Hi,

Back in the day when I worked an hour from home my IROC was a daily driver three seasons out of the year on a nice day. Now that I work out of my home or at client sites, I just don't have a chance to drive her like I used to. Tires are now 15 years old and showing signs of dry rot. I replaced the front end steering components last year and will do the rear trailing arms and panhard bar soon, maybe early Spring. Its time to think about new tires even though the current ones only have about 12k on them. The wear pattern is not good and car wanders when on grooved roads because tires may be hard (they are all season).

I've read a lot of the opinions here for summer and all-seasons, but I wanted to ask for your opinion for cars only driven in good weather and maybe a few hundred of miles a year (I hope with the new rear suspension and tires she can be a daily driver), any thoughts for tires that can last over time with New Jersey winters (she is parked outside as I don't have a garage). This is not a decision between summer and all-season, but more of a question of brands or specific models known for their long-term durability to not dry rot or get flat spots.

If basically all tires are the same with respect to long-life over time awesome, please let me know. I just have no baseline to know.

I'm not going to the track. She is a fun cruiser and will be driven as a passenger car with t-tops off by an old dude who clearly owns her.

Thanks.

 

If you look at the DOT number on the tire, the last 4 digits will be the MM/YY of manufacture. Keep in mind that may not be the same as purchase date, although it should be close. ....I've always heard about 8 years, give or take, regardless of mileage. ...and even sitting in your garage on a rack, they age. My BFG's have less than 20k miles, are wearing PERFECTLY, .....and at 9 years old are showing signs of gettin' hard.

 

I replaced mine this past spring, Looked perfect at a slight distance, but up close they were badly weather checked/cracked in the base of the tread grooves. You are wise to replace yours. I went with BFG Sport Comp2 tires. There is a summer and an all season version. Very happy with them so far. All the BFG tires I have owned seemed to hold up well.

 

5-6 yrs old is usually the cutoff for tires, good call looking for replacements. Depends how you want to drive it. You can get a tire like the comp 2 which will be highest performance at stock sizes. If you just use it to cruise around town then an alternate tire at the best price would be more than good enough.

 

Edit: wrong thread.

 

I have 4 vehicles (and 3 trailers,) where the tires will "age out" before they wear out. The cutoff for me is 7-8 years.
Those tires should have been gone a long time ago. Dangerous, IMO.