E350 - Rear Tires
#3
Yes and no
I did not like the bad weather, particularly snow (I have a cabin I frequent in North Arizona), performance of the Pirellis so I went with Continental DWS. I reduced air pressure to the minimum recommended 36 pounds to see if that might give me a little more even wear. Bad weather traction on the tires was excellent. However, they wore out after 10K with the center at 3/32 and the inside and outside edges at 5/32. This really baffles me because the wear pattern would indicate over-inflation but that is definitely not the case. I check my tire pressure in the morning at least every 4 weeks. I've checked my gauge and it is within 1 lb of other garage measurements and the car's tire pressure display.
In any event, I had my car aligned but the specs were not dramatically off. I am now trying Michelin Pilot Sport A/S.
I looked at Tire Rack reviews and about 10% complained of fast center wear on the DWS and most claimed they monitored tire pressure so it was not over-inflation. Also, the most recent listing of Consumer Reports has the DWS wearing out faster than average. However, my son has been using them on His Hyundai Tiburon and gets 25K+.
Something similar happened to me a few years ago on my Audi TT. I bought some Bridgestone tires and the fronts were shot in 10K when I normally got 25K (I've owned TTs for 15 years now). Again, about 25% of the customer reviews on Tire Rack complained of rapid wear. However, an equal number were bragging about getting 40K+????
This huge wear disparity among users really perplexes me. I check Tire Rack before I buy and I swear that I had not seen near as many rapid wear complaints on the tires that wore out on me. The only thing that makes sense to me is a change, or error, in the rubber formulation on some production batches at the factory.