[Yobyot]

"Consumer Reports" recently wrote that "summer tires" noticeably lose traction in weather below 40 degrees F. That's a pretty definitive magazine, so I accept that as a fact. It got me interested so I called Goodyear customer service, who refused to say that temperature affects the tires on my car at all.

OK, so a trusted consumer organization says summer tires lose traction and the manufacturer says nothing on the subject.

Fortunately, I coded my car to show the actual pressure and temperature of the tires in iDrive. (I think this is insanely useful and cannot understand why BMW didn't ship the car with this enabled).

Here in Boston, it was cold today (about 38 degrees F). After driving about 10 miles on the highway at about 70mph, iDrive showed temperatures in the tires to be in the mid-60s F.

Does anyone know what the optimum temperature of the tires should be? If I remember correctly, in the fall when the weather was warmer, these tires reached temperatures in the 90s F. I wonder if there really is a big loss of traction if the temperatures can't get above 65 F or so.