Swift VXI - Normal Life of Tires - Buying Good Replacement Tires

I have Swift VXI car with stock tyres, Tornado from JK tires

1. What is the normal life of the tyres?
2. Which are the good tires to be replaced with? (Some say Michelin and some Bridgestone and some Goodyear). My car clocked 15000 kms and tire condition till now is very good.

Normal Life of Tires

Though the life of tires depends on various aspects, I will not start defining what and how things affect the mileage. Generally, stock tires or OEM as people call them have a general service life of approximately 50000 to 60000 km. Tyres like S drive from Yokohama or Pilot Preceda2 from Michelin, being high performance tires, thread tread compound is made of silica and is soft for better grip, so the life is little less, i.e., 40000 ti 450000 km as their sole purpose is excellent grip and not long life, but if maintained properly they also can clock good mileage. My friend’s first set of Pilot Preceda finished in 37000 km but the upgraded version Pilot Preceda 2 in his next Swift clocked 61000 km before asking for a replacement.

Also, people have different way of calculating a tire’s life. Some people do not change the tire unless it loses all its tread, so for them their tire may serve up to 70000 km, but frankly speaking the ideal time for tire replacement is when the tire wear indicator meets the tread groove depth, so you must know it is time to change tires. Every tire has a wear indicator in it which is a little embossed line in the tyre which is lower than the groove. When the groove in the tire comes at the level of that wear indicator embossing (same height), its time for a change as tire may serve you still further, but it may be give up in emergency braking and could be prone to frequent punctures.

Buying Good Replacement Tires

First of all make sure you want to stick to original 14 inches rim or want to upgrade to 15 inches? What are your performance requirements? If you feel you will be happy with some more grip than stock tyres but don’t want a real performance tire, then you can upgrade to 185/70/R14 size and the good choices will be Yokohama A drive, Michelin XM1+. If you need even higher performing tyres and want the best of grip and don’t mind paying little extra, then you can buy and upgrade to 195/60/R14 and your option is Michelin Pilot Preceda. If you want to upgrade further, then the most practical size of tire would be 205/55/R15 and you can buy Michelin PP 2, Goodyear Eagle F1, GSD3, or Yoko S drive.