How long do tires last?
 

What is the general rule when it comes to longevity of tires?
The Firebird has been in the shop for the last 3 years and I'm looking to put it back in action this weekend. The tires are Cooper Cobras. I don't see any bulging or dry rotting. They're probably 10 years ago.

Thoughts? Run em?!!

Sometimes tires will not show any dry rotting on the side walls, but they will be cracked in the tread area.

I know the Discount Tire Storess here will not even swap wheels on tires 8 years old.

Our Discount Tire stores will not touch tires now over 6 years old. And most tire shops only work on tires less than 10 years old.

If stored properly -off- the car, you should be fine. If they have been sitting on the car the past 3 years, they could have (temporary) flat spots. If chemicals or sun came in contact with them, I'd consider new tires.

I would not take a chance on 10 year old tires for anything other than a trip to the tire store.

I had a set of Dunlop GT Qualifier on my GTO, bought in '83..... in about 2015 I go into the garage and the tread peeled off and was lying on the floor. During this time, I never drove the car much at all, thankfully. Liked those tires a lot.

Moral of the story... 10 years is probably the most, especially for "normal" driving..... don't push it for any high speed stuff.

My motorcycle is getting a new set this coming season also....more than 10 years on it.

george

Compare cost of repairing a 1/4 panel that gets ruined from a blowout and cost of new tires.

And if old tires on a motorcycle, your life versus a $250 tire..... never do I ride with tires more than 3-4 years old.

Well, i've been lucky:

old tires on GTO were from 2005 and still on the car (new owner though), even sporting a bulge on 1 for about 15 years.

Lincoln TC #3; plugged a leak 3 years ago: now low tread and replaced the pair with new.
Lincoln TC #2: caught a construction nail this week: low tread and replaced the pair with new.

Kept the 4 old skins because no signs of cracking; gonna look for nice TC rims and mount em as "spares", then get new pairs when they toast. Thus begins ability for rotation of pairs.

I had BFG Radial TAS on my street driven TA forever. I was worried so last summer before I drove it to shows , I put new BFGs on. I asked shop to look at old tires ,didnt 'see' anything,they were flexible to get off. I looked closely at them inside and out no cracks. Sooo I dont know. I did chirp them couple a times going to tire shop. SSoo! I kept them. Now what? I think new tires are cheap insurance,wel maybe.

I put new skins all the way around my ‘71 and ‘63 last year. On my ‘71 GTO, the treads were still OK, and no dry rot, but after checking the DOT numbers, one pair was from the late 90’s, and the other just a couple years newer. I’m going to be racking the miles up on my vehicles now, so didn’t want to chance it with 20+ year old tires.

If your tires are lasting more than few years you need to be doing way more burnouts.

When I garage my two GTO's, I park them on old floor mats. That way they are not sitting directly on cement. Seems to help. Kind-of makes sense, which is scary!

7 years max for me, don’t care what they look like.


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Bought the car in 2004 tires were like brand new. BFG Raidial T/A's 15'' on Ralley 2's
Last sping I removed them to rotate and looked them over VERY closely no dry rot no cracks anywhere! Never felt a flat spot EVER!
Car is stored inside year round, never below 50 deg in winter never above 77 in the summer, while in garage.
Just sitting on the concrete doesnt move from time parked in fall to start up in sping.
Never driven on interstate, but I beat on the car pretty hard when I drive it!
I guess I should replce them but they seem fine!
Every sping I say I should replace them with ralley 1's and redlines, untill I price them and then say well maybe next year.

It has a lot to do with the climate you live in. When I lived in Ohio it wasn't uncommon to run tires for several years without issue, and I rarely ever saw blowouts on the side of the road. I really never worried about it. In fact nearly 30 years of driving out there and I never had a blowout.

Moved to Arizona, different deal. Had a few blowouts here already. Out here if you have tires that last more than 5-6 years you're lucky, and blowouts on the side of the road are a regular occurrence in the summer time here. Usually see 2-3 per week on the side of the highway.

I think with the 100+ temps, constant UV rays, and black top that's 150+ degrees it's just much harder on the tires. They just blow out without warning.
Had a front tire blowout on my truck at 70 mph that did $3200 damage and those prices were 10 years ago.

These days, for me it's just not worth the risk, especially on an expensive classic car. After 5-6 years they get replaced. In fact I have a couple cars now that I'm looking at putting new tires on just because of age.

Up to you guys if you want to roll the dice. I know Arizonan's will tell ya to replace the tires LOL

There is no "general rule" here as I'm sure you can see from the responses you're getting. Unless your tires are cracked, sidewalls, treads, just run them. I work in a tire center and have asked our seasoned staff this question. They pretty much tell me what I just said. I have 30+ year Firestone Wide Ovals on my GTO and they look great all around. Some of my club members tell me to replace them but no sir!! The car is hardly driven and kept in an insulated garage. Now my regular driven cars are a different story, and tires get replaced when the tread is worn.

Asking a question like this is like asking everyone what the best oil to use. Answers will be many and all over the place!! If you want to change tires that show little or no wear fine, that is your decision. But really all you're doing is enriching the tire companies!!

If you ask the "Tire Experts", that would be the pimple faced 17 year old with 2 weeks experience at a local tire store, they will tell you to replace your tires every 3 years. Why not? That's a $1000.00 sale with mounting, balancing, tax and disposal fees! Then , they can sell your 3 year old take-offs for another $300.00. Sounds like a cool business plan to me. Consumer Reports, who are generally very conservative with their recommendations wants tires replaced every 10 years, no matter what visual condition they are in. Replace sooner if any cracks in the tread root, or sidewalls. I feel comfortable with that recommendation and have been following it. Certain brands seem to crack much sooner than others. Michelin seem to be among the most expensive and crack the earliest. But they DO stand behind their product. Had a full set of 18" premium Michelin tires crack badly after only 3 years and 18K miles. All 4 cracked to the cord in the tread, and cracked on all the sidewalls as well. Michelin replaced 3 free and I had to buy 1 tire. Very fair, IMO.

Timely question since I just got new front tires for my car. The old ones were 7yrs old with tons of tread left but they were showing longitudinal cracks between the treads. 25 yr old me would have run them but 58 yr old me likes peace of mind not worrying about a blowout at the track or on the highway. The tires that came on my 20 Silverado (brand new) had to be replaced last year due to the same cracking that resulted in unfixable slow leaks. They don't make them like they used to.

You can't tell from the outside of the tires that the cords or belts are separating until after they do.

I had 4 Uniroyal Redline radials that only had 18,000 miles (average of 2,000 miles per year) on them. Car was always stored inside. Sidewalls and tread looked perfect. In 2004, coming back from a car show on the Interstate, started to feel a vibration coming from the rear. Slowed down, and it got worse, pulled over to see if anything was loose or obvious. Everything appeared normal. I was only about 1.5 miles from an exit, so drove on the shoulder at a slow speed - vibration got even worse.

Pulled off and parked in a hotel parking lot. Started looking underneath. Left rear shock was HOT, right shock not so much. Then my wife asked me what 'that' was. Crawled out from underneath to get to her vantage point and steel cords were sticking out through the sidewall. Jacked car up, replaced it with my never been on the car spare. Took a better look at the tire I pulled off and by that time there was a fist size bump in the tread surface.

Thought that I had a rare tire failure and with a fresh spare in place thought everything was fine. About 500 miles of driving later, I felt a vibration again. Looked real hard at the other 3 tires, but couldn't see any issues. Had a spare set of mounted tires - put them on - no vibration.

Rolled one of the suspect tires and noticed it twerk once every revolution at the same spot. Tried rolling the other 2 - same thing. All three had a very slight bulge in the tread.

Since then, I haven't exceeded 7 years on a set of tires.

You can do whatever you want, but please don't drive anywhere near me with old tires. I don't want to be the victim of your mistake.

ramAir IV: I would replace those 30 year old wide ovals. My 30+ Dunlops were still in nice shape visually, not a lot of miles on them, stored in a garage . tread peeled off one day, standing still.

George

I was similarly disappointed - had to replace tires on 2018 Silverado with only 20K miles. Same symptoms.

Depends on a lot of factors. Cheap walmart tires in Arizona, 3-4 years tops. Michelins in a mild climate and maintained well, likely 8 years if they don't wear out first. Usually I wear out a set of tires in 3-5 years.

I bought a set of Nexens for my 2004 Silverado.. After about 2 years I parked it with 20K on the tires. It sat for a year with light use, then my cousin borrowed the truck for 6 months when his car died. After 2 months of commuting, every tire shifted belts. All 4 had wires poking out of the sidewall! Letting tires sit seems to be really bad for them, especially cheaper brands. The truck previously had worn out multiple sets of Michelins, at about 60-80K miles a set. These Nexens didn't last 25K with easy use.

Even a garage queen should get tires every 10 years. My 54 Bel Air project is sitting on a set of 21 year old cheap tires, with very little mileage and been out of the sun. They hold air and are good for moving the car around. But the sidewall cracks are easy to see, and I wouldn't trust them over 20 mph. When that one gets restored, it's getting new tires.

10 year old tires that sat for 3 years? I'd only run them... on a kid's tire swing! I find that kids don't want a tire swing if the steel belts are poking them.

Tires last fifteen minutes, or fifteen years. Depends on how they're used.

The tire industry has some *insane* recommendations, clearly designed by product-liability lawyers not engineers.

1. Best tires on the rear, not the front (including wrong-wheel-drive cars where the rear tires do nothing but keep the back bumper from dragging on the pavement.
2. Tires need to be replaced after five (or ten) years regardless of condition.
3. Tire repairs need to be hyperexpensive, and must include the tire being removed from the wheel

The front wheels do all of the steering, most of the braking, and all of the forward propulsion on wrong-wheel drive cars. Best tires to the front, and beware of--but not paranoid of--oversteer on low-traction surfaces. I've run tires that are far older than ten years; my friend is running tires on his 2-ton work truck that are decades old. I've used the D-I-Y Safety-Seal "worms" to seal punctures, and they work just fine.

https://www.amazon.com/Safety-Seal-L...dp/B0080IJYVK?

Big surprise: The tire industry provides "recommendations" that are self-serving, high-profit, and prey on motorist ignorance; while being "defensible" in court especially if the jury is uneducated in motor-vehicle dynamics. I have an unproven suspicion that modern rubber compounds--in particular from the bottom-feeder import brands--are deliberately designed to degrade so the consumer has to perpetually buy more new tires. This applies to tires, to windshield-wiper blades, and rubber products in general.

Here's NHTSA's stance on the subject:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...q&opi=89978449


If you don't want to read it, it states manufacturers suggest max age in the 6-10 year range. My personal tires I go no more than 5-7 years old, but rarely do they wear that long in my use. And I don't care what they look like.

Rubber breaks down over time and can compromise the construction/structure of a tire. The older they are, the more risk there is. Manufacturers know the construction and type of compound used, and probably are well aware of what the limits are. It's not an exact science, there can be tolerance variations during production.

I've been on 2 power tours, and the number of people who had tire issues were the number 1 cause of people dropping out. I see people on the side of the road all the time with flats etc on the way to the beach, not just collector cars. Those people usually only drive around town, short periods of highway use.

Even at 45mph, when a tire comes apart, you can lose control. Even if you maintain control, if it separates, it will beat your fender/quarter to a pulp.

Classic cars are not cheap anymore, even in 'restorable' condition they are generally over 20-25k. Many are attached to their' cars because of how long they've owned them.

If you know the risk, and you accept it, then it's up to you if you replace them or not, there's no law that says you have to. But if something happens, there's no one else to blame but yourself.


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The state of Maryland requires a safety inspection for all cars registered in the state at the time of title transfer- it’s a one time occurrence. They measure brake linings, ball joint wear, windshield, tire tread, etc. It’s one of the most comprehensive inspections I’ve seen. While tire condition is checked, interestingly enough tire age is not on the list. With the litigious society today, this really surprises me considering the date codes are easily found and how vulnerable we are driving on old tires that look perfect but may blowout at any moment.

My BFG Sport Comp II's needed replacing at 7 years due to tread delamination. They had about 60% of their useable tread life remaining.

Depending on how the tires have been used and stored anywhere from 6-10 years is probably your window of replacement, even if there is good tread showing.

You just have to ask yourself is it worth the risk of tearing up the car or worse case crashing at speed? If your car is trapping 100 mph -not too hard-and you have a blow out

Kind of like trailers. I used to borrow a buddy's utility trailer for my car to go racing until one day hit some grooved pavement that got it swinging and barely could slow it down to stop. A 42K dedicated car trailer was worth it not to crash!

Definitely not enough burnouts on these. I know the pics don't indicate the condition of the tire ... but I'm gonna run them for now

This thread reminded me of Jay Leno's piece in Hagerty from over the summer:

https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinio...ut-1200-tires/

Indeed, a number of factors come into play with how long tires may last (quality, exposure to UV, driving habits, general road conditions, climate, storage, care, etc.).

In 2005, I purchased a set of Diamondback radials for my '63 Bonneville. The car was in the shop at the time for a frame swap, and stayed there, out of the sun and off the road, until this past November. These tires look and feel like brand new. Surely, the rubber itself has aged somewhat, but not to the extent it would have had the car been driven (at all) or left standing outside in the daytime exposed to UV. (So far, they have a grand total of about 150 miles on them.)

My daily driver is a 2006 Cadillac STS-V. These cars came from the factory with Pirelli run flats which everyone hated. When I got my car in 2021, it already had Continental Extreme Contacts on it. These are amazingly soft riding tires (not run flats) with excellent grip and handling characteristics. However, I've had to replace every tire on the car for various reasons, despite them all being relatively new when I got the car (sidewall separation, sidewall damage from a nail - yeah, just past the tread line - etc.). I'm in the northeast, so winter weather is a factor. I keep them inflated to about 36psi (air, not nitrogen, so they do expand and contract). I don't expect these tires to last 5 years, even if I were to reduce the miles I put on the car every year.

In short, any of these "tire life guidelines" are simply that: guidelines. Every model of tire is different, every car is different, every road is different, batches of tires are different, UV exposure differs...there are just so many factors to consider that at some point, personal preference and experience has to be taken into consideration.

I will be driving on my Diamondbacks on the Bonneville to Arkansas from New York this year, and I have no concerns about the drive. (Prior to this set of tires from 2005, my Sears GR78-14's dated back to about 1977, and served me well - LOL.)

My rule - 6 years max for daily drivers, trucks, trailers.

How long do tires last
 

Very timely post since I’m looking at 4 cars that have tires approaching 10 years. I get very paranoid imagining all the carnage that a tire failure can create, but the cost of replacing four sets of radial redlines at once is damn intimidating! Maybe I’ll have to take 3 out of circulation until I can address them one at a time

Rear tires on any of the musclecars I've owned don't last but a few hundred miles. I was lucky to get 50-60 runs out of a set of Mickey Thompson Drag Radials when I switched to those for rear tires. So I never had to worry about dry rotting or having problems with them do to the age.......:D

I think it was mentioned earlier about the safety regulations or tire companies not touching tires older than 5-7 years, thats more for liability concerns than actual age. Kind of like how some say braided hose needs to be replaced after 5 years, i have & know of lots of cars with braided hose thats 10+ years old that still works fine with no fuel seepage or leaks. Or the 3000 mile oil change, very rarely does oil go "bad" after just 3000 miles in a healthy engine, the oil companies want you to buy more oil. Lots of things do that, home washer hose replaced in 3-5 years? There are millions of houses with 10-15+ year old washer hose. yes anything can happen but just like lots of things, the odds are very low that any item will fail when the manufacturer or safety people say they will.

I have tires on some of my cars that are 10 years old but look great with no signs of cracking, belt slippage etc, they all get stored for 4-6 months a year in winter & never have flat spots, usually BFG T/A or firestone indy 500.... but then again I dont daily drive these cars & rarely if ever spend any real time on the interstate at 70+ mph, they are city drivers or back country roads. If i planned a long trip or drag strip use they would get changed or use different tires dedicated for the purpose.

However, the reality is that there are millions of tires that are easily 6-8-10+ years old on the road and catastrophic tire failures are very rare statistically speaking. While I agree its good advice & you should definitely inspect or monitor your tires when they get that old, but its not an automatic thing to change tires if they have decent tread & in good condition after 5 years. If anyone is doing that on 60+% tread 5 year old BFG's or other name brand tires, I will take them & pay for shipping. Lots of burnouts left in them. ;)

I just replaced the tires on the judge project, they were 7 years old and had less than 1000 miles on them, looked perfect. I should have kept them for anyone who wants to take chances.

My bird project has been sitting for 20 years, has a never driven on set of Nitto 555s. It's in paint jail right now, ready to be sprayed. When that comes back home, I will have a set of tires for those people who are 'braver' than I.

Watch my build thread in the 70-73 section for when that happens, and PM me.

(I will try to limit my posts when I've been drinking!)


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On the way to get an ice cream, let it blow. lol I got a spare nos rim
And if it blows at Dream Cruise, more people will get to see your car in the traffic jam. Jam.

If age was not an issue, some track day events would not have limits like tires can not be over -3- years old.

If you value your car and your life, get fresh tires. Silly to run any tires that are considered by most as old because you think they still "look" good.

The bonding of the rubber to the steel belting is what does modern tires in. When the bond starts to be compromised is when the parts inside start delaminating from each other.

The Firestone debacle years ago was said to be due too the fact that the materials that the steel belting were made from, were stored outside. Rust started on the steel cords, and that made the bond of the rubber to steel was compromised from the beginning. No one can look inside of a tire after manufacturing to see if the steel to rubber bond is compromised, so there is no way that eyeballing the outside of a tire can determine if the core parts are breaking down. This is the reason that some people can run tires for 15 years without incident, and others fail internally at 5 years.

Radial tires are much more suseptible to belt failure than bias ply tires are, due to the angle the belts are in relationship of each other. The belt angle is also the reason that the old bias ply tires could have sidewall punctures repaired, and radials can't have sidewall repairs. The fact that radial belts don't criss cross in the sidewalls, makes the sidewall rip from the bead to the treads, ending the life of he tire.

That's how I understand the reasons given by manufacturers for radial tire failures, YMMV.

I mentioned I would take 5 year old tires... not 20.

Never had a track day at my local track limit tires to 3 years old... in fact at tech, they dont even look at tires dates for street/strip type cars, not sure about the faster big tire cars or NHRA funny car/dragster events.

Good info, thanks!

All the comments in this thread make sense to me, and I used to do the math to predict product failures. Fortunately, I never worked on stuff like tires where people could die if I was wrong.

The biggest mess with this stuff is the variation in time to failure across ALL tires a manufacturer ships is HUGE. For a tire, it would not surprise me that 1% will fall apart before 5 years and 1% would survive well past 20 yrs. Predicting the life for any single tire on any car in any climate with any driver, etc. is not going to happen as you have all discussed.

So yes, the probability for early failure may be low, but the consequences of a failure are what matters when either you or a manufacturer makes decisions about tire life.

A manufacturer is going to protect itself and set a line in the sand that may seem WAY conservative for most of us... but we aren't the ones getting sued if someone gets injured or worse.

I think the biggest takeaway for me is that internal tire failures are not always visible. Cracking on the outside is obvious, delamination or material degradation on the inside isn't.

And some of the new tires I've bought cracked in only a few years, which is frustrating considering their cost.

Gee, after reading this thread, thinking about buying a lottery ticket!

Bought new performance (non-Pontiac) in 1979.

One tire destroyed by debris in a parking lot in 1995.

Replaced the entire set to maintain tire diameter.

STILL using the car, AND the 1995 tires.

Of course, my feeling is that if the word "Michelin" is not on the sidewall, it probably isn't a tire.

Last blow-out was about 35 years ago on a used pickup that I had just purchased.

Been driving since 1962, that was the only blow-out; did have a couple of tires develop knots before I refused to buy anything but Michelins.

Jon

Any thoughts on Coker reproductive Firestone Wide Ovals ? I recall reading old time bias ply tires held up good over time, but wear quick vs radials. Not sure about these "special" tires. I like the old school look of these, but for half the price can get Cooper Cobras or BFG TA's. Putting on 1000-2000 miles a year, may feel better wearing out the bias vs tossing radials with thread left.

My current Firestone Firehawks are 2000 vintage, so they got to go.

Michelin says 10 years max, anything after that you are on your own.

https://www.michelinman.com/auto/aut...ar%20indicator.

That is the longest I've seen any tire company list as an age limit. Maybe they are superior materials and construction?


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The 10 year recommendation illustrates how subjective this is as there is no disclaimer that it only applies to Michelin tires

I doubt they would make recommendations for others' tires but is some truth there.

You heat a tire up for a smoky burnout, and it doesn't matter what any manufacturers' recommendation is, it's all out the window.

It really boils down to what risks you are willing to take, and how much you have to lose. If it's a rat-rod with minimal investment or uber-rich you would be more likely to take that risk.

Ask yourself, in that whatever fraction of risk ever knocks on your door, and it's a total loss, how would you feel?

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I doubt very many people actually change their tires after 5 years or 6-8, on a classic car that sees ~1000-1500 miles/year & sits in a garage or covered 90% of the time. 5k-8k miles and 60-70% tread remaining with no cracking or slipped belt issues does not warrant replacement IMO for the vast majority of people that own these types of cars going to dairy queen or car shows.
Not many people spend $800-1000+ on 4 tires every 5-8 years. Again, let me know when you are throwing away or actually paying a dollar or 2 each to have a shop dispose of 5-6 year old tires in good shape, I will take them! ;)

Any age tire can blow out, have seen & heard of newer tires doing that too. Ive been a passenger in a car that blew a tire on the interstate back in the mid 1990's doing 60-65mph, was a junky mid 70's nova with rusty quarters/fenders... guy wasnt a car guy or experienced driver at all, it jerked the steering wheel some and got a little squirrely but no damage to the cars body nor was it ever close to losing control... every situation is different & everything you do in life has risks, changing out tires in good condition that are used at lower speeds every 5 years is not something I do or lose sleep over.

Another thing that applies here that nobody mentioned, just like many failures of engines or transmissions etc, is from... USER ERROR or negligence. Ive seen so many cars driving around with severely underinflated tires, or over inflated, or the owner didnt notice that their tire of any age is worn unevenly from bad alignment or worn shocks, had a bulge, etc etc, cant blame the tire for that. Same for engines, you cant really blame the engine itself for spinning a bearing because a guy put 2 gallons of ATF in the engine... or ran it off mt everest runnin shine! Point is there are way too many variables related to a tires condition or failure than some arbitrary date.
I check my tires inflation regularly as well as inspect them visibly and dont do things they arent designed to do, like 130 mph runs on city streets to test the max speed of the cam... or long high speed interstate use or racing on older tires.

I also know of one of the nicest lowest mile T/As out there (~5000 miles) thats actually driven that still has the original goodyear polysteel radials on it, guy drives it occasionally around town and to car shows etc, tires look like new still... so much for 5 years old, how about 45+ years?

Michelin makes/owns quite a few tire brands so their recommendation could be for more than 1 tire, they also own/make BFG tires now and BFG warrants them for 6 years, not sure if they suggest a maximum time limit though.

I am one of those people.

I also have had a belt separate on the Interstate while driving home from a car show because of old tires that still had 80% of their tread left.

I didn't know back then that tires degrade sitting on the rack at the tire store, much less being driven.

I drive 2 - 3,000 miles per year. I did get 4,500 miles on the GTO one year. The GTO has had 5 sets of tires since I started driving it in 1994.

With all the money we have in our toy cars, if a person can't justify putting aside $100 - 150.00 per year for tires to insure your own safety, they should sell their car now.

I'll have two sets of tires to sell next year if you're buying. GTO tires are Continental DWS 06's - 215/55/17 front and 245/50/17 rear. Camaro tires are Continental Extreme Contact's - 235/45/17 front and 275/40/17 rear.

Bias ply tires are not steel belted, and don't explode and come apart like steel belted radials do. They can blow out, but tend to cause no damage to the car. I've run 45+ year old bias ply tires on cars in the past with no issues. And 20+ year old Goodyear ST radials. The new steel belted radials are not the same quality rubber used in the past due to the Green Agenda, and deteriorate much quicker. So, I would be inclined to run older bias ply tires with no worry as long as they were not degraded, but it's a tougher call with steel belted radials. I have a friend who is running 74 year old Wards Riversides on his '26 Ford, but it never sees over 40 mph.

Three days ago I had a customer bring me a set of 1984 Corvette wheels with original tires on them. April, 1984 was the date code on them. Goodyear Gatorbacks. The rubber was extremely hard and the tires were very difficult to dismount. Had some light cracking in the sidewalls but no visible cracks in the tread roots. Tires had 11,000 miles on the. He wanted the tires back to sell with the car when it goes up for sale soon.

When I was young (late 50s, early 60s) it wasn't at all uncommon to see bias ply tires that were all weather checked on a street driven car, likely at least 20 years old. Tire companies were still using some latex based compounds in them at the time of manufacture. Firestone had on the sidewalls of some of their tires, "Gum Dipped", so they were still using some natural latex compounds in the rubber.

There is a huge difference between how well that rubber stood up, as compared to todays green, cheap overseas, synthetic rubber. All you need to do is compare how old weather stripping, and windshield wiper blades hold up now, as compared to 20-30 years ago.

It was also addressed as to whether Michelin used better materials in their tires. As long as I've been around cars Michelin has always made a premium product, but along with the better materials, engineering, and labor, they do get a premium price for their product.

When I worked as a road service mechanic on construction site equipent, the company I worked for would replace the OEM tires with Michelin on all the service trucks. I knew it was costing them a premium for the better tires, so I asked the owner why he insisted on Michelin. He explained since we dealt in service what he might lose in not being able to handle a service call due to a tire failure of a cheaper brand might cost, and the customer him many times in down time, over what the difference in tire prices was. When you have 20 bricklayers, and laborers standing around because of a machine breakdown, it gets expensive real quick. His philosophy was overall the mileage we got out of better tires, plus downtime, more than made up for the premium price of the Michelin tires. An example of penny wise, and pound foolish.

My Continentals are 12 years old. Always aired up, summer driven, garaged. Can't believe I have 80K on them and pretty fair tread.
We'll see what the next year holds.