Added on October 10, 2014  The News Wheel  
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Buick Verano’s Tires Give a Quieter Ride

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Automakers are always striving to make their family vehicles quieter and more comfortable, hence the advent of active noise cancelling technology. But did you know that the Buick Verano’s tires are actually largely responsible for the sedan’s quiet and comfortable ride? (This is a real front-page news story if we ever saw one, eh?)

Buick Verano’s Tires

©GM

“Far from being little more than a chunk of rubber, tires are complex machines, made up of dozens of components, chemicals and compounds that must perform perfectly to deliver the traction, braking safety, fuel economy, tread life and road manners today’s drivers expect,” said Jim Smith, editor of Tire Review, though he may be a tad biased in his love for tires.

Selecting the perfect tire for a vehicle is tougher than it seems on the surface, according to Chris Arabian, who is a tire development engineer at GM. He said, “The tweaking and tuning that goes on behind the scenes, the heavy lifting by auto and tire engineers working in unison, produces tires that quietly perform flawlessly in the background, and a car that delights owners.”

The process is complicated, as tires that are good for one thing a buyer might want are often bad for another thing that the buyer also wants. For the Buick Verano’s tires, Arabian and his team worked with Continental Tire to come up with two different tire packages. The first is a 17-inch P225/50R17 tire, which is standard on the base model. The 18-inch P235/45R18 tire is standard on the Turbo. Arabian feels that these are perfectly matched to the Verano, poised to give it a smooth and silent ride.