On 2005-12-18, Mike Marlow <mmarlowREMOVE@alltel.net> wrote:
> "Christopher Wong" <cwong@world.std.com> wrote in message
> news:9JOdnWmkJqhfTDneRVn-jA@rcn.net...
>> This may sound silly, but is this your first FWD car in a while? If so,
>> you may not be accustomed to how much wear FWD cars put on the front
>> tires. My Toyota Camry's front tires needed replacing at under 15K
>> (almost exclusively urban driving). This is why people like to rotate
>> their tires regularly. The front tires wear out much faster than the rear
>> ones, so regular rotation evens out tire life. Tire vendors often rotate
>> tires for free.
>
> Holy Cow Chris - I put PepBoy's Futura's on my cars these days and if I
> don't get 50K out of them before I get rid of them, I don't put on a mile.
> I'm not real good about rotating my tires either. If I had a tire that
> crapped out at 15K, I'd never be putting that brand of tire on anything but
> a rope swing.

The other point I failed to make but became obvious after your response is
that driving patterns and climate makes a big difference too. Under 15K
sounds short, but you are thinking of a normal city/highway mix. This car,
under its previous owner (my dad), served 6 years almost exclusively in
daily commuting through torturous urban traffic. Those <15K were
hard-earned: you can't go very far in bumper to bumper traffic with frequent
braking and turns. It is the starts, stops and turning that is hard on these
tires.

For what it's worth, I replaced the rear tires at 30K. They had not worn
down to the wear indicators, but had developed cracks. The replacement tires
-- though cheap -- are lasting much longer than the Dunlops they replaced.

Chris

 

On 2005-12-18, Mike Marlow <mmarlowREMOVE@alltel.net> wrote:
> "Christopher Wong" <cwong@world.std.com> wrote in message
> news:9JOdnWmkJqhfTDneRVn-jA@rcn.net...
>> This may sound silly, but is this your first FWD car in a while? If so,
>> you may not be accustomed to how much wear FWD cars put on the front
>> tires. My Toyota Camry's front tires needed replacing at under 15K
>> (almost exclusively urban driving). This is why people like to rotate
>> their tires regularly. The front tires wear out much faster than the rear
>> ones, so regular rotation evens out tire life. Tire vendors often rotate
>> tires for free.
>
> Holy Cow Chris - I put PepBoy's Futura's on my cars these days and if I
> don't get 50K out of them before I get rid of them, I don't put on a mile.
> I'm not real good about rotating my tires either. If I had a tire that
> crapped out at 15K, I'd never be putting that brand of tire on anything but
> a rope swing.

The other point I failed to make but became obvious after your response is
that driving patterns and climate makes a big difference too. Under 15K
sounds short, but you are thinking of a normal city/highway mix. This car,
under its previous owner (my dad), served 6 years almost exclusively in
daily commuting through torturous urban traffic. Those <15K were
hard-earned: you can't go very far in bumper to bumper traffic with frequent
braking and turns. It is the starts, stops and turning that is hard on these
tires.

For what it's worth, I replaced the rear tires at 30K. They had not worn
down to the wear indicators, but had developed cracks. The replacement tires
-- though cheap -- are lasting much longer than the Dunlops they replaced.

Chris