The rears are actually worn smooth, well below the minimum tread depth. They become somewhat unsafe as a matter of road hazards ... Punctures and such when they're so thin. Never mind the odd fix-it ticket for driving on worn-out tires if a peace officer wants to brighten your day. I just haven't been watching as carefully as I usually do. Too many other things taking up my attention.
As to the price, well, these are differentially sized, low profile, high speed sporty car tires (for '00 Mercedes SLK230 K). They run a little over $100 per tire, add shipping, mount and balance, old tire disposal fee, surtax, sales tax, and four wheel alignment inspection .... The cost will total between $690 and $760 by the time the job is done. The tires that have just worn out were Continental ExtremeContact DW 205/55ZR16 91W-225/50ZR16 92W "Max Performance-Summer" tires. They are rated for 25000 mile lifespan on this weight car; I eked 30,000 out of them. Sticky and lovely on warm and wet roads, pretty dicey on frozen tarmac though. Unfortunately, I hunted around and the rears are out of stock everywhere at present. So I'm giving the Goodyear Sport All-Season V-rated (same sizes) a shot this round. Tread pattern looks similar, they're rated for a bit more mileage (30-35K miles), and feedback on them from other SLK230 owners seems positive. Ride quality is rated in the same ballpark, noise a bit quieter, etc. On the numbers and specs, they're a toss-up. They're about $20 more than the Contis, which if I can get another 5-10K out of them is another toss up. Fun fun fun ... ;-) G On May 23, 2016, at 12:08 PM, Ken Waller <[email protected]> wrote: > Godfrey, tire tread depth at the wear bar doesn't necessarily mean they need > to be replaced. If the wear is even across the tread and you you're not > anticipating significant rain they can still be safely driven on awhile > longer. If these were mine, here in Michigan I'd probably drive them thru the > summer but replace them as winter approaches. > A trade off of low tread depth is better adhesion, all other things equal. > However tire noise is worse >> The tires? Ach, I was expecting to do them this year anyway, just taken a >> little by surprise by the rapidity of their decline. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
