Morning all. I got the front tyres on my Skoda Octavia 1.4 TFSI estate replaced in May last year with some Michelin Pilot Sport 3 tyres. After only 13 months and 12,000 distinctly average miles they need replacing. With the exception of a month or two of heavy motorway driving, the car has been mostly used for urban commuting and family duties. I am by no means an aggressive driver and I don’t think I’ve even got close to a wheel spin in my life.

Is this sort of tyre wear normal? Have I got a leg to stand on if I go back to Kwikfit and complain? It cost £260 to buy, fit and redo the tracking and I could really do without having to pay that every year.

Any recommendations for decent hard wearing tyres?

TQ.

Certainly not out of the ordinary mileage for some tyres including those.

I would have expected those tyres to wear that quickly given they are Michelin Sports. Being ‘sports’ they will be slightly softer to give the grip.

Do you keep on top of tyre pressure as that can also lead to accelerated wear?

Also, if you got Kwik Fit to adjust your tracking, I would check how they have worn. If they messed up the tracking, then that would also ruin the wear.

Quickfit

There’s the problem, find somewhere else that is competent..

Urban commuting is harder on tyres than the couple of months on the motorway. It’s the braking, accelerating, cornering that wears them.

Yep, I check pressure fairly regularly – twice a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. The wear seems fairly even across the width of the tyre which I presume means that the tracking is ok.

Anyone got any recommendations for decent hard wearing tyres that don’t cost a fortune?

There is a theory that OEM tyres supplied with new cars wear quicker. I have no idea if it’s true though.

Recommendations – I’ve got some Avon’s on my van which are lasting incredibibly well, so much so I put a couple on the front of the car. Not done enough miles to really see how the car does, but perhaps someone else can comment on the brand’s general longevity.

12,000 for front tyres on a front wheel drive car is fairly normal. Plenty of taxi drivers I know would be happy with that 😀
It’s your car and you’ve got to be happy with what tyres you fit. But over the years I’ve found little difference with premium and budget tyres for around town driving. I pay £40 a corner for mine an extra £15 for tracking. Fronts last 14,000 rears 25,000 ish.

Go to the Black Circles website and choose tyres based on criteria such as grip, noise, durability and price

Edit – and the mileage sounds sort of OK for some tyres

Before you buy, have a look on mytyres dot co dot uk. The Avons I’ve bought from there seem to do ok.

(edit) I believe that ultra-grippy surfacing used on nasty bends eats tyres. I ease off early, then go gently on it.

I wore out the first set of tyres on my Impreza in 8000!

Kuhmo sport ecstas here done probably 12k tops and they’re ready. On the front of a 2.2 smoker though so a heavy engine.
And no offence but wtf would you use kwikfit?

It is their performance tyre, think Primacy is their long lasting economical one.

Both of my M3s (E30 & E36 so a few years ago) were hard on their tyres, I once managed to kill the rears on the E36 in 6,000 miles although that did include 2 track days!

My 2.0 Tdci C-Max, oh how family life changes certain things, last about 12,000 – 14,000 or so miles on Mitchelns although I don’t go for the ‘sport’ versions.

12k is a little low but not much for Michelin Pilot sports, if they are wearing evenly then that shows the suspension geometry is probably okay.

Back when I had a Lotus Exige and did a few track days if I got more than 3k miles out a pair of rears I was doing well.

A few people have mentioned Avon tyres, I would recommend them as well, they make a great track type tyre in the ZZR with good wear rates for a track tyre, I’ve been running ZZ5’s on the daily drivers for the last few years and the wear is great for a good performing tyre, the price is also very good.

6000 miles from a Vectra GSi – An awful car but chosen for being the fastest car on the company car list.

Used to drive Newcastle to Preston daily via Alston……hence only 6k from the front set.

I think timber has hit the nail on the head the primacy is the ones to use for longevity (I got 30,000 from michelins on a fwd citroen c5)

Gosh that is high. Just had my MOT and had an advisory on 1 tyre and check the walls on the other 3. Have done 25,000 miles albeit over 4 years. Bridestones and its a Golf.

Michelins are normally a longer lasting tyre and one that grips well as the wear approaches the limit hence why they are worth the premium over other brands but my experience might be the Primacy.

If you have a costco near you then it might be worth joining for the tyres as they do Michelin.

I guess even though it’s only a 1.4 it has a good burst of low down torque due to the turbo which contributes to tyre wear.

Check out tyre reviews but stick with a decent brand. Continentals might be worth a look, or Nokian.

23000 miles on my original tyres and got 3mm still on fronts…apparently oem tyres lasts much longer than replacement tyres so when they go I’ll expect about 12k from the next lot.

Vredestein Ultra Sessanta on the Civic. Fronts were changed at recent MOT after ~17,000 miles and the rears have now been on there for coming up 20k miles. I reckon there’s a good 5k left in them yet. Not bad for half the price of similar Michelin/Pirelli tyres.

I find Camskill the cheapest for tires, and local garage fits them for £5 a corner.

I’m a big Michelin fan. In my opinion, they’re generally more expensive, but seem to last better than most whilst offering good grip in both wet and dry conditions. The fact that the tyres are wearing evenly suggest the geometry is probably ok. Personally, I’d just suck it up, you’re transporting your nearest and dearest and the only contact with the road are those four little patches of rubber.
Having said that, tyre wear seems very car dependent. My A3 2.0 TDI ate fronts every 12,000 miles whereas I sold myTT3.2, with the original tyres at 32,000 miles, still more than 4 MM of tread. I am Miss Daisy, I claim my £5?!

FWD cars fronts are the worst as they do everything. Got 30k out of my tyres on a high performance rwd car, in fact they where replaced due to age not wear.

There’s the problem, find somewhere else that is competent..

Stupid comment of the day 🙄

The type of driving op does wears tyres quickest. 12k miles around town is a lot. Lots of steering at slow speed wears tyres.

🙄 yeah Quickfit have such a good rep..

12k miles out of a set of michelin sports sounds good to me, I’ve always used them on my MK2 Golf GTI on badly chipsealed rural roads rounds galloway and used to change them when they dropped to 2mm tread which was on average every 6k to 8k miles.

If you want to fit decent hard wearing tyres then be prepared to lose grip and expect to light the front tyres up when leaving greasy junctions etc.

I got around that from my SMax when new, got the geo checked and it was a bit out. It was adjusted and that has improved tyre wear now.

I tried Michelin Primacy but was not impressed. I found them to wear quicker and didn’t feel as nice as Goodyear Efficient Grips – and they were more expensive.

I’d agree the life is down to urban driving and tyre choice. On my Octavia 1.4 hatchback the original Bridgestones lasted around 32k miles. My driving has a lot of motorway and A roads though. They were changed when the fronts were down to 2mm. The rears still had plenty tread though I swapped all 4 as I went for Goodyear all seasons.

I wouldn’t recommend Bridgestones though. The Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons are far quieter, have better grip in the wet summer and winter, and were better in the snow than a 4 wheel drive Octavia Scout on summer tyres. Too soon to know their life but with about 7k on them the fronts have 6mm tread and the rears 7mm. So hopefully if I swap the fronts and rears at the next service I’ll get 15-20k from the set.

To elaborate on the Quickfit comment, after the stories I’ve heard and the things I’ve personally seen I wouldn’t go near em,
I was there when they disconnected my mates clutch cable doing a job on the ramp then when they finished they just pushed it off the ramp and just left it on the road outside then denied going near the clutch and told him it must have just failed by coincidence…
Also being told I needed new discs and pads the day after fitting new discs and pads..
Also behind assured they use the correct spec oil and then not using the correct spec oil..
Mates car handed back with finger tight wheelnuts, (lucky he checked)
And on and on..
Anything done by them I’d get checked now..

Recommendations – I’ve got some Avon’s on my van which are lasting incredibibly well, so much so I put a couple on the front of the car. Not done enough miles to really see how the car does, but perhaps someone else can comment on the brand’s general longevity.

I had Avons on The Mighty Vectra. Good for 25000+ miles. Got Pirellis on the SMax, they are still OK after 30k.

I’m not a “boy racer” though.

Our Focus is still on its original tyres, Michellin Primacy’s. Its done 15k & I’d say they are nowhere near half worn yet.
I get at least 12k out of the fronts on my Galaxy & that’s a 1800kg, 130hp TDi that pulls a 1500kg caravan a good few times a year. I’ve only ever use budgets on that too.

And ditto Khani’s comments on Quickshit.
I don’t doubt they have some good, conscientious fitters, but I’ve been given some right load of twaddle from them over the years.

I use tyreshopper these days. Price wise they were cheapest by a mile. Had them fitted at a National Tyres depot & to be fair to them, they seemed an ok bunch. Wasn’t given any Quickshit type flannel, & neither was anyone who called in while I was waiting. They even let me buy 2 extra for the rear online & phoned tyreseller for the ok to fit them.

I got about 13k miles from the Kumhos on my Accord Tourer.

My Civic just about managed 7-8k on the front, not driven like a complete loon either.

urban commuting and family duties.

I got close to 30k out of the last set of fronts on a fwd car but do very little urban driving
A big contributor to wear on the fronts can be low speed manoeuvring- power steering can get people into bad habits of turning the wheels while the car is stationary during stuff like parallel parking. If you learned to drive in cars without PAS you’re usually better disciplined at doing your turning while the wheels are rolling.

Great, thanks for the comments guys. Plenty to think about there.

@TrekEX8: completely agree about sucking it up, scrimping on tyres is not what I’m looking to do, but if I could get some that perform as well but last a little longer that would be good!

What reason did they give for needing replacing? if it was tread depth that would have been easy to check, i find it highly unlikely that all 4 tyres needed replacing due to lack of tread. Did they show you the tyres?

12k is really good for pilot sports, only got 8k out of mine.
+1 for black circles.
If you want longevity look for fuel saving / economy tyres,they use a harder compound. Grip isn’t quite as good, but if you are pootling round town you dont need a tyre designed for ripping down b roads.

12,000 for front tyres on a front wheel drive car is fairly normal.

Really? Jeeeezus…..!
I’ve never had under 20,000 miles and I expect nearer 30,000. I’m get in 12,000 miles out of a pair of motorbike tyres these days!

I always find it hard to believe, but my Defender has done 112,000 miles on its current set of tyres. It’s only driven on the road, so I don’t need to replace them as frequently as the tyres on an off-road vehicle. I’ll replace them before the winter even though it looks like they’ll still be legal.

As stated, Pilotsports grip phenomenally well (possibly one reason why you’re not getting wheelspin) but do wear quickly.

I prefer grippier tyres and change my tyres at 3mm, so 12k miles is okay in my book.

Goodyear EfficientGrip tyres seem to last for ever and have low noise and rolling resistance. Cheap too.

@skids: no one has told me they need replacing, just doing the normal checks on a vehicle and you can see they are down to the wear indicators.

Fair enough if 12k is reasonable for some Pilot 3’s. I certainly can’t fault the performance, they’ve never felt anything less than firmly stuck to the ground at all times! They’ve just worn a bit quicker than I was expecting!