Wow, how time flies. We got home from our Colorado trip last night and surprisingly, our tires were a bigger issue on the way home than while in Colorado. After inquiring about tires pre-trip in November, I opted to not replace the stock tires on our Subaru Outback as they only had 15k on them and the season was not looking too stormy at the time. My thought was to wear these out thru the fall and then put new quality tires on before next year's trip. The poorly rated OEM tires did ok thru the trip and we had them rotated at 18,000 miles (rotated every 6,000) in Silverthorne at which time all 4 looked similar and the subi dealer told us they were a little beyond half life. We left Denver and by the time we got to KC the rear tires were in bad shape and then by the time we got to Atlanta I was nervous that they'd even make it home. The front tires were fine but the rears were completely bald on the outside and then severely worn on the rest of the tire. I took the car to the dealer today thinking something in the suspension was bad but they said everything was fine and the tires were barely out of alignment. the tires were also properly inflated.
Now obviously we were loaded up on our trip with 7 pairs of skis in the ski box and a ton of gear in the back so it appears the alignment changes drastically between empty and loaded but the strange thing is we did not buy a single thing in Colorado so the weight and loading on the trip back was the same as the trip there and we had no signs of abnormal wear on the way to Colorado. Could it be that the suspension components settled in to this now 9 month old vehicle to where being weighted down had more of an effect? Or could the rubber compound have changed after being in the cold environment for 2 months? I just can't wrap my head around how the tires wore well for 18,000 miles and then shredded in the last 3,000.
While at the dealer today I googled rear tire wear Subaru outback and found a ton of posts about people having the same problem with their rear tires wearing out really fast with the most wear on the outside just like mine. As if I didn't regret buying this Subaru already, I'm now going to have to deal with a car that eats tires every 1.5-2 years (assuming quality tires do better than the OEMs that we got 9 months out of).
So in addition to advice on tire performance, I'm now even more interested in advice in tire longevity and also which companies will most likely warranty the tires when they wear out at half of the 70,000 tread warranty (if we go with the Michelin Defender LTX). I spent a while on the phone with several companies including tire rack and they all said that the tire companies do everything they can to avoid honoring the warranties. They said that Michelin will only honor it if all 4 tires are worn equally and that each tire has even wear across the tread so I don't see how we'd ever have a warranty case with our Subaru. I so regret not going 4wd where I could just shut if off for the 10 months we are in Florida and NC and then engage it when necessary. Now, were we loaded down for the trip? Yes, but Subaru markets their cars where in every pic they are loaded up with toys to enjoy the outdoors so why would they design the suspension to be so fragile that using our Kuat bike rack with 4 full suspension bikes and a couple of kayaks on top would throw the alignment so far off that is shreds the tires? The amount of weight in the car with my wife, 9 and 13 y/o plus all the ski gear could not have been more than the Subaru ads where 4-5 grown men are out in the wilderness with all of their toys and gear.
So 2]we are leaning towards the Michelin Defenders but my concern is that buying them now, they will be well worn by the time we get to next ski season and our plan is to put a lot more miles on next year with the Ikon pass, road tripping from Colorado, Utah, Wy, Montana, and Cali. As much as I'd hate to lose a fortune on this car, I'm considering selling this POS and getting a real vehicle. Sorry for the rant but we already hated this car before we left Colorado and this tire issue just pushed us over the edge. The reason I'm so frustrated is I just got back from the dealer and had thought for sure they were going to find something wrong with the vehicle that could have been repaired but evidently, they just aren't designed for road trips (in spite of all of their marketing). End of rant........