How many dollars are these tyres actually costing? I know you've said 1/3 - 1/4, but what is that in actual dollars? This allows us to compare them more easily to other things that might be available. I'm running RE003's in 225/40/R18 which cost me $980 fitted (in september 2015).
Having read one to two tyre reviews over the years as well as talking to people around the industry I've come to understand a few things.
Reputable tyre tests are usually done in a reasonable fashion, but they also tend to source tyres directly from the manufacturers which means you're getting brand new fresh tyres which isn't always the case in your local shop (depending on how popular they are they could be older stock). This means that they will be performing as well as they ever will and will only get worse over time...
In very broad terms tyres that grip better are softer and wear faster vs harder compounds which wear really well as the expense of grip. It's also worth noting that soft tyres tend to get harder as they age so you want something that maintains it's properties over it's useful life.
For those reasons (and as someone has already said) even low KM cars should have their shoes replaced at regular intervals to ensure the tyres are still doing their jobs.
Here is one example of some testing that's worth having a look at, it's last years test as I didn't see this years online yet.
Best Performance Tyres Test 2016 | MOTOR Performance Tyre Reviews | MOTOR
In any case it's interesting, there is about 20% in both wet and dry braking tests but it's less than 10% for the other tests. In real numbers that is 13.96m in the wet braking test vs 16.54m and 34.75m vs 41.75m in the dry tests.
Here is another one:
The best and worst tyres for your car
This review includes at least a passing reference to an old tyre. It doesn't say what brand/model it is, but the summary was it was reasonable in the dry but sucked hard in the wet, presumably this is simply down to the amount of water able to be displaced by the depth of the tread (or lack there of).
I'd love to see the same tests done to the same tyres in 24 months or 20,000km or something to get a real world story on age.
Here is another article talking about older tyres and little about the science:
How Old - and Dangerous - Are Your Tires?
and another:
The Science of Tire Aging
Bottom line, normal people are unlikely to ever be able to test more than "seat of the pants". Those 10% differences in driving are unlikely to be really felt on the streets. Even the 20% difference in braking is only a couple of car lengths and aren't the sort of thing you tend to do in real life (except when it's probably more important that it all works... like in an emergency). It would be great to see this end of the market included in some of these more scientific tests.
It would have been interesting if the OP has done a few dry brake tests on the old tyres then the same on the new ones at the same location... but then finding somewhere it's safe (and/or) legal to do that can be interesting too
Again, for most people, most of the time anything round and black is probably OK as we tend to not drive to the limit or be put in situations where it matters too much.... but then it's sort of like insurance. You don't pay for it because you think you won't crash, you pay for it in case you do. Plenty of people choose to self-insure and come out in front, even after an accident... others hit a Porsche on the way to the shops.
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Originally Posted by JustCruisn
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