Whats the expected life for the OEM tires?

Yea, I was pretty disappointed with the Yokohama tires and the mileage that I got. Others on here in cooler climates seemed to be able to get higher mileage. Do you live in an area with a hot climate? That may explain the low mileage.

The Yoko's were good for mpg but were also a harder ride and much noisier than the Michelin Primacy MXV4's that I replaced them with. I gave up about 4-5 mpg for the better ride.

 

Thanks for your reporting B. Really insightful and helped a lot. I also like Costco tire deals. Can't beat them. CR

 

Our Yoko A20s aged out (6 years) and showed sidewall cracking (potholes) before they ever showed wear bars.

 

Our v came with the Bridgestone Turanzas (I forget the exact model). I replaced them at about 40k. They could have gone another few thousand but we were moving into snow season and I wanted something better for the winter. They never did well in snow and were getting to be quite low tread.

 

At 6+ years you are entering the time when age compromises tires as much as wear. And trying to take tires down to the legal limit is fine in the dry but downright dangerous in the wet.

Measuring Tread Depth
Measure in 3 places across the width of the tire. The lowest depth is the one you use in comparing tread depth.

You can find the original tread depth in the "specs" area for each tire at Tire Rack. Their site has videos showing how you can measure using a coin and what the recommended tread depths are and how they affect handling. Or you can buy a "professional" tread-depth gauge from most auto parts stores for around $3.

You could read their tests or I'll cheat and just give you the results. The difference between a new tire and one worn down to 2/32 (legal limit in many states) in a test on a water soaked surface was an almost doubling of stopping distance! 4/32 deep tires took about 50% longer to stop than new tires.

New - 195 feet

4/32 - 290 feet

2/32 - 378 feet

Even more startling to me is that on a 2/32 tire, in stopping tests in the wet from 70MPH the new tire would have stopped the car where the worn tire would only have slowed the car to 55MPH!!!! 4/32 would only have slowed the car to 45!!!!

They don't cite skidpad tests but the same issues that affect stopping distance would affect your staying on the road as you round the curve in the very wet. The tire needs the depth in order to evacuate the water beneath the tread and get the tire "rubber" into contact with the pavement. If it rides up on the water, it is like driving on ball bearings. I recall driving behind a car once and seeing it hit a puddle just as it came to a bridge and then going off like a pinball bouncing off the sides of the bridge. When I stopped, sure enough balding tires.

Depth does matter in the wet.