Tires that survive Phoenix heat at 30k a year, what are you actually running

treadwear is a number the tire company assigns to its own tire, graded against its own reference tire, on a government test course. a 560 from one brand and a 560 from another are not the same promise, and none of it is a warranty against the sun. the mileage warranty in the paperwork is the only number anyone has to honor and it is prorated, which means you get a coupon.

what you actually buy on in arizona is age and compound. the date code is the last four digits in the oval on the sidewall, week and year, so 2524 is the 25th week of 2024. buy nothing older than a year. then plan on four years whatever the tread looks like, because the rubber dries out from the inside and the cracks you saw are that, not wear. the manufacturers are not shy about it, michelin publishes their own guidance on inspection and age at michelinman.com and so does everyone else.

two cheap things that matter more than the brand. set your pressure cold in the morning to what the door sticker says and leave it alone, do not let it out when it reads high in the afternoon, that is the tire doing its job. and rotate every oil change, 5,000ish, because a front driver scrubs the fronts off and then you have two tires with a date code a year newer than the others.

we get arizona trade ins in charlotte all the time. the paint is dead, the dash is cracked, the tires have tread and belong in a dumpster. it is the one regional thing i can spot from the parking lot.

one number for you from my own log, since the mpg side never comes up in tire threads. my camry came with a low rolling resistance tire. i replaced it with a touring tire in the same size that everybody said was quieter. over the eight tanks after the change, same commute, same season, i averaged 1.9 mpg less than the eight tanks before it. that is real and it is about 90 a year for me.

at 30,000 miles a year it would cost you more than that. not telling you to buy the hard quiet ones, just do not let anybody tell you the tire does not matter, it is the second biggest lever on fuel after your right foot.

numbers from june, different climate but same question about what a set costs. 235/45R18 on the camry, four michelin crossclimate2, 882 out the door at a shop on wilmington pike with mount, balance and the disposal, plus 100 for the road hazard certificates which i took because i drive i-75 past a construction zone twice a day.

worth knowing if you are shopping a car and not just tires: the SE trim has 18s and the LE has 17s, and the same tire in the 17 inch size was 610 for four. that is a 270 difference every three or four years for wheels that look slightly better in the parking lot. i did not think about it when i was picking a car and i should have.

opposite coast of the same problem. i have never worn a tire out from sun in my life. mine die from tread in february and from potholes on the 198 in march. a set lasts me five seasons and the car usually rusts out before the second set does.

the one thing that crosses over is the date code. a shop here tried to sell me a set that was three years old off the back wall at a discount. three year old tires are fine in a warehouse and they are fine on my car, and they are not fine on yours, which is the part the counter guy did not know.

mississippi is a different kind of hard on tires. heat plus chip seal roads that are basically a cheese grater. i buy whatever 60,000 mile tire is on sale, get about 40,000 out of it, and i have made my peace with that because i put 35,000 a year on the car and nothing lasts anyway.

what i do take seriously is the spare. check yours. mine was at 14 psi for who knows how long and i found out on the shoulder of 49 at ten at night.