At 9955 miles today I had the front end aligned. They had to do a toe adjustment. I didn't get a print out but they said they would mail a copy to me. They did cover this under warranty but I expressed my displeasure that this was not caught when they (the dealership) rotated the tires at 5000 miles. It's obviously was out of alignment since delivery.

My car did not pull or shimmy.

I told the dealer the tires were cupping and needed alignment. The lady that handles the customers came out and told my wife that cupping was usually caused bu underpressure or out of balance tires and was not sure it would be covered by warranty. I drove to the garage and when they were done she came out to me and said it wasn't "cupping" it was "feathering". I said OK, feathering is what happens before it gets deep enough to be called cupping. I'm guessing by 15,000 miles the tires would have been ruined.

For you completely non-tech types: You need to carefully rub your hands softly over the inside and outside edges of your tire tread to make sure the wear is even and smooth. If it is "feathering" you'll feel the areas about every inch or so where the tread is deeper and rises, sort of like a wave all around the circumference of the outer or inner edges of the tire tread.

If VWGasGuy measures his tread depth, it would give a better indication on the life expectancy of these tires.

OK Nash, I'm sure you're not really wanting to call me "VW" instead of "WV" GasGuy.

I don't have a tire depth gage but I'll try to figure out if I can measure it somehow. A lot of my milage is on grooved concrete roads rather than blacktop and that probably affects the wear drastically.

Using a "rough" estimate by measuring with a piece of plastic and comparing it to a yard stick with 1/8" increments, I'm guessing at 10,000 miles I still have 9/32 of tread in the middle. I'll continue to look for something better to measure with.

It will be interesting too to see if the tread wears consistantly throughout the full depth. I don't have to worry about weather and hardening of the rubber because I'll be lucky to get more than a year the way I'm racking up milage.

WV (not VW!).. Got $2?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...48136?n=228013

OK, I'm not tight, just frugal. Never really saw the need in owning one of these as most cars I've had I traded before they needed tires. The exception being my 350Z that went through tires at 15,000 and the Infiniti FX that got 25,000 miles.

I'll look for one at the auto parts store this weekend

As I just passed 35K miles I wanted to post an update on how the tires are wearing. All four are wearing evenly, measuring a hair over 5/32 on the inner grooves and just over 4/32 on the outer grooves. The tire noise has increased noticably and is a bit annoying on some roads.

I'll most likely be replacing these between 40K and 45K miles. I've been looking at replacement LRR tires and so far am considering Pirelli P4 Four Seasons, Yokohama AVID TRZ, and the Michelin Energy MXV4. If anyone has suggestions or opinions let me know.

I have had two of those tires on my cars over the past few years (but not on a TCH)

I have had the Michelin MX4 Energy on another late model sedan, and they were good tires. Not sure about "road noise" issue - most tires (of similar style) sound the same to me. I got 40K miles on mine, and could have gone longer (10-15K easy) - I just don't like going over 40K on the same set of tires.

I've had AVIDs before; they were okay, but seems to wear faster and more likely to get punctures. (This is obviously a very scattered thing; ex. I had 3 punctures, but my Michelin's had 1). The tires was still fine after the patch and ran okay.

If I had to rank them, I would go Michelin, Pirelli, and Yohohama, in that order. But I think the are all probably decent tires, esp. if you are replacing at 45K.

I had Pirelli P4's on my wife's Forester on the last round (currently Michelin Energys). I ran them at 40/38 and checked them weekly. They only lasted about 42,000 miles before I started having a problem keeping them in balance. I think their compound is somewhat softer that some of the other manufacturers. They seemed to wear a little unevenly, and I am not referring to accross the tread wear, but radial wear. I had to re-balance them at each oil change interval (3000).

No complaints with the Energys. I have them on both the TCH and the Forester now. 16K on the TCH and 7K on the Forester with no appreciable wear differences accross the tread and less than 3/32 of tread loss on the TCH.

It is the ignorant among us that will eventually destroy us all.

I put the Yokohamas on my 2002 Camry and was very pleased with them until my wife got into a wreck and totaled it. They seemed to wear very well and had a good ride and handled well.

I will consider them for my TCH when the time comes.

I have the Michelins MXV4 and they seem to be wearing evenly and i had them rotated at 4900 mi. They now have 8400 on them and still seem to be wearing ok. It did sound as though you might have an alignment issue with the cupping. Seems like you have solved the problem though.