Don't you suppose to change tires every 4 to 5 years even if you don't drive at all?
Inexpensive tires doesn't mean its cheap. My Korean tires out perform the tires I have that costs 2-4 times more. One of the company that modify Lotus cars for higher performance use some Korean tires and said it was the best kept secrete. Mine you they were looking at performance, not price.
I suspect that a lot of people driving around on tires so bald the air is showing are just ignorant of the importance of the things, regardless of whether they have baby savers or loss leaders.
That having been said, I wonder how many people are shocked at how much tires can cost these days -- especially if they bought a sports car or high end luxury boat without thinking about the implications of
16-17-18" tires with a speed rating somewhere on the far end of the alphabet. Just one more example of a subject that sometimes comes up: how the quest for performance and/or long punchlists of luxury features in cars is kinda floating away from reality...I try to stick with tires that have holes no bigger than 15" diameter, at least a 60-series distance from the tread. They may not be the best way to indulge any autobahn, F1, or Baja 1000 fantasies that I haven't yet outgrown, and might limit my choice of cars to what I can afford anyway -- but decent tires are available for fifty or sixty bucks for the grocery getters, with performance types still under a hundred.
And I have a fighting chance of getting at least a vaguely similar new tire out in the boondocks if I scrag one on vacation, or replacing them in this pay period if somebody fumbled a boxful of sheetrock screws at a construction site on my commute, or one of those things that seem to keep happening in the real world.
Your mileage, and that of your spare tire, may vary,
--Wile E. Quixote
I drive slow. Even with bald tires, i'd be less a risk than you speeders who spend $200 a wheel.
I believe that it is the sidewalls and belts under the tread that are harder, not necessarily the tread itself. V and Z rated tires usually don't last as long as S or T rated tires, because it is the tread that wears.
Like I said - it's counterintuitive. At speed the idea may be to get optimum grip. A compound that's too soft might get too squishy at the limits of the speed rating and overheat. A soft compound might be OK at freeway speeds.
Of course there are no absolutes. What I'm trying to get across is that harder rubber doesn't always mean worse grip or longer life.
You drive slow because you're retarded, and your tiny, drug-polluted brain is incapable of handling information faster than that of a 2 year old.
If you're stupid enough to believe that you're less of a risk driving slowly on bald tires than someone who has bought some tires with grip, then you need to be taken off the road before you cause a fatal accident.
URACRIMINALANDADRUGADDICT.
I' ve bought cheap and very expencive. All the cheap one's blow up before there tread life was gone. All the Expencive one's I drove till I saw the belts, and then some. I don't like to drive 65.....ok 80ish mph and have a tire blow. For me it's spend more.
My advice: forget about price and longevity, buy on performance. If a tire handles better and stops quicker, it may save you from having an accident (not to mention handle better and make the car more fun to drive.)
Look for performance test ratings (found in a number of different magazines such as Consumer Reports) for your climate type (for example in a very rainy climate I'd look for the best wet-traction tire.)
STICKY tires are made from SOFTER rubber. Softer rubber wears faster. Tires that have very high wear ratings are made from HARDER rubber, which does not stick to the road as well. Therefore you may pay top dollar for a tire with an extremely long wear rating/tread warranty, and yet you're getting a pretty crappy tire when it comes to handling, braking and performance!!
Why not both? The tires on my Big Car are expensive, and only last about
8000 miles rear/12000 miles front.
So you spend a lot of money, often. That works! :)
Reminds me of the old Yokohama A509s I had on my VW GTI... (I think at the time they were the next step down from the A008 which was the big badass performance tire back then) I wore those suckers out in about 15K miles! But they *did* stick... and did surprisingly well in the snow for a supposedly summer-only tire (yes, I had snow tires... but I didn't realize it could snow in freakin' October in Cleveland!)
nate
On 17 Jun 2005 04:12:16 -0700, Learning Richard , said the following in rec.autos.driving...
Or bought used as the originating troll has admitted to in the past...
-- "If you speed loons would just slow down we wouldn't have a problem. drive them until the holes get too big for that tire-in-a-can stuff to work. Then do what I do and go to pep boys and get a set of used retreads for $50 and repeat."
-- Laura Bush murdered her boyfriend, 11/22/04
On 17 Jun 2005 10:52:23 -0700, Laura Bush murdered her boy friend , spewed forth the following bullshit in rec.autos.driving...
Liar!
You're under the impression a more expensive car will last longer than a cheaper one, but it doesn't, and in the case of those I'd choose a Camry over a Lexus since it's almost as good and some Lexus models are based on the Camry chassis anyway. The Corolla is a completely different chassis.
As for tires, look for a high treadwear number, at least 500, and a temperature rating of A or B, never C. The temperature rating indicates how hot the tire gets in freeway driving, and the cooler it stays the less its rubber and adhesives age. The cheapest tires have low treadwear numbers, but so do some of the higher priced performance tires because they may be made of softer rubber that gives better traction. By the way dry traction is also rated, from AA down to C, and so many car tires are rated A or better that there's no reason to buy anything worse. Personally I change tires every 5 years because they're damaged not only by heat but also by sunlight and ozone.
Hmmm...Nate with a GTi, huh...I used to work with Nate with a GTi at a CarQuest store...Hmmmm...
But you have to realize (do you?) that the A509's are a very soft compound to provide more grip and hence more performance; ironically the grip that gives you the performance (and USING that performance) causes the tires to wear more quickly! The GTi is a Kick-Ass car and will handle like a champ; if you were even halfway through the envelope on perlormance then you'd be wearing the tires rapidly.
Hmmmm....come to think of it the Nate I know wore his front tires down to slicks in about 3 months!!! But. we're not in Cleveland...
I can't remember if he hqad the 509's or a different tire, but they wore down FAST!!! Good thing we got a huge discount!
On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 01:26:11 -0400, Paul , said the following in rec.autos.driving...
Ooops, need some clairfication. The originating troll is *not* the person who started this thread by asking about tires. The originating troll is the idiot who says you can get a (decent) set of tires for $150.00. My mistake...
-- "> Have you ever driven a car faster than the legal speed limit?
Yes, but never deliberately. In fact i got a speeding ticket about 5 years ago for doing 41 in a 25. I just about kicked the cops teeth in cause i was sure he was lying. No way the SL on this wide open stretch could be 25, i thought."
Pride of America (c.k.a. "laura bush - VEHICULAR HOMOCIDE), 10/3/2002 Message-ID:
The temperature rating is not an indicatio of how hot the tire gets in freeway driving. It is an indication of how well it resists the heat generated from high speed driving. An "A" temp rating is best, "B" is next, and "C" is last.
There are also speed ratings which reflect how well the tire can tolerate high speeds. Google U.S. uniform tire ratings for a more thorough explanation.
By cheap I had meant inexpensive, not poor quality. What is the name of the Korean brand?
Appreciate all the advice. My driving situation is as follows:
(0) I care about safety first, then quiet ride, then smooth ride, and tread-life the last.
(1) I don't drive to work and can avoid at least some of the worst weather.
(2) I live near a big city with lots of pot holes.
(3) Not much rain here, but Midwestern snow (3 months/yr?).
(4) Summers can have a few 95 degree days, and during such a spell we may need to drive 500 miles to visit family.
(5) I don't deliberately speed beyond 70 mph but flow of traffic plus downhill inclines do cause the speed to touch 80. However, this is on good highway, not potholed ones near my home.
I found this to be useful, was recommended in the ng:
You're probably thinking of Kumho.
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