Michelin Pilot Super Sport Warranty
 

The OEM Bridgestone Potenzas on my '09 are pretty worn down, the rears more than the fronts as I approach the 18K mile point. The car is a daily driver with no track time and just occasional spirited mountain drives. I'm pretty disappointed with the tread life. I've got a couple of road trips planned and decided not to push my luck on them. So based upon the the good reviews here I ordered 4 new Michelin Pilot Super Sports today. I see that they have a rating of 300 AA vs. 140 AA for the Potenzas and come with a 30K treadwear warranty. Sounds good considering that they are high performance tires right ?
Until I read the warranty...
Since the front & rear tires are staggered size they can't be rotated according to Michelin's recommended schedule. So, they only give a 15K mile tread wear warranty for the rears ! I hope to god that is just a CYA statement and I can realistically expect at least 25K miles out of a new set. Good thing I only put 8-9K miles a year on the car.

I'd expect the PSS to last longer than the OEM Bridgestones, so I wouldn't be worried there.

Just keep in mind that all summer performance tires are going to have lower tread life than your typical all-season tire. 18k out of the OEM tires on the Z is pretty good. I got 18,500 out of mine or thereabouts. I was pleased.

FWIW, on my Mustang, Pirelli PZeros are the OEM tire and you are considered lucky if you can get 12-14k out of them.

You won't find a whole lot of high performance tire exceeding 20k miles, especially with a rwd sports car. 18k is about right for the bridgestones. Its always a compromise between grip/handling and thread life. Softer rubber will wear off a lot quicker than commonly used on all seasons. Go with all seasons if you care more about thread life than performance. You can't have both.

Yah, not sure wat ecnobox you were driving before but 18k is very good for performance tires on a performance car.

I got about 7k on my NSX rears and 14k on the fronts - if I didn't switch to all-seasons for the winter, I'd have been buying six new tires every year instead of averaging three.

I expect the 370Z to do better, but I still switch to all-season when its cold and I hope they last a very long time.

I've been driving since 1971 and have yet to own an econobox sonny. I know all about performance vs. treadwear. The point that you failed to grasp was that the Super Sports are very highly regarded for their performance characteristics yet are still given a 300 AA rating vs. 140 AA for the OEM Potenzas. So while I don't think their treadwear guarantee of 30K miles is realistic on my Z, if they only last as long as the Potenzas which were only slightly less money, there's not much of an advantage.

Treadwear ratings are not comparable across brands.

A 140 rating on the Potenza is not the equivalent of a 140 rating on a Michelin tire.

You can only use treadwear ratings to compare tires within the same brand.