Does it depend on whether your car is front, rear or all wheel drive? Does it matter what sort of tyre you have? What about the rim size? The answer is none of these things. The tyre that will wear the quickest (in the UK) is your passenger, near side rear tyre. Not everyone knows this simple fact but the reasons why are pretty simple.
Firstly, your front wheels hit the surface and kick up road debris. This could include grit, but also small metal shavings, loose stones etc. When this debris is kicked up it shoots off in the direction of your rear tyre, which then churn it up. Naturally this has an impact on the level of wear.
Secondly, as we drive on the left in the UK, road camber gradients are not in favour of the near side tyres. What this means in practice is that when a road is built the mid section is straightest whilst the section nearest the verge/curb/hard shoulder rolls off slightly to allow rain water to slough away. This will result in more tyre wear to the wall of the rear especially.
Rubbing against curbs, contact with any road debris and other mishaps also tend to occur to the poor rear tyres when reversing. This clearly isn’t an issue when you’re driving forward as you can change direction or deliberately avoid anything that could cause a mishap!
A rear wheel drive car with a lot of power can chew up a set of rear tyres pretty well. A front wheel drive car with a front engine and plenty of power will do the same to the fronts especially as this is the steering axle too. Our advice to avoid any problems? Regular checking of your tyres along with a rotation pattern every 5,000 miles. This should ensure that tyres wear evenly and last as long as possible.
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