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Tire Life 19 vs 21

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We have all been debating the advantages and disadvantages of the tire choices. I just want to know about tire life expectancy of both. If this is my everyday car, I don't want to be getting new tires all the time. It's not about cost but about time. I don't want to trade time getting oil changes with time at the tire store. I also saw somewhere that the continental tires has some sort of duel life where they are good on rain and dry roads and later just dry roads. If that is true, I cannot waste my time with them. I look forward to hearing from everyone.

Thoughts please?
 
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We have all been debating the advantages and disadvantages of the tire choices. I just want to know about tire life expectancy of both. If this is my everyday car, I don't want to be getting new tires all the time. It's not about cost but about time. I don't want to trade time getting oil changes with time at the tire store.

Every tire has a treadwear index in the UTQG. A tire with 500 should last five times as long as a tire with 100, and a tire with 50 will last half as long. Standard car tires are typically between 500 and 700 these days.

I also saw somewhere that the continental tires has some sort of duel life where they are good on rain and dry roads and later just dry roads.

Every tire made has a point at which wet performance becomes poor (in a few tires that happens when they are new). Some tires, mostly European and Japanese, have a treadwear indicator that tells you when you have reached this point--this is a good thing in my opinion. Same thing with snow tires. The European and Japanese tires have a snow tire wear bar. The only difference between tires that have the indicator and those that don't is the information given to the driver. Ignorance isn't bliss in the case of tires with low tread depth and driving in the rain. It's nice of the tire manufacturer to tell you this (of course, they mostly do it because in Europe and Japan it's the law.)
 
I haven't looked them up, but they should be readily available at either the tire manufacturer's web site (most authoritative) or any online tire seller such as tirerack.com (most convenient but once in a while out of date).
 
Not as much difference as I was thinking. Okay so with ordinary driving how many miles should I expect. I am not a high performance driver.

You can come very close by doing this:

1. Look at the UTQG markings on your current tire.

2. Figure out how many miles they are giving you.

3. Divide the new tires UTQG value by your current tires UTQG value.

4. Muliply the number from step 2 by the number in step 3.

Example (values are for ease of calculation and do not represent any particular tire):

Current tire UTQG 600

50,000 miles before they are mostly worn out

400 (new UTQG) / 600 = 0.667

50000*0.667 = 33,350 expected miles on new tires.
 
Not as much difference as I was thinking. Okay so with ordinary driving how many miles should I expect. I am not a high performance driver.

It sounds to me like you'd be happier with the 19" wheels. There are many more tires to choose from and they are all season tires instead of max performance summer tires. Good luck.
 
Last Question ( I really appreciate all the answers), I check my tires on my Fusion Hybrid and they are Michelin Enery MXV4 S* with a "tread wear of 440." Is that the number to which people have referred? If so, I got about 45000 on them before I change them out for the same tire. If that's the number I would get similar life from the Goodyears and more than I thought from the continental's.
 
That's the same number. The important thing is to get a tread depth gauge and to check your tires every month. Once it starts to get below 4/32 inch (according to tirerack.com at least) wet weather traction starts to decrease. 45,000 miles is a really long time to have tires on so that's good if you were able to get that much and still have enough tread depth. The tire compound and how the car is driven seem to be the biggest factors.
Tire Tech Information - When Should I Replace My Tires?

You have to remember that you may be tempted to gun the Model S a little more than the Fusion so that might affect tread wear.
 
That's the same number. The important thing is to get a tread depth gauge and to check your tires every month. Once it starts to get below 4/32 inch (according to tirerack.com at least) wet weather traction starts to decrease. 45,000 miles is a really long time to have tires on so that's good if you were able to get that much and still have enough tread depth. The tire compound and how the car is driven seem to be the biggest factors.
Tire Tech Information - When Should I Replace My Tires?

You have to remember that you may be tempted to gun the Model S a little more than the Fusion so that might affect tread wear.

Great point. The Fusion is not exactly a performance car. I love it but I drive it for mileage. Thanks again everyone. I appreciate it very much.