Tires

[Andymnelson]

How long did your crap stock tires last? I’m 18,000 miles into mine, and I’m not sure I can put up with their crap performance for the life of the crap tire. Crap traction in dry. Crap reaction in wet. Crap traction in snow. I’m hoping for crap tread life to go with it so I don’t have to throw out tires with tread. Did I mention that I think they are crap??

 

[jmueller065]

How long did your crap stock tires last? I’m 18,000 miles into mine, and I’m not sure I can put up with their crap performance for the life of the crap tire. Crap traction in dry. Crap reaction in wet. Crap traction in snow. I’m hoping for crap tread life to go with it so I don’t have to throw out tires with tread. Did I mention that I think they are crap??

Well guess what: You are getting all that crap performance because they use a very hard rubber compound to achieve low rolling resistance. As a consequence of that you'll have to live the crappy life for a long long time.

I turned my FFE lease in at 36,000 miles and the tires looked as good as new. Frankly I never really had an issue with the tire's performance..the FFE isn't a Focus RS what are you expecting?

 

[Andymnelson]

No ****. ***eye roll*** (See what I did there??)

What do I expect? I expect a tire the handles decently. I will gladly sacrifice a little bit of mileage for a safe amount of traction, and a little bit of performance.

 

[campfamily]

No ****. ***eye roll*** (See what I did there??)

What do I expect? I expect a tire the handles decently. I will gladly sacrifice a little bit of mileage for a safe amount of traction, and a little bit of performance.

One of the car magazines did a pretty good study on the effects of changing out our "crap" tires for ones with more traction and performance. The range hit was not trivial.

 

[davideos]

I got only about 20,000 miles on those LRR tires. I noticed on a previous car that the tires that came with the car didn't last too long but the ones I bought afterward did...so when I went to Costco and they offered me the same LRR tire, I went ahead with it somewhat reluctantly, but I religiously took it back to get the tire rotations to have documentation that I followed the outline required to keep the Warranty valid.

So when I got to just over 40k miles and the tires needed changing again, Costco inspected the tires and agreed. 20k miles onr a tire that has a 55k warranty gives back a pretty good chuck of change (more than half)

This time, I opted to get some different Michelin tires...ones that are not LRR...and guess what, they don't wear out like the 2 previous sets. I rotated at 5k miles and they still seem like most all the tread is still there. yeah I can tell the fronts have worn a little more than the back, but within reason to expect 55k miles of useful life.

The tires will still squeal on corners if you push it, because of the high torque, but it definitely grips better. I'm sure that I'm losing some range here, but my commute is short so I don't really care. If you have a long commute, I feel your pain, but, you can still claim your warranty...just talk to your tire dealer about what you need to do to ensure the warranty is valid after the tires are worn prematurely. Costco is definitely good about it.

 

[triangles]

I'm at 3.25 years and a little over 17k miles with the OE tires. Other than loss of traction on accelerating (more due to the design of the FFE than anything to do with the tire quality), the OE tires are at least average to good, probably a 6 or 7 on a scale of 1-10. The only complaints I have about them are apparent rapid tread wear and below average snow traction which is probably at least partially due to the design of the FFE. I am going to try and get one more winter '18/'19 out of them before I replace them in 2019. Still debating between 15", 16" or 17" wheels. Looking for better tire price and selection. I've pretty much settled on these tires: http://www.falkentire.com/tires/car-tires/ziex-ze950/s-tire I've been exceedingly satisfied with their tires I've had on other vehicles. They do tend to wear faster but that is the trade off for better grip. Since I don't drive that far if they don't last that many miles it's not that big of a deal for me as I'll probably get at least 4 if not 5+ years from them.

 

[campfamily]

Interesting....I have over 30,000 miles on my OEM tires, and I have at least 1/3 of the tread remaining. Agree with other posters that the traction isn't real good for acceleration (get some nice one wheel burnouts if you disable traction control!!), and the handling isn't stellar, but it isn't horrible. Can't speak for snow traction, I choose to live somewhere it doesn't snow!!

 

[Guest]

I bought a used 2013 last year with 10k on the clock. It had the original tires on it. The tread was like new. Unfortunately the sidewalls were dry rotted and were replaced by the dealer with non LRR tires. I had no problem with them at all. I understand the way the car burns rubber coming from a turn at a stop. Its the nature of the car. Unfortunately my car was soon sent to the dealer for a 2 month incarceration that continues, so I have not really been able to do any testing of the non LRR tires and mileage.

 

[triangles]

Agree with other posters that the traction isn't real good for acceleration (get some nice one wheel burnouts if you disable traction control!!)...

FYI those one wheel burnouts will eventually grenade your differential. Don't ask how I know this....

 

[amped]

I purchased my 2014 FFE in Jun 2016 with ~17.5k miles on what looked like the original tires with reasonable remaining tread (didn't measure precisely and don't remember the numbers now, but two had significantly more wear - probably spent >10k miles in front). Rotated at ~22k. @~24k, sustained some significant sidewall damage on one of the less worn tires (less worn pair= ~7.5-8 32nds in remaining; more worn pair=~5 32nds in). Partly because of the really crappy wet traction from the Energy Savers (in these parts we average >5ft of precipitation yearly), I decided to just replace all 4 tires. Ended up buying a set of Michelin Primacys on sale from Tire Rack. These are also Green X branded (supposedly relatively low rolling resistance) but have much better wet/dry traction IMO.

 

[user 5739]

FFE has 49:51 front-to-rear weight distribution.
Though that's good for handling, not so much for acceleration especially for front-wheel drive vehicle.