I've heard people complain on the board about this, but at 16K miles mine have 80-85% tread remaining per my last dealer visit. I wonder if there are some surfaces that cause more problems than others - most of the roads around my neck of the woods are concrete.

 

I still have two of the original tires on my 2003 HCH. It has 106,000 kilometers on it. That is somewhere around 65,000 miles I think. I run 40 lbs pressure in all four tires. They are terrible in the winter so I will probably get them changed out to Yokahama tires before the snow flies here in Southern Ontario Canada.

 

Can anyone confirm that the trade-off of low rolling resistance tires are that they wear down quicker? I had a similar issue on the smart car.

 

Well, the factory originals on my 2006 HCHII were down to the tread wear indicators in only 15k miles. I replaced them with Michelin all seasons (non-lrr) and at 12k miles on the tires, they still are like new. I think the original tires are just plain crap. I don't see much difference in mileage with the Michelins either, but I do inflate to 42 psi.

 

I just spent a really long time skimming through this document, and my eyes are about to fall out, but I think basically it says yes to your question.

http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr286.pdf

 

The biggest issue with the rapid wearing of the stock 15" tires is the tread-life rating of the tires.

Click on the link below for the specifications of the HCHII 15" tire and the HC 16" tire. The tread-life rating of the HC tire is almost twice that of the HCHII. The HCHII tire has a rating more in line with a performance tire.

Civic tire specifications