Low Miles on Low Tires
 

I stopped by a Goodyear store today. Mainly to have a peek at my gf's car since I don't trust these guys but, I asked about pricing on tires and stuff. He said since it is a low profile tire (a 50 series), you'd be lucky to get 30k miles out of any tire. I've never heard that. You won't get over 30k miles out of any tire that is a 50 series tire? Also, he said the RSA is a performance tire and 20k miles is good for them. The RSA is a performance tire?
What the...?

Tires
 

Arb,

He is being honest with you. I just took the bad years off of my 2007 s touring M3. They were the origional oem tires and had 21,400 miles. Rotated everu 6-7,000m miles. Wear was even on all of the tires. They were down to 3/32 on each, so I changed to Discount tire Yhokomoa YK520's which are rated 60,000 miles and if I get 40-45,000 I would be happy. They are the all season tires. Check em out when you need tires.

Well, he's being partially truthful, in a self-serving manner that is.

What's true:

• The crappy Eagle RS-As are lucky to see much more than 20,000 mile regardless of the car they're mounted on and how they're driven.
• Goodyear intended for the RS-As to be a performance tire.

What's a fabrication:

• Goodyear Eagle RS-As are a performance tire (they're actually a poor excuse for performance tires at a high-end performance tire price).
• All 50 series (or lower) tires are only good for no more than 30,000 miles (there are plenty of low profile tires that are not only good for more miles than that, they even carry a Treadlife Warranty).

FWIW #1: I've gotten over 50,000 miles on three different sets of 50 series (or lower) tires over the years.

FWIW #2: One of my former cars used the fairly popular 225/45 R17 tire size, and on Tire Rack I find the following tires that carry a Treadlife Warranty of at least 45,000 miles:

• Michelin Pilot Sport A/S (45,000 miles)
• Bridgestone Turanza Serenity (45,000 miles)
• Goodyear GT-HR (50,000 miles)
• Bridgestone Potenza G 019 Grid (50,000 miles)
• Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum (60,000 miles)
• Michelin Primacy MXV4 (60,000 miles)

The next time you're in that shop you might thank the guy for showing his true colors and tell him that you'll be shopping for tires elsewhere from here on in.

Just another reason why I don't trust this guy.
I didn't know they would consider that RSA a performance tire. I just figured it was a cheap OEM tire.

Federals vs. Nankang
 

Which one would ya choose? I know a person that knows a person that can give me a good price...$280.00 for the federals and $240.00 for the nankang, installed/balanced.

I wasn't aware that Nankang and Federal made tires (other than winter tires) in the 205/50 R17 size. Which models are you looking at?

they are actually for other cars.

Look for treadwear ratings - I had Toyo Proxes FZ4 (rating 300) that I got 42,000 miles out of (and could have run them longer if not for going into winter)

Higher number means higher mileage (harder tire compound), lower number is a softer/stickier tire that will wear quicker but yield better handling.