A good set of tires has always made a big difference in safety, fuel economy and handling, but one area that is getting new attention is the quality of tires to reduce or increase the amount of noise a vehicle makes.
Tire manufacturers are racing to develop tires that reduce noise, aiming to meet tough new standards mandated by European and Asian nations that want to reduce noise pollution. Though U.S. regulators are not taking the same aggressive approach, motorists here will still benefit from this research, according to tire industry experts.
A number of readers have asked recently about vehicle noise and how to reduce it, both the noise that occurs inside a car and the kind that affects the community.
In general, the trend in the automobile industry is to engineer quieter components such as tires, and by itself that effort would be producing quieter cars, according to tire makers. But a segment of drivers are pushing in the opposite direction and some actually intentionally want to make noise.
When it comes to tires, community noise laws generally do not regulate tire noise, unlike other vehicle noise sources such as exhaust or stereo systems. As a result, some vehicles equipped for off-road travel or stylized to look like off-road vehicles can produce noise volumes dramatically above the average car or even light truck.
"You can identify a class of consumer who wants a noisy tire and who thinks it gives good off-road traction," said Mike Wischhusen, director of industry standards and government regulations at Michelin.
But Wischhusen said that noisy tires do not necessarily produce better traction and that not all knobby tires have to be noisy by design. He added, "Consumers who intend to make noise are not our targeted market."
The market, however, is served by off brands, typically imported, with poorly engineered treads and atrocious acoustics. The difference in sound between a quiet tire on a car versus a noisy tire on a pickup truck can easily be 10 decibels, or roughly double the noise -- and that does not include the increased engine and exhaust noise of the bigger vehicle. It is one reason why noise is becoming a factor even in residential neighborhoods without high traffic volumes.
Apart from the consumers who intentionally want noisy tires, many others are seeking larger and wider tires for big vehicles such as sport utility vehicles. The aggressive look of such tires appeals to a lot of consumers, even though they never take the vehicles off road or even onto rugged back roads.
