Hello, I'm currently in the final stages of buying a used '05 S from a private party. The current tires are the oem RE050 set with about 1/4"-1/8" of tread remaining. I am wondering if someone could tell me about how much life I can safely expect from this set of tires? I'm concerned because I have never actually owned a set of summer tires before - nor have I previously owned a rwd car. Taking this into consideration (as well as the countless s2k accident threads I've read on this site) I figure it can't hurt to be too careful when it comes to something like this. I'd really appreciate any advice/ feedback anyone has to offer. Thanks for your time!

 

It really depends on your driving. Not everyone gets the same tread life from the same tires. You really just need to check them and be sure to monitor the inner sides on the rears as they will wear faster.

 

Takeshi is right, the insides of the rear tires will wear faster, so make sure that you look at that. From a safety standpoint, as this is your first RWD car, it might be a good idea to just get a set of 4 new tires. Especially if they are to original tires. RE 050s are expensive, and in my opinion, you can get better tires for less money.

 

The tires have wear bars. Where is the tread depth relative to the wear bars? A worn summer tire will really bite you in the butt most quickly on a wet road. What seemed like a perfectly good tire at 80 deg on a sunny day will not have the tread depth to deal with heavy rain or small amounts of standing water. That's when you can hydroplane or lose traction cornering. Even VSA can't help if the tire is floating on water. Slowing down will help but I'd rather not worry about it. I replace tires just before I hit the wear bars.

 

1/4" is a lot. 8/32 is practically full tread.
1/8 = 4/32 5-10k miles maybe? depends on your driving and aligment. like someone mentioned, check the entire width of the tire, not just the mieasily visible parts.

 

if you have a chance measure them with a tread depth gauge and go by 32nds. New treads are 10/32nds, you should ditch the tires by 2/32nds. Rear tires wear out much faster on this car as compared to the fronts and you can't rotate them f-r. You should also be more conservative with tread depth on the rear tires of this car, hitting standing water with worn out rear tires can send you into a dangerous spin, recently experienced by one of members who just posted about it.