Pirelli Winter Tire Dealer Sessions Focus on Fact

In addition to promoting the launch of its new Winter Sottozero performance winter tire, Pirelli’s tire dealer information sessions provided strong information on winter tire sales.

The cross-country series of events provides dealers with a complete rundown of the company’s revamped winter tires lines as well as a review of the complete Pirelli offering, with a heavy focus on dispelling the myth that all Pirelli tires are “expensive.”

In a session held north of Toronto, Pirelli national training manager Jack DiMaio spent a fair amount of his discussion on how the company makes a wide range of tires for virtually all vehicles, despite its reputation as a high-performance tire manufacturer. The company is certainly proud of its motorsports heritage, he said, but this doesn’t mean they aren’t able to supply quality, value priced tires. “And they are profitable for dealers,” he added, to the obvious approval of attendees.

Still, much of the time was spent on just when a winter tire should be installed.

“There is a window of opportunity to put winter tires on,” said DiMaio. “They are not the old aggressive treaded snow tires,” he added. The importance of compounds and tread patterns is better understood today, he says. “Today’s tread patterns work as well in the snow as they do in the dry.”

However, the same cannot be said for all-season and sport tires that can suffer in performance when temperatures drop.

In addition to the fact that some rubber compounds become harder in the cold, other changes can occur.

“Summer tires can become rounded, reducing the contact patch,” said DiMaio. “This is not good. You can’t stop as well. You can’t corner as well. The optimum time to change is at seven degrees C. Too early and they wear too fast, too late, and you don’t have good performance.”

Accordingly, he advised dealers to focus on this timing with customers, urging them to make the switch when the temperature is still what many would consider to be a cool fall day; certainly not the dead of winter. The new flagship H-speed rated Winter 210 Sottozero that provided the focus on product discussions replaces the Snowsport, its name translating into “sub-zero.” The new tire is suited for sport or luxury sedans, mainstream touring vehicles and mid-sized SUVs. H-rated tire sizes are from 195/65 R15 91H to 225/60R18 100H with four featuring run-flat construction. V-rated sizes are also available.

The new Sottozero improves greatly on its predecessor in noise, comfort, dry handling and braking and wet handling, and equals or betters it in areas of snow braking, traction, and handling, and aquaplaning.

The evening also featured briefing on other Pirelli offerings, such as the Winter Carving, Scorpion Ice & Snow for the light truck/SUV market, and a brief discussion on the P Zero Ultra High Performance tire that, all admitted, would be more in demand when the temperatures increased in the spring and the high performance cars emerged from a long winter’s hibernation.

A simple message from DiMaio concluded the presentations: “The more you know about the products, the better you can sell them, and the better you can service them.”