By Leftlane Staff
Tuesday, Dec 6th, 2005 @ 5:52 pm

Pricey low-profile performance tires are “proving to be the salvation of the tire industry,” says USA Today. “It’s the only growing area of the tire business,” says Jack Gerken, spokesman for Pirelli Tire North America. To make cars look sportier, many automakers are putting large, flashy wheels with performance rubber on their vehicles. Modern Tire Dealer says 21 percent of tires sold this year were performance-rated — up fro 12 percent in 2000. Of course, one of the pitfalls of such tires is their increased price and susceptibility to damage. For example, even though Toyota ’s Scion tC coupe sells for a relatively modest base price of $16,740, replacing its set of performance tires with a new set of Goodyear Eagle F1 tires would cost $908. High-performance tires also tend to have a shorter life-span, sometimes “substantially less than 20,000 miles.” [Thanks to Geoff for the tip]

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