Long lasting Pirellis?

[prm]

I've read on here a few times that people reckon Pirelli tyres are soft and wear out quickly, also that the rears are shot after about 10-12,000 miles, but i have to say my Rosso's on my E280cdi Sport have so far lasted 26,000 miles and the rears still have a good 4-6k left on them. Strangely the front nearside is almost down to the depth markers whereas the front offside still has loads of tread, think its to do with the road camber as they are all wearing very evenly. Your thoughts

 

[Ted]

I remember many years ago having a conversation with a guy about the handling on the Fiat X1/9. My view was that the handling with Pirelli (Cinturatos IIRC) was incredible in the dry, but terrible in the wet.
His view was that it was great handling in both wet and dry.
In the end he concluded that the car I drove must have had Italian Pirellis with a harder compound (as the car was new), and the car he drove were the same tyre, made in the UK with a softer compound.
Don't know how true it was, but is it possible that the same applies to you?

 

[harveyn]

I have found Pirells to be very good also. I have had three 211 series Estates and have found that the the rears normally last longer than the fronts, I get typically 20,000 from the rears and 30,000 from the fronts. I suspect your tracking is out if the front is wearing out like that.

 

[clk270]

I'd say your experience is far from typical, but driving style and the type of roads will have a big influence - plenty of constnt speed motorway miles will extend tyre life considerably compared to lots of stop/start, twitsy road and roundabout use.

I had two colleagues with 911s, who both got through rear (295/30/18) PZero Rossos in 5-6k miles - they did drive quite hard at times, but nothing daft in terms of wheel spinning. They swapped to Michelins and got 15-16k miles. I've seen other people get equally low mileages from PZeros on rather mundane FWD cars too. I think there is a lot of variation in Pirelli compounds and wear rates, perhaps they've taken note and improved things int he last year or so.

 

[tpwuk]

PZero Nero's are pretty good. I used to have them on a 3 litre Jaguar X-Type. Went through 2 sets of them in 4 years (25K miles)

 

[prm]

I have found Pirells to be very good also. I have had three 211 series Estates and have found that the the rears normally last longer than the fronts, I get typically 20,000 from the rears and 30,000 from the fronts. I suspect your tracking is out if the front is wearing out like that.

Don't think the tracking is out, because the shoulder hasn't worn at all. Its an even wear across the tread. I'm on the motorway 70% of the time ( why they're lasting so well i guess ) and i've noticed i have to very slightly keep the pressure on the steering wheel to stop it following the camber of the road, also noticed the rear n/s is very slightly worn more than the o/s. Can only put this down to road camber/ weight of car laying into camber more that side. Maybe if i drove abroad for a few thou it might balance out

 

[prm]

I remember many years ago having a conversation with a guy about the handling on the Fiat X1/9. My view was that the handling with Pirelli (Cinturatos IIRC) was incredible in the dry, but terrible in the wet.
His view was that it was great handling in both wet and dry.
In the end he concluded that the car I drove must have had Italian Pirellis with a harder compound (as the car was new), and the car he drove were the same tyre, made in the UK with a softer compound.
Don't know how true it was, but is it possible that the same applies to you?

I bought the car last year with 19k on it. The dealer fitted new tyres all round as the originals had worn out. I don't know what was on originally. The rears on mine are MO but not on the front

 

[Cen]

I remember many years ago having a conversation with a guy about the handling on the Fiat X1/9. My view was that the handling with Pirelli (Cinturatos IIRC) was incredible in the dry, but terrible in the wet.
His view was that it was great handling in both wet and dry.
In the end he concluded that the car I drove must have had Italian Pirellis with a harder compound (as the car was new), and the car he drove were the same tyre, made in the UK with a softer compound.
Don't know how true it was, but is it possible that the same applies to you?

Like yourself Ted I noticed a quite substantial difference to tyres being supplied or manufactured elsewhere. The original tyres on my SLK fitted at the factory Michelin Pilot's lasted 32,000 miles and still had a little left on them when I changed them. I replaced like for like and the have covered 15000 miles with very little left on them.

Speaking with a tyre dealer he stressed that the European market appears to have the same tyres made in a harder compound of rubber whereas, the UK get a much softer compound hence less wear.

The same occured with my front brake pads lasting 30000 and still had wear left in them however, the replacements genuine Mercedes had to be changed at 15000.

I think another case of rip off the Brits

 

[Deadhead]

The Continentals that my C220 estate came with as new lasted barely 12,000 miles, but the Pirellis I bought to replace them went for twice as long.

The Michelins that my current E220 came with are still going strong after 27,000.

Just my 2d worth. As usual. and this time really, YMMV.

 

[Apial]

I bought a set of Scorpion ATRs for the l200 to replace the oem Bridgestone rubbish (245/65/17). The Bridgestones were worn out at 15k miles. I have now done another 35kmiles and I have had to replace the front tyres as the tracking was slightly off causing the edge to wear. I put the rears onto the front and they look like they will last another 5-10k miles.

I do very little motorway work, most of the journeys are on A roads and unclassified roads.

 

[prm]

Thanks all for your input.

 

[harveyn]

Or maybe go in reverse everywhere!

 

[harveyn]

Or maybe go in reverse everywhere!

Maybe if i drove abroad for a few thou it might balance out