubber gets too cold and instead of being soft and pliable it becomes super hard like plastic.

So yes Kia, and a bunch of other manufacturers are putting tires on cars that should not be driven year round in a huge portion of the country. From some of the reviews I've read, they wanted the car to hit certain numbers performance wise and it was easier to do it with super sticky Sumer tires than engineering the suspension to do it without them.

 

[CoconutRob]

Wow man, I was so skied for this car and little things like this are pulling me away slowly. Well I hope they offer performance all season option . If so how much would that affect performance?

 

[Chris]

Wow man, I was so skied for this car and little things like this are pulling me away slowly. Well I hope they offer performance all season option . If so how much would that affect performance?

I can't be sure because, you know who knows with how the launch has gone so far, but I have read the AWD version has an option to come with all season radials. (18 inch wheels instead of 19)
Ii couldn't tell you how much it will affect performance. I would assume it will be definitely be noticable. I was test driving Audi's (TT RS) a few months back and the one with summer tires definitely felt way more planted in the corners, and I don't think the Audi summer tires were as high quality as the ones on the stinger.

 

[Kia Stinger]

Thank you, @Chris. For me down in the south, I'll be using even stickier tires than come with the Stinger so I'll have a bit better performance. That's really too bad about up north. Where I used to live in New York it would get down to zero degrees on occasion. I'd definitely have two sets of tires in this case...

 

[voon]

A summer tire is for any time where temperature is > 7C. Below that, a winter tire is better, even with no snow due to softer rubber. But winter tires usually lose a few points in rain performance due to design.

 

[Bamm1]

Wow man, I was so skied for this car and little things like this are pulling me away slowly. Well I hope they offer performance all season option . If so how much would that affect performance?

How "dramatic" the change will be really depends on what make/model of summer tire you start with and what all season tire you transition to. But in most cases straight line acceleration can be impacted slightly. Lateral acceleration, turn in, etc. even more so. You will see the biggest difference when performing rapid transitions (like in a slalom) and in braking performance.

C&D tested a Ford Fusion Sport with OEM all season tires and another with OEM summer tires (both types of tires not best in class). The summer tire equipped model gained about 0.05g on the skidpad and stopped from 70 mph 23 feet shorter.