Tires always worn at 25-30K---any ideas??

LOL!!!!

 

Solution, dont buy that tire brand even in your life, get a cheap tire with 600 tread wear rating, all oher tire with 60,000 miles are marketing BS, look for tire with treat wear rating not less that 600

 

I inflate to 42/40. I ditch my tires well before the legal limit simply because I drive in the rain on rutted roads with puddles in the ruts and the tread depth makes a world of difference in stopping distance and handling. I've bought nothing but Michelin's for the last 40 years for all of our cars because of the consistent quality and wear I've received. My OEM supplied tires were also Michelin. I ditched them at around 35k simply due to age, they had plenty of tread depth left. And the v is heavier than your hatchback.

I've posted this before but...

The difference between a new tire and one worn down to 2/32 (legal limit in many states) in a test on a water soaked surface was an almost doubling of stopping distance! 4/32 deep tires took about 50% longer to stop than new tires.

New - 195 feet

4/32 - 290 feet

2/32 - 378 feet

Even more startling to me is that on a 2/32 tire, in stopping tests in the wet from 70MPH the new tire would have stopped the car where the worn tire would only have slowed the car to 55MPH!!!! 4/32 would only have slowed the car to 45!!!!

They don't cite skidpad tests but the same issues that affect stopping distance would affect your staying on the road as you round the curve in the very wet. The tire needs the depth in order to evacuate the water beneath the tread and get the tire "rubber" into contact with the pavement. If it rides up on the water, it is like driving on ball bearings. I recall driving behind a car once and seeing it hit a puddle just as it came to a bridge and then going off like a pinball bouncing off the sides of the bridge. When I stopped, sure enough balding tires.

Depth does matter in the wet.