GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Well, after much trepidation, I finally replaced my tires. I wanted to try and get a better ride and someone here recommended the Continentals. They are harder to find than Hens Teeth! I had to go on-line to get them from tire buyer but I really like the grip and they are somewhat softer than the OEM (Goodyear) rubber so that part was right on track.

Funny thing I had 49000 miles on the OEM Goodyears and they still had plenty of tread left but the side walls (Only on the inside) were crumbling and bulging so I really needed to change them. Even the installers wondered why I was getting new tires until they took the old one's off. The sidewalls just disintegrated. They were however 6 year old tires. Is this situation common?

Yes, 6 years is the general end of a tire's lifespan. If you don't drive on the tires often, it will be shorter because driving lets them stay lubricated from solutions mixed into the compounds they're made from. I'm not 100% sure about that last part, as I read it on a tire dealer's site, but it sounds legit to me.

Also, I feel like you'd have to try pretty hard to do worse than those GY Eagle RS-As that the cars come with.

After so many years (not so much the mileage) some tires rubber will break down & dryrot. I found this out on my '92 F-150 when I had a blowout in 2006 Only 42000 miles on them at that point but the "old age" took it's toll on them. This is probably true on almost every tire out there

We just replaced a set of 7 year old Kumhos... They were just now getting down to the wear bars (the car doesn't get a lot of miles on it.) The sidewalls had been getting more and more cracked as the years progressed, they were pretty nasty at the end.

I think some tire shops won't even touch a set of tires past a certain age for rotations and such.