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
It depends as life span for tires in normally 5-7 years before they start to rot. So for my firebird I do not drive it much so my tires will last the 5-7 years (or if I change rims). My FJ I bought new tires when I bought it and just got new tires last year and I do a 5 tire rotation on it so I got about 70k miles out of the set they were starting to lose traction way to much in wet or icy environments. So it really depends for me if I am putting a lot of mileage on a car I will get them changed around 50k-70k miles or if they seem bald or start losing traction. But for things like my Firebird or Cummins those will most likely get changes due to age not wear.
this is kind of a tough one. I tend to use jack stands on my cars that sit for 6 months at a time. I don’t like flat spots taking a few miles to only sort of round back out. I also don’t know that any of them see a lot of sunlight, so they tend to avoid dry rotting more than some I suppose. but I do have a scout sitting on 15 year old rubber that has no signs of dry rot or cracking, yet I am about to replace the tires on a Yamaha that are only 9 years old. they are expensive Michelins and I would not go with Cheaper alternatives as I truly believe you get what you pay for in tires. but those Michelins are rock hard even if they don’t show any wear or deterioration. And thanks to recent inflation catching up to tires recently, it appears that tires have nearly doubled in price since the last time I bought one on the Harley, which was 3 years ago.
I keep them if they’re less than 10 years old, mechanic doesn’t think they’re a problem, and a little above the wearbars. Assuming they don’t piss me off. Right now I have Michelin CrossClimate2’s on my 2004 Lexus, and I’m mildly curious to see which wears out first.
When they need to be changed. Tends to be once a season on my HPDE / autocross / Time Trial car. Maybe more if I do more events, less if not. On my daily, I change them when I notice the tread is less than 3/32 or so. That tends to be every 3 years or so.
I used to be in the same situation most of the time, where I was owning cars for a short enough time that whatever tires it came with were still good when I sold/scrapped it.
I was also doing the seasonal swap every winter and spring on my daily driver, but I have a mostly-winter-only car with snow tires on it, so the daily just stays on all-seasons and I try to avoid driving it in snow. I always had 2 sets of wheels though, so I wasn’t paying for mounting and balancing twice a year.
Now that I’m holding onto cars longer, I have a couple sets that are probably near or beyond aging out by some people’s standards, but there’s nothing visually wrong with them, and I’ve noticed no decline in performance, so I’ll keep running them.
The ones on my Prius were replaced partially because of wear, but also because one of them had a leak that kept getting worse, to where I would fill it before work, and be flat by the time I was ready to go home. Just ended up getting a whole new set, since Tire Rack had some deeply discounted “old” tires that were what I was looking to buy anyway.
I’ve also had to replace one set far before they were old or worn, because they were already cracking and losing bits less than 3 years after their date of manufacture. One of them got a sidewall bubble from a pothole, and the tread started peeling off around it.
I’ve recovered from replacing the motor I basically toasted last year, so the Roadster is getting good wet-weather all-seasons on the stock wheels and some stupidly low wear number performance tires on the fat wheels in the next few weeks. The Subaru has less than 2k miles on the snow tires I bought 3 years ago, and I expect both cars’ will age tires out before I wear them.
Well, maybe the rears might get bald a bit sooner on the rwd.
My last vehicle had low-profile 20s, which were fairly wide. About $900-$1k to replace, because I said I’m only buying these once and went with CrossClimate2s from Michelin. They were worth every penny.
The replacement car has 16s. Since my wife and son often travel in it, I’ll replace them at about 3.5 to 4 years since heat in the SE US can be brutal in the summer, and dry rot is pretty common as a result. That’s about the time in mileage too when they get loud as hell, and I already have enough noise in my head (thanks tinnitus!).
CrossClimate2s are excellent. Finally got to try mine out in snow a couple of weeks ago. In heavy rain they stay planted through the areas where you would feel a little hydroplaning.
Those are some of the best tires I ever drove on, and we put them on my wife’s CX-5 as well. Just rock solid. My neighbor said he wanted them on his vehicle too, just because he thought the aggressive tread pattern looked awesome.
I would be curious to know how those stand up to the Continental Extreme Contact DWS06 tires. I have had a lot of luck with Conti’s, but Michelin All weathers were not something I have ever considered.
I have CrossClimate2s on both my van, and my wife’s Forester. They’re excellent, and while pricey, they eliminate the need to swap between all-seasons and snow tires. So they’re very much worth it.
There’s definitely a bit of a penalty when it comes to mileage though.
Can concur on mileage, they probably aren’t the best for a hybrid or EV for that reason, but they were unstoppable. Never had issues with them, they were quiet and tenacious no matter the conditions. I’ve read that the tire compound is to blame for that. Something about the flex of the tread requiring that and as a result they have a slight bit of rolling resistance.
Where we live it’s a tradeoff I have absolutely no issue making. I’d rather trade a little inefficiency than end up in a ditch.
I buy tires primarily based on age and wear – once they start getting low on tread or hit seven years, I generally get new ones. I say generally because I have run tires past the seven year mark, but I paid close attention to them for signs that they need replacement.
I also don’t run crap tires, ever. I don’t care on age or condition if the tires are garbage. We bought a new (used) car a few months ago, and the dealer we bought it from had put brand new Ironman tires on it. I bet the tires had less than 200 miles on them when I replaced them, which some might consider wasteful, but I don’t feel bad ditching new tires known for being absolutely terrible in the snow in December in the Colorado mountains – the life of my family is worth more than some trash tires the dealer threw on just so the ad could say “NEW TIRES!!!1!” in it.
I change tires when they hit the wear limit, or get way out of date. Granted I try and wait until I have money for old but still have tread, which is why it took 4 years to buy truck tires.
Around 5-6 years has been the interval for new tires for me. Luckily rocking 16s means sub 4 figures for an entire set of decent tires.
I have a question for everyone. What’s your rule of thumb for how old a tire is when it ages out? I don’t put many miles on my cars, so on my older car, after 6 years, the tires still have plenty of tread and they aren’t noticeably cracking or dry. Should I replace them?
As much as it hurts financially, once you enter the 7th year it’s always a good idea to replace.
These days cars are disposable by design and economics which is sad.
But lives are not.
After close to 55 years of driving, can’t begin to recall how many lives, cars I’ve seen either destroyed or negatively impacted by negligence or the DGAF attitudes.
Always better to be safer than sorry. Just my take on it here. YMMV
I’m currently running 9-year-old snow tires on my Saabaru, and they’re in the same condition as your tires – no visible signs of their age, and beyond that, still doing a very good job of holding the car to the road on snow as they’re meant to.
I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be running this wheel/tire combo anyway, but if they push past the 10-year mark I’ll likely replace them or at least be keeping a very good eye on them.
Recently had this question as the Michelin Premier tires on my 2009 Fit still had 5/32 tread but were 9 years old. Michelin says replace their tires before 10 years, but this seems to be several years beyond typical industry guidelines. This was the first car I’ve owned that had tires age out before they wore out.
*looks through the window at my first car that I haven’t actually driven, and is sitting on jacks with all the parts in a closet waiting, while it has baldish tires*
Oh yeah I change em’ regularly.
If they hold air they’re fine by me. If I bend a rim or the tire gets down to the metal mesh I’ll replace that one with whatever I can find with the same lug pattern.
It varies, but typically every 3-4 years once the tread is worn on the wife’s car, but I am with you in that I rarely have a car for myself long enough to need tires, but when I have, it’s been when I can tell the performance is lacking. Usually before it hits the wear bars, but not by a whole lot.
I have a CUV I Like the rugged tire look so I run winter tires year round. When needed I have the internet and a tire guy.
On a lighter note when I bought my 78 Spider last year it still has the original tires. One exploded on the tow home
Just bought SUV tires that priced out at 4 figures. I’ve got more than 2/32 on them, but the hydroplaning incident recently let me know that it’s time to swap them out.
The other problem the rest of the world has with inches is the insane fractions.
I’m not saying 1.6mm is a better way of saying 2/32”, but certainly 1/16” would be.
I buy tires when they wear out. Factory rubber tends to wear faster than what I buy afterwards. When I had the EVO X, it came with the factory Yokohama Advans that were useless in anything other than perfectly dry weather. After swapping them for a set of Goodyear Eagles, I could drive that car in anything, including a snowstorm that dumped 20″+ of snow. I’ve also had to replace the tires on my Cayman, and I’ll probably have to do it again this year. Much as I’m not a big Michelin fan, I’ll probably put a set of Michelins on it as they have the best treadwear rating. Once any set of tires gets down to those wear bars, they get changed, sometimes sooner if I realize I hate what’s on a vehicle I own due to noise, or the inability to drive something in inclement weather. Since I live in Pittsburgh, PA and periodically have to drive through the mountains in the middle of the state, I see a lot of inclement weather.
My dad always bought retreads when I was growing up because they were cheap. Driving his truck home one night when I was in high school, I heard a thup-thup-thupping from the front, only to see a chuck of rubber shoot off the driver’s front tire. Upon getting home, I realized that the cap was peeling off the tire carcass. Yikes!
Every 5 days. Just like my underwear.
Seriously. Watch my tires like constantly.
If little or no dry rot showing will run them till worn.
Usually swap out for new ones if older than 6-7 years.
But never above 125mph except on occasion.
Been buying Sumitomo all seasons for the Camry and Corolla, so far satisfied with the overall tread life and traction mix. My car will likely be due for new tires prior to next winter.
The ’05 MDX has an older set of Continentals. They are nowhere near the wear bars but are aging out and I can tell they are past their prime.
As the saying goes “experience is the best teacher, and the worst experiences teach the best lessons” and I can attest to this.
Purchased a second set of wheels for my Navigator because I really wanted the new center caps that came with the wheels / tires. The caps new from Ford were outrageously expensive (!!) and the road chemicals they use on Mt Hood were corroding the caps and they were fugly. The price of all 4 wheels tires was less than the cost of one center cap from FOMOCO.
These were takeoff rims that had been inside stored for years with basically brand new Michelin tires. They were “old” but not cracked and did not at all look sketchy.
I swapped them on in spring after ski season was done for just around town duty and then had a longer trip in the late summer and thought nothing about driving the 225 miles on these Michelins I had been using for months now without issue.
Here is where the story goes off the rails – driving down I-84 at a nice 75 mph clip on an 85 degree day had something to say about my life choices. I have had only one blowout in my driving career and that was some old bias ply on a pickup truck back in 1984. I had not one but two blowouts that day and while trying to nurse the second bulging tire to the next exit 5 miles down the road I managed to destroy the air shock.
Waiting on the side of the road for a tow with two buddies in the heat makes you ponder life choices.
Pendleton, Oregon is a nice place especially if you like rodeo. It does not have a lot going for it in regards to facilities including repair shops and the like. Luckily the Les Schwab there could get the new shock and set me up with tires but it would be 3 days. No rental cars were available for my posse and me and my best available option for transportation was a 15′ U-haul box truck which thankfully had AC and a bench seat for three.
Lesson learned and while painful to the pocketbook, nobody was hurt in the process.
Snow tires – three seasons and then they become all seasons that last summer. Looking for a screaming deal on tire rack in the off season for the next year.
Performance tires – any car I am going to drive like a lunatic needs fresh tires at 5 years.
Cars my wife / kids drive always have fresh tires winter / summer because I want them to be safe.
“New to me” cars get fresh tires as well given I seem to only buy cars with 20 year old tires on them.
I am not above finding fresh takeoffs from FB marketplace or Craigslist for beater cars but obviously checking DOT date codes having learned my lesson.
I have 5 to 7 vehicles on the road at any given time and some trailers so none of them rack up serious miles and I end up running old tires on some. I figured I was always safe by keeping an eye on tread wear and cracks, and I was until a month ago. I had an old snow tire with lots of tread, no cracks, totally blow out on the highway. The entire sidewall on both sides cut loose from the beads so it was flopping around loose at 70 mph. Horrible racket. Fortunately it was a rear tire and I had no trouble pulling over safely.
From now on, when tires age out, I’m done, no matter how pretty they look.
Typically at the wear bars, but now that I’m splitting mileage among more vehicles I’m having to pay more attention to time. The Corvette is getting new tires next year because the place I got my last ones put 2 year old tires on it and they’re already getting old. Next time I’ll check date codes before I leave the shop.
I think I’m moving to 5 years for trailer tires though. I’ve now had 3 major failures going longer than that and I really don’t want to go through that again, especially since it’s a single axle trailer so a blowout is a scary situation. Trailer tires are notoriously crappy though so I probably should have been doing that all along.
I’m telling you right now, no one else here in these comments can POSSIBLY be as anal about tires as I am.
As a SoCal resident who never has to deal with snow and generally despises the kind of low grip all-season tires that most cars end up on, swapping the tires is the very first thing I do on any car I end up with, used or new. Behold my list of vehicles:
2013 Ford Focus purchased new – Came with junky all-seasons; replaced with Continental Summer-only tires.
2001 Honda S2000 – Tires were garbage; replaced with Bridgestone RE-11A
2003 Mazda Miata – Tires didn’t match; replaced with 15×9 rims and BFGoodrich Rival 1.5S (dry weather only tire)
2004 Camry – Tires sucked, replaced with cheap 17×8 rims and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires
2022 Camry Hybrid (Current vehicle) – Stock tires weren’t good at anything, have since replaced with an expensive set of lightweight 17×8 wheels and Continental Sport 02 Summer Tires.
I also went to the trouble to replace the factory donut in the back of my Camry Hybrid with a nearly full-size 17×7 spare complete with a match Continental Tire. I even purchased the Australian-market trim pieces to make it fit and had the Toyota dealership code the TPMS monitor to display the pressure of the spare in the trunk. I see the pressure of all 5 tires at once from the readout in the gauge cluster. Now THAT’S commitment to tires! Beat that internet!
Adding it up, I have bought 9 sets of tires over the last 12 years; worth every penny.
As an amusing aside, the only car in this list that I didn’t take to the track at some point was (ironically) my Honda S2000.
Amen brother – I am a self proclaimed tire nerd at this point. I sat next to a guy on an airplane once who worked at Cooper tires. We talked the entire flight about tire technology and at the end he said – you know most people see tires as those round black things your car rides on. Made my day.
I did the swap on a 2016 Jeep Patriot, the Firestone tires that came with it were utter crap. The sidewall flex was so bad when making low speed turns, it made the vehicle lurch halfway through the turn, and overall ride was noisy, sloppy dogshit.
That was just the tip of the iceberg on that vehicle though. Traded it at less than 50k for a used Mazda CX-5 AWD with 38k miles, ate 2k in loss in the deal, and walked out happy to be rid of that shitbox.
For my old cars that don’t get driven much, when I start to notice small cracks (5 years old tires aprox). For my daily commuters, when I am about less than 50% on wear, I start paying attention to deals either walmart or tire rack and I will swap them even if they have some life on it.
Driving in Michigan means you need a good set of tires between rain and snow.
On the bolt, I swap between snow and all seasons each year. This is the 4th winter for the snow tires, and they hardly look worn, so probably won’t be replaced for years. The all seasons are the 3rd set in 100k miles, ran the previous tires an extra part of a year to basically no tread since I had the snow tires for the winter.
The old XJ that only sees about 1k miles/year has overbuilt mud tires manufactured in 2013, with large chunks of lugs torn out and uneven wear, probably be a few years/few thousand miles before I get to the point I can’t stand the noise anymore and replace them.
What did you choose for winter wheel/tires on the Bolt? I am most of the way through this winter but especially if I have to RTO I am likely to put winter tires on my Bolt next winter.
I got some 15×6″ steel wheels for a Sonic, and 205/65R15 Blizzaks, all mounted and shipped off tire rack for not much more than just the tires would have been for the oem size. I wish the car would have come from the factory with 15″ wheels. I’ve been quite impressed with the setup, only 1 day in 3.5 winters so far that we drove the Jeep instead to get through a 3′ plow berm at the end of the driveway, and we tend to get 12-15 feet of snow a winter. Still easy to get the bolt high centered on plow berms, but otherwise it does better than a lot of 4wd/awd cars with “normal’ tires.
Nice. Thanks!