Will summer tires for my 2018 Impala cut road noise?

I have a 1 month old Impala Premier with a lot of tire noise, it has 20 inch wheels, the OEM tires are P245/40R20 Bridgestone RE 97AS 95V M&S. Will I see an noticeable reduction in tire noise by changing tires to Summer tires. No Mud or Snow or cold weather here in Mountain View California

Maybeā€¦ Maybe not. Noise does not necessarily follow M&S or Summer designations.

Surf on over to TireRack.com and see if you can find the tire you have on the car now. Look up its ratings which includes noise. Usually a 1 to 10 rating. Now look for new tires with a lower noise rating. If you canā€™t improve the rating by at least 2 points, donā€™t bother switching, it wonā€™t help that much.

When I look at the Tire Rack survey results for your tire, theyā€™re not very good overall. Although I canā€™t say if this would help with the noise issue or not, Iā€™d seriously consider switching to the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus just because it performs so much better in every category, including comfort. (Incidentally, I happen to have this tire on my car and Iā€™m happy with it.) Although you donā€™t have snow where you live, sticking with an all-season tire would let you head to the mountains when it might snow.

I donā€™t mean to derail this topic, but I think this low-profile trend has gone too far when a Chevy Impala has 40-series tires!

1 Like

I agree 100%. I wonder if the OP switched to normal tires, with a wheel change, would the noise decrease? That is, are low profile tires noisier because of the reduced sidewall?

Thatā€™s a good question. It looks like this car also came with 245/45-19 tires, so maybe the OP could find someone who wanted to switch wheels.

1 Like

As far as snow, unless California has changed the laws, when I lived there even four wheel drive vehicles were required to put on chains on secondary mountain roads!

As others have already saidā€¦maybe yes or maybe no.

Itā€™s also possible that the problem is the road itself. Iā€™ve driven on roads where the noise was so high I wondered what was wrong with the tires - only to find the noise greatly reduced a few miles later.

Iā€™d be willing to bet the owners manual in that Impala says ā€œNo Tire Chainsā€ for those big tires!

1 Like

I just got back from a week in CA, drove from Monterey to San Jose yesterday, and the road surfaces were very noisy. Of course, the low profile tires on the Mustang GT we rented didnā€™t help, but that sounds like the same problem the OP is having. Smaller wheels and 50 or better series tires might help.

I agree with the others, ā€˜summerā€™ tires are not necessarily quieter, it depends on the tread design. Iā€™d spend a lot of time on tire rackā€™s web site.

I agree tirerack is a worthy company with a helpful website. I use them, and also Consumer Reports. Every November they publish their most recent tire test results - info also available in some of their other publications and on line, although on-line may be for subscribers only.

You donā€™t like these wheels? :joy::joy::joy:

Iā€™m not fond of them, either I used to drive by this place going to work, and this car was usually on the lot.

I could be wrong, but I think M+S tires is all that is available nowadays. Different brands and models of tires have different noise levels. Iā€™m sure you can find some product reviews on the internet regarding tires. In all my years of driving experience, I noticed that tires get noisier as the treads wear down. So, maybe any new tire will be quieter than what you have now.

The vehicle is only 1 month old so tire wear canā€™t be much.

Tire rack and others have great info that may help you. My experience having switched summer only tires off of two sporty cars and onto a sedan is the opposite. Summer-only seem louder in general. ā€œTouring tiresā€ seem to be the quietest (all-season, non-performance.)

jmcarc, summer-only performance tires are still around and pretty popular on many sporty cars.