The car was at the dealership this week for a MAJOR unexpected repair (I will write about that and the events that followed in short time) but I want to give this topic first attention and get opinion.
I was planning on taking the car in for service soon and putting on my snow tires but this incident happened and forced me in. I had noticed that the tire tread is getting low, but did not think it was that bad, until the shop called me and told me that my front tires where pretty mush dead, the tread is gone, the steel is coming through, you cant drive on them any more. Fair enough, let put the snows on I said and so it was.
The car has 27K on it, of these about 5 where put on snow tires last year. So the factory installed tires lasted 20K or so. THAT is low in my opinion. I know they are performance, and tread life depends on “how you drive the car” but 20K? that is all you get?
Is that normal? what do you think?
I just ordered a 2010 WRX 265 limited package and hope to have it delivery next week.
Thanks for all the info on this site to help me make up my mind on the WRX 265. I was also looking at the Mazda Speed 3 which is a very smart looking car. In the end it is the AWD that win out.
I am driving a 1997 Forester and still loving it. The new version of the Forester is too big for us now (no more kids at home). We will use that as a second car to transport our dogs and other stuff.
I am also getting winter tires on the WRX as well. But on your questions on factory tires. My Forester came with Yokohama Geolander which were fantastic tires but apparently because they are high performance tires, they don’t last very long. However, I anticipate they last more than 25K.
Comment by Harry — December 7, 2009 @ 10:58 pm
I think all summer performance tires get bad tread life. I had a 2006 Infiniti G35 before I got my 2010 wrx and had to get 4 new tires at about 19K. They were 19 inch bridgstone potenza at about $350.00 a piece. I did not abuse the tires because I knew how much they cost. Also I could not rotate the tires due to the back rims were bigger. Even so I had to replace the front tires on a rear wheel drive car. I think bad tread life comes with these performance tires no matter what brand you choose.
Comment by mwrx — December 8, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
Harry
congrats on the 2010, lots of fun, you are gonna need them tires soon, its coming down hard tomorrow where I am
Comment by Samer Forzley — December 9, 2009 @ 12:23 am
mwrx
thanks for the info. btw have a friend with a G35 and he complained about the rims, said couldn’t get snow tires on with a cheapy steel rim the Brambo calipers where too large
Wonder how all season will perform on the car, thoughts?
Comment by Samer Forzley — December 9, 2009 @ 12:25 am
Samer
Not sure how the all season tires would perform on the G35. I sure it will not handle the same. I only ran the summer performance tires. Never drove the car in the winter. Same with my wrx, I wont be driving it in the winter. My wrx will sit in the garage with 1,800 miles on it until march or I will drive it if the roads dry out. Not to sure about snow tires I never used them. I live in Cincinnati, OH and it ethier snows a lot or we dont get any. I own a landscaping company with plenty of 4 wheel drive trucks to drive.
Comment by mwrx — December 9, 2009 @ 12:47 pm
I never got more than 20K on my BFGoodrich G-Force Sport tires. Fast wearing is just par for the course with soft, sticky performance tires.
Comment by Geoff — December 9, 2009 @ 1:42 pm
Comment by Samer Forzley — December 9, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
I guess it is.
So next spring, we need to have a “what performance tires are best for the wrx” post. For now, snow shoes…..
Comment by Samer Forzley — December 9, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
Just got the wrx in mid november. Great car, but now that its fully broken in, I have the snowies on, and I can definitely NOT push the car as much, boohoo…. I have had the tires on for less than a week, and I noticed wear on the edges already!!
Btw, I ran RE 070(sti) tires on previous wrx and legacy GT and I still have tread left!!
Comment by rxwagon — December 11, 2009 @ 2:01 pm
Any one using 16″ winter tires instead of 17″. The dealer said it mkaes no difference in performance and mileage.
Is this true?
Comment by Harry — December 13, 2009 @ 8:46 pm
I’m using 205 – 16″ Dunlop 3D winter tires. Mileage is somewhat better, the performance on dry pavement, especially cornering, is definitely worse. I need to see more snow to have an idea how these work as designed. On the positive side, they are quieter.
Comment by cata_o — December 13, 2009 @ 11:03 pm
winter X-ice – 16” and no issues in my wrx. Performance is as you would expect for winter tires.
Comment by P.I. — January 4, 2010 @ 8:43 pm
On my 02 WRX wagon I got 20,000 miles out of two different sets of OEM tires, 15k out of one fun set of Yokohama AVS ES 100s and 30,000 miles each on three sets of Yokohama HTR+
6 sets of tires, 3 sets of discs/pads, original clutch!
Yes I have that many miles on my car
Comment by Will — January 21, 2010 @ 2:14 pm
Did you rotate the tires? AWD cars wear down the tread very quickly and you should rotate the tires every 11,000km or so. Same goes for your winter tires. This could be the reason.
Basically the reason is that the Dunlop SP (original equipment) are very good. In other words they are extremely sticky, that is – they do their job. And when tires do their job well for a car that moves like the WRX, they burn tread fast. So if you’ve been driving the car fast and you’ve never rotated the tires, I’m not surprised to hear that they needed to be replaced after 20k or so.
I got my 2009 WRX 265 in August and put about 5k on my summer tires and about 11k on my winter tires. I have since taken my winter tires off but when I put them on next winter I will have them rotated first.
Hope this helps…
Comment by Brandon Mina — March 19, 2010 @ 1:04 am
Something seems wrong here. My 265 is at about 23K kms now with the OEM tire and I’ve been HARD on them (trackday, three autoslalom events). About 8K KM on my my winter set, so about 15K KM on the Dunlops. Not as much as you I know, but believe me, the track and autoslalom uses a lot more than 5k of normal driving.
I would take you car to an alignment shop ASAP and check that front and rear toe is set to 0.0.
Do you know where on the tire they wore through? What pressures are you running?
The Dunlops have decent grip yes, but at a treadwear rating of 280 are far from ‘super sticky’ and should last much more than 25K in normal driving.
Brandon is correct on tire rotation also. I rotated mine when I swapped them back on after winter, and after each ‘event’ I drove. Fronts obviously wear faster.
Be careful with just replacing the fronts. If your backs are worn down to a reasonable degree then you’re left with a different diameter between the front and rear tires. This will MELT your center differential. Another reason to rotate often.
Comment by BG — May 11, 2010 @ 7:11 am