Hi Sean,
Any tyre regardless of condition, should be replaced every 10 years.
Especially if these cars are higher speed highway/motorway cars.
In regards to your comment of breaking traction on acceleration way to easy, this is fairly normal on modern cars, saying that, older tyres also show this characteristic as they age and the tyres lose their softer characteristics.
Modern car traction controls don’t really work as good as promised, and will often break away almost uncontrollably.
My new company car X Tail just left in front wheel drive, (I usually leave it in auto all wheel drive) will spin uncontrollably and bang the drive train like someone hammering under my feet with a sledge hammer like old fashioned rear wheel axle tramp. The cars electronics just will not arrest this at all.
It seems to be something that most owners will never see or experience, but us “car” guys will always explore what our cars can do.
As you and everyone else here probably already knows, soft tyres = great traction and handling, but of course comes at the cost of tyre life.
Michelin, Continental’s & Pirelli’s have amazing handling and traction, but are very high wearing, so the 10 year limit would never be realised.
Japanese tyres like Yokohama, Bridgestone & Toyo’s all offer sports versions of their tyres that are also high wearing, but also offer some great mid range tyres.
As I have mentioned before here, the Thai made Maxxis were a terrific tyre for my very heavy Silver Shadow.
I have fitted many of the newer Chinese tyres to friends and relatives cars, with great success, my sons car has had Black Lion brand tyres on his car for over 50,000 k’s now and they are wearing great, and are very low noise, but he is also a stickler for the most neglected things I see in cars and trucks and that is tyre pressures.
He checks his once a week when he fills his car up.
Once a week may seem too much, however doing this he identified a slow leak in a tyre before it got too low that it would cause excessive heat due to low pressure.
The excessive heat is generated by the tyre wall flexing excessively thus the overheating of the sidewall, which generally is the main cause of tyre failure in Australia.
The very high road surface temperature also compounds this issue, so tyre pressures are the number one thing we need to monitor to ensure tyre longevity.
The wife’s Mini has a basic form of tyre pressure monitoring by keeping eye on the wheel rotation speed via the ABS sensors. If a discrepancy is noted a tyre pressure light will illuminate, but then it is up to me to find which tyre is low.
Not a bad simple system.
The next most important thing to tyre longevity, and another badly ignored part of our tyres is wheel alignment.
I recommend a full front & rear alignment every time you fit a new set of tyres, or every 50,000k’s
This will ensure the car tracks correctly, plus one thing more, it will identify and worn steering, or cracked or split drive boots, suspension rubbers and so on.
So getting back to tyres.
Generally they are what is called a begrudged buy, as the buyer can’t see its direct or obvious advantage of the purchase, like a new stereo, or window tint etc etc.
Sometimes people just say, I will buy the most expensive tyre money can buy, thinking they are buying the best, but this may not necessarily mean, it is the best tyre for their situation.
I’ve seen Continentals fitted by a father who thought most expensive = best to his daughters Mini, these tyres were completely worn out after 6,000ks.
The tyres were $245 each.
Was the mini destined for track days or similar, no.
I fitted some Chinese tyres to this car, and they now have 10,000k’s on them, and they are still excellent, and are very quiet and grip on the little Mini is excellent.
All I would recommend Sean is spend some time talking to your local tyre fitters or workshops and they will give some recommendations based on what they have fitted to customers cars, this insight is usually great info as most of the customers will want the cheapest they can get, so feedback on these cheaper tyres is good intel.
Anyone can go out and pay top dollar for a tyre, but a smarter person like you will want good value for the $$$ spent, and that value = tyre life V NVH V grip.
I also read all reviews on tyres I can find once I have narrowed down my selection.
People will be very honest on line if the tyres they chose do not live up to what was promised by the supplier.
So start reading
Ps.
Don’t forget a full wheel alignment
