[svp6]

I just looked at one of the new Fisker youtube clips here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxG5vJNswTE

At ~26 sec mark the tires turn and you can see how badly the external part looks like. I presume these cars have only few thousand miles, even performance tires should last much longer.

I did a zoomed up view ,not sure how I can post it, but looks pretty bad

Maybe people who drive the demos in the future can comment?

 

[marswill]

I know it's not exactly the same tire but the October issue of Consumer Reports listed the tread life of the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric as"poor" whereas the Michelin Pilot Super Sport in the same category had it's tread life listed as "Very Good". Both tires had dry breaking and handling listed as "Excellent" with the Michelin being a little better in wet breaking and the Goodyear being a little better in wet handling.

 

[Dutch]

These cars have already done well over 15,000 miles, if I remember correctly from a report a few weeks ago. Those were not average miles, those were miles in the hands of hundreds of enthusiastic people trying maximum acceleration, braking and curve velocity, as well as a lot of city traffic. So this kind of wearing under a-typical circumstances doesn't surprise me.

 

[svp6]

These cars have already done well over 15,000 miles, if I remember correctly from a report a few weeks ago. Those were not average miles, those were miles in the hands of hundreds of enthusiastic people trying maximum acceleration, braking and curve velocity, as well as a lot of city traffic. So this kind of wearing under a-typical circumstances doesn't surprise me.

15000 miles is more in line with the wear seen. You would imagine though that Fisker can spring for couple tire sets for the 2 cars they show around...

 

[svp6]

I actually got to drive the Fisker today. Both cars had around 5,600 miles, and on both the exterior part of the front tires was competely bald. The rear tires still had a tiny thread left, but are long past replacement stage. Even if you factor in aggressive driving (which honestly is hard to achieve since the acceleration is not neck-braking), the finding is concerning. I have been lurking on other performance car forums and I see most would say 8-10k for performance tires - which was my own experience with SLK summer tires. This may be an important cost at ~$400 a pop.... Hopefully other brands will start manufacturing that size too

Edit: Actually 6500 mi (sorry, my Alzheimer acts out) - checked the pictures I took. The white car had 6558 mi on odometer when I started

 

[Dutch]

In September Hokiebird wrote that one of the test cars had 13,000 miles (he wasn't sure though). That would have explained the wearing. If it's just 5,000-6,000 miles, then that is really bad.

 

[Fabulist]

In September Hokiebird wrote that one of the test cars had 13,000 miles (he wasn't sure though). That would have explained the wearing. If it's just 5,000-6,000 miles, then that is really bad.

Preproduction tyres?

--Fab

 

[MArkansas]

I know it's not exactly the same tire but the October issue of Consumer Reports listed the tread life of the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric as"poor" whereas the Michelin Pilot Super Sport in the same category had it's tread life listed as "Very Good". Both tires had dry breaking and handling listed as "Excellent" with the Michelin being a little better in wet breaking and the Goodyear being a little better in wet handling.

Does Michelin make tires that fit the Karma?

 

[marswill]

I know it's not exactly the same tire but the October issue of Consumer Reports listed the tread life of the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric as"poor" whereas the Michelin Pilot Super Sport in the same category had it's tread life listed as "Very Good". Both tires had dry breaking and handling listed as "Excellent" with the Michelin being a little better in wet breaking and the Goodyear being a little better in wet handling.

Does Michelin make tires that fit the Karma?

As far as I can tell Michelin doesn't currently make tires that fit the Karma. Too bad as I tend to be partial to that brand. I have had very good luck with Michelin's and have them on my other three cars. It looks like Yokohama has tires that fit and according to the reviews, the people that have used them like them. Of course nobody's put them on a Karma yet as far as I know. Check out "Tire Rack".

 

[MArkansas]

I know it's not exactly the same tire but the October issue of Consumer Reports listed the tread life of the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric as"poor" whereas the Michelin Pilot Super Sport in the same category had it's tread life listed as "Very Good". Both tires had dry breaking and handling listed as "Excellent" with the Michelin being a little better in wet breaking and the Goodyear being a little better in wet handling.

Does Michelin make tires that fit the Karma?

As far as I can tell Michelin doesn't currently make tires that fit the Karma. Too bad as I tend to be partial to that brand. I have had very good luck with Michelin's and have them on my other three cars. It looks like Yokohama has tires that fit and according to the reviews, the people that have used them like them. Of course nobody's put them on a Karma yet as far as I know. Check out "Tire Rack".

Dito. Thanks.

 

[DHarris]

For what its worth the Goodyear tires that are OEM for the Karma are specifically designed for the Karma . Not just the size but the rubber compound that is utilized. If you have questions about your tires please call our customer service team at 855-575-7577.

David Harris
Fisker Automotive

 

[metalica23]

For what its worth the Goodyear tires that are OEM for the Karma are specifically designed for the Karma . Not just the size but the rubber compound that is utilized. If you have questions about your tires please call our customer service team at 855-575-7577.

David Harris
Fisker Automotive

Specifically designed to wear out completely by 6,500 miles?

 

[brian]

I really would like to know what they're rated for. Most of the Goodyear Eagle F1 tires are theoretically good for 15k miles, but these are special, so some info would be helpful.

-Brian

 

[msajidkhan]

Are the front tires smaller than the back tires ? If that's the case , I guess tires rotation do not happen ?

 

[P90XMC2]

that's right, no rotation, replacing the whole 4 is recommended.

 

[FAChassis]

Tire Wear

You can rotate front left to front right, the tires are asymmetric but not directional.

As well, rear left to rear right rotation is possible.

Check your overall wear relative to the attached guidelines.

 

[Antonin]

Question to FAChassis - it seems to me that on summer tires the outside edges of the tire get worn out rather quickly. Could this be camber problem setting on the car? I believe that initial camber is at 0 degrees - I have adjusted that to -1 degree on the front and -0,5 degree on the rear on winter tires and wear looks fairly even. Was Karma's camber designed for straight roads? It looks that with 0 camber setting in the corners the camber changes rather dramatically to positive camber and outside edges of the tires suffer.

 

[steven]

I just recently replaced my tires at 16,000 miles. Within the first two months of purchase the outside edges wore smooth. The dealer informed me this is normal. My overall mileage confirms he was right.

 

[Lormax]

Yes, the outer edge being worn quickly is normal and the design of the tire. I have the Fisker bulletin addressing this available for email if anyone wants it. Just PM me your email address.

 

[FAChassis]

Question to FAChassis - it seems to me that on summer tires the outside edges of the tire get worn out rather quickly. Could this be camber problem setting on the car? I believe that initial camber is at 0 degrees - I have adjusted that to -1 degree on the front and -0,5 degree on the rear on winter tires and wear looks fairly even. Was Karma's camber designed for straight roads? It looks that with 0 camber setting in the corners the camber changes rather dramatically to positive camber and outside edges of the tires suffer.

@Antonin,
following up from other comments, the outer shoulder wear appearance is normal. Tire was designed with very consistent thickness of tread rubber across the full width, but less tread depth to outer shoulder. Water evacuation remains to the inside tread. We've published NHTSA TSB for this, and there's a copy also on this site somewhere in addition to Lormax. This is official FA doc so considered FA official position. There's also a Goodyear service bulletin, tire mfg official position. Realize there's additional scrutiny for tread appearance in Europe.
Regarding alignment, nominal is -0.5 deg front, -1.25 deg rear. Tolerance is +/- 0.2 deg. So 0.0 deg front would be out. Always want little more negative rear camber than front. Settings take into account camber gain with wheel jounce, rear weight distribution, tire stagger, and cornering over straight line.