Tire Dilemma

C

CHICO2003

:
MSP & MS3
Does anyone know how long the stock Bridgestones on the MSP are supposed to last for? I tried doing some research but got mixed results. I've put on about 50k miles and they seem to still be in good shape. I've done the Abe Lincoln test and everything checks out. But the dude at the local tire shop was trying to convince me that my tires were starting to show signs of warping. Since I got the impression that he was just trying to sell me new tires, I pretty much ignored it. But maybe he's right.

Anyway, if I am going to buy new tires... I'll need to make a decison as to whether I should go with summer or all-season. I live in CT so for the past few seasons I've been putting on the ugly 15" steelies right around the beginning of December all the way through the beginning of April. What sucks the most is, out of those 4 months there's probably only a handful of instances in which there's actually enough snow on the ground for the tires to be worth having. But obviously safety comes first.

So I'm thinking... if I need new tires anyway, why not just get some really high quality all-season tires (that are geared towards performance) and keep em on all year? Seems to make sense... but, since I'm so used to the handling this car has with the stock/summer tires, I may be dissapointed with the way the car drives.

So I guess I'm looking for some advice here... I can't be the only one who has had to make this type of decision. Of those who went with the all-seasons... were you dissapointed? Between having to bust out my "daniel-san" karate-kid moves in order to get my stinkin wheels off of my car (not to mention driving around in tires that could also double as donuts) I definitely wouldn't miss having to swap them in the winter. But if it means I serious drop off in handling... I'll probably just bite the bullet.
 
Ok, so you have good tread (abe lincoln test) what about evenness?
check across the tread patter from outside to in, check for even wear and no balding on one edge or the other.
check for 'feathering' run your hand across the tire in the same direction as rotation and check for any bumps in the tread or staggered wear along the edges.
check the sidewalls (inside and out) for any bulges. if you arent noticing any problems while driving (noise or vibration) i doubt there's anything to worry about.
tires dont just.......'warp' he just wanted $$.
 
Damn, I thought I did good reaching 38,115 miles. You still get solid traction in the rain on the highway with that amount of mileage? If so you are the king of tire wear!

My Goodyear GS3 replacements seem to be holding up just as well or better than the stock. They are 100% quieter and have no tradeoffs IMO.
 
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all seasons suck in all seasons. there's no substitute for winters in the winter. the msp is great in the snow with some good winters, with all seasons you won't want to take it out when it's snowy. think of snow tires as tires that keep your summers from wearing out too quickly
 
Get the Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S! But for the winter, I still advise to put on winter tires, they are far superior than any A/S tire
 
jred321 said:
all seasons suck in all seasons. there's no substitute for winters in the winter. the msp is great in the snow with some good winters, with all seasons you won't want to take it out when it's snowy. think of snow tires as tires that keep your summers from wearing out too quickly
Click to expand...

amen!
 
DAWIV said:
Damn, I thought I did good reaching 38,115 miles. You still get solid traction in the rain on the highway with that amount of mileage? If so you are the king of tire wear!

My Goodyear GS3 replacements seem to be holding up just as well or better than the stock. They are 100% quieter and have no tradeoffs IMO.
Click to expand...

LOL I know... everything I read made it seem like these tires wore very quick and that I should have replaced them like 20k miles ago. Even still, I just did what peejay said and everything checks out. (though, they're not as even as I would like since I wasn't always great at balancing them every 5k miles) but it's not terrible.

So I guess I can get another summer out of em... no need to waste $ on tires when there are plenty of other things to waste $ on.

Thanks guys
 
OEM tires are ridiculously expensive! pretty cool of Mazda to hook us up I guess. According to the reviews, I should've only got about 30k miles out of these tires. HTF did I double that? I've never peeled out and log mostly hwy... but definitely don't drive like an old fart
 
fr0st said:
the yokos rock btw..
Click to expand...
agreed, for the price great tire. that's what i'm running now

CHICO2003 said:
OEM tires are ridiculously expensive! pretty cool of Mazda to hook us up I guess. According to the reviews, I should've only got about 30k miles out of these tires. HTF did I double that? I've never peeled out and log mostly hwy... but definitely don't drive like an old fart
Click to expand...

you sure it's miles on the tires and not miles on the car?
 
jred321 said:
all seasons suck in all seasons. there's no substitute for winters in the winter. the msp is great in the snow with some good winters, with all seasons you won't want to take it out when it's snowy. think of snow tires as tires that keep your summers from wearing out too quickly
Click to expand...

Yup that's my motto.

OMG what? 50k miles on stock tires?!?!?!?!! I thought the treadwear was 140 (that's getting near race-specific tires haha).

According to the treadwear numbers, you should have gotten.. 14k out of them. I've never known anyone to outrun their treadwear numbers :p
 
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jred321 said:
agreed, for the price great tire. that's what i'm running now



you sure it's miles on the tires and not miles on the car?
Click to expand...

I was estimating... I've got 60k miles on my car now. stocks have come off 4 months of the year so.... 33% of my driving (overall) has been on my snow steel wheels. That being said... I guess my 50k mile estimate was a bit off. Looks like I'm probably around 40k miles or so.

My car was at the dealership the other day for some routine maintenance and I had the tech check out the tires... he couldn't believe they were stock and said I could probably get another 15k miles out of them. craziness....
 
Kansei said:
Yup that's my motto.

OMG what? 50k miles on stock tires?!?!?!?!! I thought the treadwear was 140 (that's getting near race-specific tires haha).

According to the treadwear numbers, you should have gotten.. 14k out of them. I've never known anyone to outrun their treadwear numbers :p
Click to expand...

You're joking right?

Treadwear #'s are only comparable in the same brand of tire....not to different brands.

Oh, and 140 doesn't mean the tires last 14,000 miles. (bang)
 
Nokian tires make excellent all season tires. Check out the Nokian WR range.

CHICO2003 said:
Does anyone know how long the stock Bridgestones on the MSP are supposed to last for? I tried doing some research but got mixed results. I've put on about 50k miles and they seem to still be in good shape. I've done the Abe Lincoln test and everything checks out. But the dude at the local tire shop was trying to convince me that my tires were starting to show signs of warping. Since I got the impression that he was just trying to sell me new tires, I pretty much ignored it. But maybe he's right.

Anyway, if I am going to buy new tires... I'll need to make a decison as to whether I should go with summer or all-season. I live in CT so for the past few seasons I've been putting on the ugly 15" steelies right around the beginning of December all the way through the beginning of April. What sucks the most is, out of those 4 months there's probably only a handful of instances in which there's actually enough snow on the ground for the tires to be worth having. But obviously safety comes first.

So I'm thinking... if I need new tires anyway, why not just get some really high quality all-season tires (that are geared towards performance) and keep em on all year? Seems to make sense... but, since I'm so used to the handling this car has with the stock/summer tires, I may be dissapointed with the way the car drives.

So I guess I'm looking for some advice here... I can't be the only one who has had to make this type of decision. Of those who went with the all-seasons... were you dissapointed? Between having to bust out my "daniel-san" karate-kid moves in order to get my stinkin wheels off of my car (not to mention driving around in tires that could also double as donuts) I definitely wouldn't miss having to swap them in the winter. But if it means I serious drop off in handling... I'll probably just bite the bullet.
Click to expand...
 
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