how long did the OEM tires last?

[Larrymer]

How many miles did you get out of your stock tires before they were worn out? Did you follow the rotation schedule?

If you replaced them for other wheels before they were completely worn, don't reply please. I'd rather have only useful information about the stock tire life in this thread.

 

[SooperSonic]

I rotated my tires a few times already before switching to my winter setup. I just hit 32K miles on the stock all-season's and they're still rolling strong. I'll keep them til they wear out then put some summer's on.

 

[SouthFLSonic]

I have 45,000 (+,-) miles on my Sonic in just over a year and rotate tires on schedule if not earlier when I plastidip them. My miles have been roughly 90% highway and 10% city and my tires still have about 3/4 tread remaining.

I feel with my drive being all straight highway these tires will be bad from age before I wear them down. Going off of my wear and mileage as of right now these tires should do fine close to 100,000 mile territory. I of course will replace them before that number but can't see why they wouldn't hold up to that number.

 

[$ub$onic]

I autox/ trackx on my oem ones. They lasted all of about 20k hahaha

 

[Swordsmith]

I just checked in the attic and the tread is still fine on all four of my OEM tires, plus the baby spare. Looks like maybe someone drove them for 1000 miles, tops.

 

[ahtoxa]

I replaced mine at 26k miles. On occasion I do enjoy spirited cornering, so this was no surprise.

They were rotated 3 or 4 times. Two tires were a mil away from the wear bars and the other two were about 3 mil away from wear bars. I replaced them because hydroplaning issues were getting progressively worse.

 

[sx sonic]

At 41k miles I'm at about 40% tread left. Tires are wearing quite evenly, even with only 2 rotates, chalk that up to running the tires near the max psi.

Lots of highway driving and usually gentle accel, although I'm almost always cornering aggresively.

 

[ahtoxa]

Surprised they lasted you guys so long.

I'm a spirited driver, but I don't abuse my tires. I've had summer tires on my old LS2 GTO last 17k miles without a single rotation (staggered set up) while these rock-hard no-season stock tires were ready to go far sooner than expected.

 

[Scot]

Shouldn't you mention 15" vs. 16" or 17"?

FWIW, I swapped over to the wheels & tires I bought from RDSS last night and @ 7k, my oem tires look to be in excellent shape. I'll get a tread depth on them and perhaps we can do a spreadsheet and project your mileage.

 

[Insanika]

My tires were completely shot at 27k. I wanted them to last til the spring because I'm getting new wheels, but that's not happened. Rotated 3 times.

Most of the highways out here are old save for good ole 36 and 81. My entire 60 mile round trip to work and my 90 mile round trip to school is on chip and seal. It's like driving on nasty sandpaper. No good for paint, tires or windows.

Getting sick of such rural life.

 

[Luv2xlr8]

I put 75,000km on the rear and they look like they have about 80-90% tread but they are crack from using them in the winter. The fronts have about 60-70% but I took them off for 4 months for winter tires. I've owned the car since march 2012 and they are 15in on steelies. Hope that helps.

 

[SSonic]

I took my OEM 15 wheels/tires off at around 10k miles because they were absolutely terrible imo in rain/snow to the point where I didn't feel safe....replaced with quite pricey(but well worth it) 90k miles-rated Michelin Defenders which I love. Awesome for all-seasons in snow and on dry pavement as well. Plus, 90k mile warranty is highest on the market to date! Just a suggestion for anyone looking to upgrade/replace....

 

[Larrymer]

Shouldn't you mention 15" vs. 16" or 17"?

FWIW, I swapped over to the wheels & tires I bought from RDSS last night and @ 7k, my oem tires look to be in excellent shape. I'll get a tread depth on them and perhaps we can do a spreadsheet and project your mileage.

Maybe, just more looking for info on the Hankooks, which are used on the 15's and 17's (maybe the 16's, too). I'm at over 4k miles already ( ) but haven't looked at the wear on them so far.

I have two sets of wheels and was hoping to just burn the stock tires down and then use one set of wheels as dedicated winters and the other as summers. Seems like quite the variance on how long people say they last, so I'm not sure which route to go yet and if I should just go ahead and replace the stock tires with some winters. It is Michigan after all. Winter tires help here. Once the first good snow hits and I can see how the stock tires are in snow I think my decision will be made.

Thanks everybody for the replies so far.

 

[Luv2xlr8]

Oh, I now have 4 winters on the 15's and 4 spare hankooks which I might put up for sale since I have the 16" LT I'm going to use for the summer but haven't decided what size and brand of tire.

 

[pounamu]

I took my OEM 15 wheels/tires off at around 10k miles because they were absolutely terrible imo in rain/snow to the point where I didn't feel safe....replaced with quite pricey(but well worth it) 90k miles-rated Michelin Defenders which I love. Awesome for all-seasons in snow and on dry pavement as well. Plus, 90k mile warranty is highest on the market to date! Just a suggestion for anyone looking to upgrade/replace....

Thanks SSonic, I'm looking, so this is super useful.

I'm just so confused by the contradictory reports about these stock Hankooks' winter performance. Some say they are terrible, and others use them just fine.

 

[sx sonic]

Thanks SSonic, I'm looking, so this is super useful.

I'm just so confused by the contradictory reports about these stock Hankooks' winter performance. Some say they are terrible, and others use them just fine.

The Stock tires are "fine" in the winter if there isn't inclement weather, or you drive like hitting ice will cause you to spin out and crash into a building 4 towns over.
The hankooks will still let the car turn, brake, and accelerate in snow, BUT you'll have to go quite a bit slower than you would with other All-Seasons to be safe.


So compared to a decent all season or any winter tire they are terrible.

To give you an idea, I have to drive about 15-20 mph slower in the Sonic vs my RWD truck (w/o TC) with good All Terrains on the interstate, even at that I'm more confident in my trucks ability to react/stay in control if something unforeseeable happens.

 

[Ever Victorious]

OE tires on smaller, less expensive models don't tend to be all that great. Though these Hankooks, from my experience so far, are not the worst OE tire I've ever driven on. That honor goes to the Continental ProContact on the Nissan Versa. Best OE tires I've had were a set of Michelin Energy MXV's.

Of course, if you're having qualms about whether or not the Hankooks will perform well enough for you personally, that's probably an indicator that you might want to replace them.

 

[ahtoxa]

OE tires on smaller, less expensive models don't tend to be all that great. Though these Hankooks, from my experience so far, are not the worst OE tire I've ever driven on. That honor goes to the Continental ProContact on the Nissan Versa. Best OE tires I've had were a set of Michelin Energy MXV's.

Of course, if you're having qualms about whether or not the Hankooks will perform well enough for you personally, that's probably an indicator that you might want to replace them.

Your experience is interesting to me, because it's completely to the contrary of yours. I've have the ContiproContacts before and they were middle of the pack. Lasted well, traction was OK. Overall a solid 'meh'. The Sonic's Hankooks are THE worst I've had. They aren't square and undrivable or anything, but they stink.

Conicidently, if you look at all grand turing tires via the high level comparison on the tirerack's website, you'll find that the Hankooks are dead last at spot 28 or 29 and ContiPro Contacts are like 15th or 17th.

Either way, you are right that just about all factory tires on non-performance, non-lux cars out there suck.

 

[Ever Victorious]

I wasn't the only one complaining about the Continentals on the Versa. On the forum back in the day we pretty much agreed that you'd have more traction if you coated them in Teflon and olive oil.

Then again, this was 2006/2007. Perhaps Continental has corrected the issues with the tires since then. But the experience back then gave me such a sour taste that I'm unlikely ever to try their products again. "Too little, too late" as they say.

 

[sx sonic]

I wasn't the only one complaining about the Continentals on the Versa. On the forum back in the day we pretty much agreed that you'd have more traction if you coated them in Teflon and olive oil.

Then again, this was 2006/2007. Perhaps Continental has corrected the issues with the tires since then. But the experience back then gave me such a sour taste that I'm unlikely ever to try their products again. "Too little, too late" as they say.

It's also not uncommon for O.E.s to spec their own tire, even when It's based off an already available tire, they'll request certain features (for lack of a better word).

BMW has been doing it for awhile with their continentals? The factory tires would even have a star designating it as the O.E. tire. I recall replacing a set of tires with the same brand, model, and size but noted the o.e.s had a star and the replacements did not. I asked the master tech what the deal was and he stated the Continental made that the one tire was made to BMW specs and the other was general specs.


How big a difference it makes I don't know, may not even be the case with the tires you expierenced, just a neat bit of trivia to ponder.