We were talking at work the other day about car running costs and one of the subjects that came up was tyre wear.
I said that I though that Joe Average, driving a regular car, in a regular manner should expect to be getting about 20000 miles from his front tyres if on a FWD and a bit more on rears if FWD. I didn't know so couldn't offer an opinion on RWD cars.
One of my collegues was astounded that you should get that much, the other was shocked that you would get that little.
What do other folks think ? I'm not talking about specialist brands, sports cars, hard driving, off roaders etc, etc.
Just typical Joe Motorist.
MTC
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None of my previous Fiestas have gotten more than about 12K from the front tyres, my current Focus has about half-munched the front tyres after 6,000 miles, they'll want changing after 12K as well I expect.
I do drive the Focus quite briskly but noticed when I bought it with 14K on the clock that the front tyres had already been replaced a fair few miles back.
I've never yet had to replace a rear tyre on a FWD car as I don't keep them long enough, the Focus rear tyres are on 32K ar the moment and just coming up towards really needing a change, so I'm either going to have to buy a new car soon or bite the bullet and actually throw money at rear tyres for a change ;-)
Blue
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My guess is that you'd be unlucky to get less than 10k out of any tyre, even on the front of a hard-driven powerful one, and you'd be lucky to get more than 50k. The least I've experienced is about 17.5k on the front of a Golf VR6; the most I've heard about is 92k on the rear of a friend's Citroen ZX turbo diesel (no doubt helped by much motorway mileage). It does vary a lot with driving style and usage.
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About 30k on fronts on all cars, Zafira GSi , Zafira 1.8, Cavalier 1.7TD, all driven fairly enthusiastically.
About 60k on rears, again on all cars, although the GSi has only done 41k to date the tyres are still well over legal.
In all cases using Michelin.
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You've picked one of those "how long is a piece of string" discussions !
For what its worth, my diesel Audi A4 does 18K max on the front tyres and almost exactly double that on the rears with the standard Conti Sport Contacts.
I think 17-18k with mostly motorway driving isn't very good to be frank, but this being the second 2 litre diesel car I have had tells me that the weight and also the torque of FWD diesels does chomp tyres.
Meanwhile, our Focus 1.6 is still on its original tyres all round at 24K miles and is not even close to needing new ones (Conti Eco Contacts). The Focus seems to wear tyres much more evenly front to back.
If you want good tyre wear you copuld of course go for a harder compound tyre like some of the Dunlop or lesser known Asian brands. If you can stand the additional road-noise and carp handling in the wet.
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I'd be happy to get more than 4000 miles from my rear tyre on the bike - and thats driving with moderation.
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You've picked one of those "how long is a piece of string" discussions !
Hi Roly
I was aware of the risks of that, which is why I tried to word it in a "Joe Average, typical car/driving" type way.
We're all trying to run our cars as economically as possible, but tyre wear seems to really vary a great deal - from the first few responses on here, I am surprised that the tyre wear on the performance cars isn't higher and that the tyre wear on the Focus seems really heavy.
With tyres costing upto £100 per corner, it's not an insignificent cost.. Some people would buy car X because it does
3 mpg more, but the 3-4 times tyre wear would absolutley wipe out any savings and really increase the running costs for the car.
My previous car, a Rover 75 Tourer did 25000 on the fronts and 40000 on the rears on (I think) Dunlps.
MTC
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I have an 04 1.4 fiesta that I have had from new and that is on 23000 miles now. Tyres are the original Bridgestone Turenzas, fronts will probably reach the limit in about 6-7000 more miles at the rate they have been wearing, and the rears maybe another 10-15000 possibly more. I think i drive fairly "enthusiastically".
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On two small hatchbacks I got 20-30K on the front and 40K on the back. I suppose lots of sharp cornering, and parking will increase wear. Clarkson and co probably use one set of tyres on one track test. I suspect tyre wear is similar to petrol consumption, and equally sensitive to enthusiastic driving.
Leif
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I have a gently driven 307 diesel. I replaced the front tyres at 20K miles and when the car was serviced, last month at 22K miles the dealer said that one back tyre was down to 3mm ie a bit skinny. This did surprise me as the front wheels drive, brake and steer and the rears brake and not much else but the wear was almost eaqual front and rear.
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I suggest it's down to cornering, accelerating, braking and correct tyre alignment. I was pleasantly surprised when I realised the other day that the front tyres on my 306 diesel had done 21K and still had 5mm left. They are Continental Ecos; one was the original spare (French), and the other a new tyre (German).
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Goona
Driven hard, fronts changed at 30K - rears were still ok when I killed it.
Tourvan
21K fronts are down to 3mm (very very even wear across the width tho) will need changing at 25k
Rear have 5mm
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Personally based on the on variety of bog standard hatchback i have had with non low profile tyres i would expect 40k out of the fronts and 70k out of the rears, infact my car has just passed its mot with 77k on the clock and still has an original tyre on the rear.
However if you have low profile tyres they dont seem to last as long, as presumably they are built more for performance , and the car is probably driven harder.
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MG Man
BX did those sort of mileages on the rears; watch the tyre carefully. We had four of them over the 12 year life of the vehicle that failed internally causing the treaded surface to "bubble".
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>>Watch the tyre carefully. We had four of them over the 12 year life of the vehicle that failed internally causing the treaded surface to "bubble".
>>
And watch for tiny cracks in the walls after a few years.
I discarded a Bridgestone with this problem, but plenty of tread left on it .
I have every reason the believe it was an original, on a 4/5 year old Yaris.
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Yeh thanks i will keep an eye out for that, the tyre isnt that old, 3 years due to the high milage i do and will want replacing soon anyway.
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I'm quite surprised at the some of the lower figures quoted on here, but I guess that?s the trade off you get when cars increase in weight in the pursuit of safety.
In the 6-7 years the Polo's been in the family, we've never replaced a tyre through wear, they always perish first. The last tyre change, in February, saw off the 2 Goodyears we installed when we bought the car. They did over 35,000 miles and still had half their tread left, with the majority of that spent on the front wheels not the rears.
I don't think you can give a typical milage these days, as it appears that each individual car will have very different wear rates/characteristics.
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When I was repping, I had a 1.6 Cavalier 1991, I got 65k miles out of the original front tyres, most of my driving was straight line steady motorway driving.
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35K front pair and 55K to 60K rears.
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I suspect form teh miles I've already done that I'll get about 20k out of the fronts on my current 97 Mondeo 1.8 td. I'm expecting at least 30k form the rears.
I've eaten a pair of rears in 1200 miles on Caterham 7. I suspect that its possible to get through a set of rears on that car in under a mile if you're really looking to have some fun.
--
I read often, only post occasionally
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Fronts:
Mondeo 1.8 - 18,000 miles
Megane 225 - about 12,000 miles - and real expensive tyres
Clio 1.2 - About 3-4mm left done 11,000 miles - all to within an inch of its life, altho lots of motorway.
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My nearly new Focus 1.6 bought in 1999, had surprisingly worn front tyres and had to be changed at 15000 miles. The front tracking was aligned and the last 2 sets have lasted 35000 miles.
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When I bought my 406, it can with brand new Continental Cont-eco (or whatever they are called) the mpg saving tyres on it. These lasted me 10,000 miles. I replaced them with generic £40 a throw tyres from Hi-Q and these lasted me 30,000 miles (although to be honest they were pushing legal) The rest of the budget tyres i put on lasted around the 20-25,000 mark.
When I got my Toledo, it came with a new set of Pirelli P3000's and they lasted about 11,000, I replaced these with Matrixx cheapo types (cheap Yokohoma brand) and these have so far done just over 20,000 and still look very good.
There is a big difference in the level of grip between branded tyres and budget tyres, hence why the branded wear quicker (softer rubber)
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I tend to get about 10,000 for front tyres, 40,000 for rear (fwd cars, generally Michelin Energy tyres)
I don't know what this says about my driving.
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I agree with tyro - 10-12,000 from fronts and about 40,000 from rears in my experience.
Here's a thought for you though. When I was selling Fords for a living, the Escort Cosworth demonstrators we had almost always needed a set of four new P-Zeros before they were sold at around the 4,000 mile mark! Combination of 4WD, lots of power, very soft compound (specially developed by Pirelli for the car) and very "extreme" camber and toe angles.
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The Yokohamas on my Accord were at 4 mm on the front and 6 mm on the back at 12.5k miles.
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Current Golf V 105 TDi on Michelins, 41k miles currently, 3mm still left on fronts, 6mm on backs.
Golf IV 110TDi fronts lasted approx 35k (2 sets) (rears approx 60k+)
Passat 110TDi Michelins front 27k (3 sets) 22k (1 set - same tyres, same daily journey, go figure!!)
Laguna II Diesel Tourer: front Continentals 27k, rears 35k
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Audi Allroad went through a set of tyres every 6-7 thousand miles.(£140 each tyre) Strange but the rears allways wore down before the fronts.
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My old BX (A reg) did over 100k on its rear tyres. Still had a fair bit left on them but I bought new ones because they were 6 years old and some small cracks were on side walls - Michelins. fronts used to do about 40k.
My Berlingo did 34k on fronts before I replaced them in November - probably had at least another 5k in them but I got some new ones "for the winter" rather than run them down to the limit. Rears showed no real signs of wear - Michelins again.
Michelins seem to last a long time but I am not sure they are the best for grip if you frequently drive "at the limit". Mind you, just before I sold my second BX, I put some cheap new tyres on the front (Barum or something?) and I was less than impressed by the grip on those - and that on a non-turbo BX diesel!
Going off the point - tyres are a problem on caravans/trailers because they "never" wear out and people say that there is plenty of tread left therefore why replace them, but as Bromptonauto says, watch out for bulges/failure of side walls. Advice is to change them every 5 years at the most - I bet there are few caravanners who do this.
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Phil
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My Alhambra got through fronts every 25,000 and only half the rear tread after 50,000. Driven quite hard so was reasonably impressed. Tyres were Bridgestone ER300C. Kwik Fit claimed the C meant they were van rated. May explain the longevity or they may have been takling the mick. They did take a while to get hold of them.
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The rear tyres on my Ford Ka are the originals & mines done over 40k miles. The fronts however may only last half that or possibly less!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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The Michelins on my Xsara on the rear lasted 60000 miles, and I only replaced them because they were starting to rot and crack.
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my old reggie 2 turbo and cosworth escort chewed through tyres in under 10,000 miles.My e46 BMW managed 28000 miles on its first set.My current mazda 6 has Bridgestone turanzer ER30 tyres which have covered 30000 miles so far with 5mm of tread left.
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