Tires are a critical component of your vehicle. They form the interface between the car and the road, and are entirely responsible for how well you accelerate, stop, and turn. Given their vital role, you’d think every driver out there would pay the utmost attention to maintaining them, but that’s not quite the case. So I ask—how often do you change your tires?
I’m kind of bad, myself. I almost never change my tires. Now, I’m no reckless fool. I’m not out here driving around on puckered 20-year-old tires that are flaking out with dry rot. I just rarely need to change them, due to my lifestyle.
See, I’m a car enthusiast. I tend to buy and sell cars fairly regularly. If I’m looking at something and it’s got bald tires, or the date codes are ancient, it’s a tell that the car has been mistreated in other ways too. I only buy cars with decent tires with decent tread. Normally, when I get a car, I drive it for a couple of years and then sell it before the tires ever need to be replaced.
This hasn’t always been the case. When I bought a Miata to use as a track car, I was swapping tires all the time. That’s because I decided to run cheap no-brand rubber on the street, and glorious Nankang AR-1s on the track. The latter were beautiful—semi-slicks with grip for days. Only, with a treadwear of 80, they’d have worn out pretty quickly on the street. Thus, I was swapping them on and off every few weeks.
I did once buy a set of retreads for $200, because I refused to spend more on tires for a car I got for free. Beyond that, the only time in my life that I’ve bought new tires was back in 2016. I was driving a Daihatsu Feroza from Adelaide to Melbourne in the rain, when I realized I had no steering control over 50 mph. The car was aquaplaning thanks to a total lack of tread. I spent $600 on a set of light truck tires and an alignment, and it handled great. Right up until I blew the engine two months later. Regrets.
The fact is, tires are expensive—and your car has four of them! I can’t imagine owning a big truck or SUV with 20-inch rims or big mudders. You can end up spending four figures on tires alone—more than I’ve spent on some of my cars!
While I seldom swap out my tires, I still stay safe. I like to ensure I’m running on tires less than five years old, and with tread well above the wear bars. I just avoid buying new tires by selling my cars before they ever wear out a set of rubber. It’s not hard if you’re swapping cars more often than you’re filing your taxes.
You’ve heard my story, and how I’ve only bought tires twice in ten years. But this is Autopian Asks, and I want to hear your story. Are you changing your tires every winter and summer, and buying new rubber every five years? Or are you grinding Goodyears into dust because you live outside the Snow Belt? Sound off below, and for the love of cars—stay safe out there.
Image credits: Lewin Day
I’m a Californian, so few tires make it past 5 years before needing replacement. When you’re running 12-15k a year, that’s about all most tires will last. The big exception is my travel trailer, which gets tires every three years regardless of treadwear. I know too many people who have had older ones strand them. I generally try to replace them in the fall, before the wet season.
I don’t put a lot of miles on my vehicle and I switch between summer and winters for half a year each, so my tires show very little wear. That said, around the five year mark I start to pay extra attention for cracking. The tread may still be good, but when age and decomposition starts setting in, it’s time to plan a replacement. Usually that happens around the seven year mark unless a road hazard gets me there sooner.
No useful information in this piece. Reminds me of my seven year old when she feels the need to be heard though what she has to say is of no value. Consult a professional to help you determine if your vehicle needs tires. Not all tires are created equal. Actually, there are less known brands that outperform name brands. There are a lot of variables in tires from the tire itself to the driver and driving conditions.
Roughly every 3-4 years. May be longer as I am driving much less with work from home and retirement in a year or two.
Either thirty thousand or five years, whichever comes first. The mountains will outright kill you up if you neglect your tires, especially in the winter when half the pavement’s gone and you’re driving over three foot patches of the tar bonded compacted gravel underneath. I once made the expensive mistake of buying a set of Michelin LTXs for $400 a corner on my old truck only to have to replace them early because the roads chewed the shit out of them. Looked like somebody had taken knives to the tread knobs like the way old coins were shaved off to steal bits of gold. After that I just fell into the habit of buying cheap Eagles that I replace according to the schedule stated above.
When Lincoln’s head is showing.
If they don’t last till the tread bars are almost showing, I usually replace tires when they start hydroplaning easily. I’m surprised at new tires that were good for about 25,000 miles and then got harsher and slicker with tons of treadwear left.
Er, when they need changing?
The Mercedes-spec “star marked” Michelins on my E350 wagon were starting to dry rot at only 5 years old. They got replaced. Florida sun, sigh. The Coopers on my Spitfire were still “good enough” at 20 years old, no dry rot in cold dark Maine, but had turned very hard. Which didn’t matter THAT much on a car with the performance capability of a jacked 4yo on a tricycle, but it was time to get new ones. Definitely rides better on the new Hankooks. Not many choices in 175/70-13 these days. I replaced the nearly new runflats that my 128i came with because I couldn’t stand the ride of the miserable things, sold them for a decent chunk of what the new Continentals cost me on sale.
As a general rule though, I tend to have tires age out before I wear them out, given I have five cars. I may end up wearing out those Continentals though, I do drive the 128i a fair bit.
I’ve replace tires at least once on every car I’ve owned because the tires don’t last as long as I keep cars. The oldest of the two cars is the Q3, it will be 5 years in April I have had it. It got a new set last spring, Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate to replace Nittos that were down to the wear bars. I have no idea when the Nittos were put on, but I do know they weren’t OEM, the dealer (non-Audi) probably installed them because they were cheap. Now the GLI only has just about 30k on it at this point, the OEM tires are Hankook Kinergy GT, they must be hard AF because they look like they have tons of tread left.
I’ll mention the time I could not replace tires even though I wanted to. I bought an abandoned ’64 VW Baha bug for $200, realigned the distributor and drove it. The rear tires were garnet-embedded winter tires. All attempts at removing the lug nuts proved futile. This was in an apartment carport and before I learned the magic of applying the flame wrench. I had a breaker bar, and a 4 foot thick wall pipe, and I was able to reach the carport roof frame for support. Jumping on all this resulted in nothing moving. I gave up, kept driving it until I sold it.
I’m sadly at the point where I have to replace some tires due to age instead of mileage.
Very fitting you’re wearing an MCM shirt given your locale and industry. Love those guys.
I’m an old retired guy on a fixed income, and I spend my time in mostly dry areas, so I can get away with waiting until wear bars are about to show and I’ve managed to squirrel away the thousand bucks a set of LT245/70R16s costs. I also rotate the tires annually.
Whenever they need it. I’ve gone 60,000+ miles on tires on my trucks and SUVs (Firestone, Michelin, and Bridgestone). I have 20,000 miles and counting on a set of “Doral” tires on my beater. On my sportier vehicles? 10,000 to 15,000 a set was about normal.
Honestly, I’ve had more tire replacements than required due to road hazards resulting in replacements being necessary. But the GTO is going to get a new set in the not too distant future. I want to go back to the smaller factory wheels so the current rubber both won’t fit and it’s clearly gotten a little hard, even though there’s lots of tread left.
Is “far too often” a valid answer? There’s a half-dozen cars around home these days, and about half of them have dedicated snow tires as well. On the Saabs, 30-40k miles (so, about every year to two years) is typical, especially with 17″ tire fitments. On the X350 Jaguar, tires seem to last longer due to suspension design. On that car I’ve also installed high-quality, high mile-rated tires (Nokian One this time around), as that car normally sees 40k/year. So, that should get me 2-3 years from that set. Mount/balance labor has gone up a fair amount locally, enough so that I finally hunted down and bought a used tire machine for the home garage; I’m still looking for a used balancer.
Hmmm – that story sounds familiar… Hi Paul!
Does the amount of time you can run on a set of tires vary if you put on winter tires? I know it’s partly wear, but it is also partly age. So let’s say my spouse has a 2019 Audi with 30K km on the odometer. His OEM tires are on the car about 7 months out of the year. So should he get new ones this year even if he still has good tread?
I actually just put new tires on my GTI because I bought it out of the lease and the OEM tires sucked. She now rocks some Michelin PIlot Sport 4s tires
Very boring- at 5/32 on the tire depth gauge start keeping an eye open for sales at Costco. I have found that Bridgestone are the best for my 2017 MB C300 4matic for the wear and noise control versus the Continentals it came with. I am amazed at how long we get out of tires these days versus the 80’s or 90’s (getting more than 30K meant you drove like a little old granny).
Now the cost for 4 tires is around $1,100 versus $171.92 from Korvettes in 1980.
Really depends on the car and the tires. I had a BRZ from new to ~42k miles and was about halfway thru its 3rd set of tires when I traded it in, and an M Roadster I had years ago would kill fronts at about the same rate and rears about 2x that fast. On the other hand, I’ve had an old 4runner and a 4×4 pickup that just never killed tires. Ended up having to replace a set on each that had aged and started to check but still had tons of depth left.
I change them when they need new tires or I get annoyed with what I have. My parents put tires on my first truck, and it never needed a second set while I had it. The Cavalier was totaled when someone ran a stop sign and t-boned it before it needed tires. The Tempo got new tires shortly after I got it because they were starting to dry rot. The Blazer I had next had Firehawks on it when I bought it and the very first winter it did a 540 in the middle of the highway at 10 mph because wind caught it on an icy bridge, so they were replaced. Got rid of it before the MTs I put on it needed replaced. The Fiesta had one blow out and replaced, another fail due to dry rot at 3 AM 800 miles from home, so I had a new set put on. TCM died and was unobtainium during the pandemic, so I replaced the car. The Civic had trash OEM tires that pissed me off and I replaced them when it got new wheels. Totaled two years later. My current Mazda 3 had some cheapo tires on the trashed aftermarket wheels when I bought it, so it got some sticky summer tires when it got new wheels. Once I move to Washington, I’ll get a set of snow tires and change them accordingly. Assuming that I stop being involved in the car accident per year I’m averaging here in Texas, none of which have been my fault.
I should check if my tires can vote yet.
I am changing some today, which makes it… maybe… 2.5 years for this truck toy? 35″ M/Ts do not last long when you have to drive almost two hours on pavement to get to a place you can enjoy them. They are getting swapped out for slightly narrower (11.5″ instead of 12.5″) A/Ts, also in 35R17.
I change them when they are at about 5/32s tread depth. That’s about every 3-4years.
That said, the ones one my summer car(s) are probably 10 years old. I’ll replace them when they start to show signs of age. But they are in an attached garage so they are aging well.
I’ve had my GT86 for seven years and maybe 40,000 miles. Twice now I’ve replaced all four tyres. The first time because the original Prius-spec Michelins were knackered, and the second time because the Yokohama Decibel tyres (an OEM alternative tyre with no more grip than the Michelins) I fitted were worn out.
That second set of new tyres I fitted are getting close to the wear bars, so I’m getting close to set number 3.
I do habitually drive with the ESP off, and am often sideways.
When I was drifting my MX5 I’d get through four pairs of rear tyres in a morning, and a pair of sticky front tyres would last me a season. Surprisingly you put a lot of energy in to the front tyres when drifting, I used Yokohama AO48 cut slicks and they’d get hot enough to smear rubber over the tread.
I had a stack of 40+ spare rear wheels with tyres fitted ready to swap on.
Just bought a new set of tires for the family car (Flex AWD). The old tires were in OK condition, but I wanted a quality set that would be good in the snow. Since it’s the family car, I don’t really get too concerned about money – I’m not cheaping out when my kids are involved – and since the car has 20″ wheels the total spend was in the four figures. Luckily we don’t drive a lot, so these tires (and the tires on the other vehicles) will last a while.