Hey all,

I was just curious if anyone else has had this "problem".

I dont really drive my car very hard as I commute to work in traffic, and come home in traffic. I have about 5400 on the clock since December of 08 and I was lookinga t my tires today and noticed they are almost already to the wear indicator!

Has anyone else run into this?

 

This is my first time having run-flats, so I don't have any prior experience with them.

I will say that I've had multiple car dealers and tire store employees tell me that many new cars are supplied with tires that have about a 1/3 less tread of the same tires purchased later. Supposedly, they do this as a measure to save some money. Add in 10-20 cents extra a tire with 4 tires on a car and how many cars are manufactured and it would save them alot of money.

My wife's Honda Element came with Goodyear Wranglers that lasted about 38000 miles with easy driving. When I checked with Goodyear, they told me the tires should be getting more like 50000 or more with light driving. Then they asked me if the tires were the same when I purchased and explained it to me again. I've had multiple Honda Element owners state that they weren't going to buy the tires again because they thought they wear out too fast.


Perhaps that's the case with these as well?

 

Which stock Continental tires do you have? There are many types of Continental tires in various sizes that come "stock" depending upon your model.

 

I've got Goodyear Excellence RF 195/55/16 on my 03/08 "JustaCooper", I've got 17.800 miles or there abouts on Molly right now. I'll be looking at replacing my RF's with Bridgestone Potenza RE906 A/S Pole Positin with Unit-T, those are rated @ 40,000 miles.

I was surprised too when I realized that I would have to be replacing tires after 1.5yrs.

 

5400 miles feels like quite low mileage to be down to the wear indicator.

I have a set of OEM runflat Conti all season 205 45 17 that I run in the winter time and they have about 6000 miles with about 60%-70% thread left.

 

We have the 15" ContiProContacts on the base MC and they're pretty bald at 25K, mostly highway but some hard driving between.

They seem a touch noisy, but I must say I was quite happy with how they handled in snow last winter.

I've replaced 2 and will be replacing the other 2 soon, I'll report back as to how long the replacements last vs. the OEM.

 

My stock Non-S tires, All Season 195/55 R16 tires are almost down to the tread bars at 20,000 miles. I don't like these tires, not much grip at all in winter or summer. I can't wait to replace them!

 

My 06 MC came OEM Pirelli P3000 tires... and I had them replaced at 22k. I like the P3000, so I got 4 more from TireRack.com. Lets see how long these last. However, the majority of MC drivers I've spoken to say that 25k is the norm, even when checking tire pressure and balance/rotate on regular bases. Who knew?

 

First, let me say that I have no factual knowledge whatsoever about manufacturers selling tires to auto manufacturers with less tread than the same tires available in the aftermarket.

Logically, though, it makes no sense. All that would be accomplished would be to give the tire and the manufacturer a bad name with the buying public. If they're just out to make money, they could set up a phony brand (ABC tires) and sell those to the manufacturers (in the same way that companies manufacture house brands for supermarkets and don't put their name on them). They put an awful lot of money into advertising...they'd be nuts to sully their good name.

If I have a bad experience with a product, I don't buy it or the brand again.

 

This is not a helpful statement at all. I have Goodyear Tires on my '01 Dodge Durango that were on there when I bought it. The tires have worn extremely well, I've put 34,000 miles on them and they are no where near needing to be replaced.

You're saying that I should stay away from Goodyear Tires just because my MINI Goodyear tires have a shorter life span, that's ridiculous!!

The tires that came on my MINI have worn evenly, but they are stiff and noisy, I'm happy to be replacing them. Would I replace them with another Goodyear Tire...yes, but not a RF. The reason I'm not replacing them with another Goodyear is because of the Tirerack Survey's. I need an All-Season Tire that will stand up to our PNW Winters. That is the only reason why I am not going to purchase Goodyear Tires for Molly.

Will I replace my '01 Durango Tires with the exact same tire when they are in need of replacing...without question!!

 

You put words in my mouth. I said, "if I have a bad experience". From what you say, you haven't had a bad experience, you just got lower mileage on one vehicle and tire than another. You seemed to think this was okay, so it doesn't sound like a bad experience.

After some terrible ongoing maintenance problems with my wife's 2001 New Beetle (which have never been corrected, through the '09 models), I vowed never to buy another VW, and I won't.

In order to get my repeat business, manufacturers don't need to be perfect, they just need to correct problems when they find them, and not deliberately design shoddy products to begin with.

 

there are some terms being thrown around here that should be highlighted....

don't expect to get 25,000 miles out of a performance rated tire ...

an all season is not a performance tire; it is a compromise .....

but I'd agree without question that if someone managed to get new tires to the wear bars in under 6000 miles, something ain't right. either we've a slightly aggressive driver .... or a used car that really didn't have new tires ... or a really messed up suspension.

btw ... were all the tires worn to the bars? Both fronts? One front?

Inquiring minds want to know . . .

 

I also have the Continental OEM 205/45/17 runflats. I just swapped the front-to-back and back-to-front at 11,600 miles. I did not swap them previously. The fronts were worn about 2/3 down to the wear bars but the rear tires had much more tread on them. I use the car as my daily driver and don't drive too aggressively most of the time. I do find the mileage a bit disappointing and too will be replacing with non-runflats!
The runflats are pretty stiff, has anyone found a difference in fuel mileage when switching to non-runflats?