Tires make a huge difference in MPG, stopping distance etc. Every economy car I've checked ships with much more expensive tires than you'd probably bother repl

Tires make a huge difference in MPG, stopping distance etc. Every economy car I've checked ships with much more expensive tires than you'd probably bother replacing them with since they can eek out an extra MPG or two for the window sticker. When I ran over a nail in my Prius C I swapped the stock tires for the cheapest set the dealer had. It was $80/tire instead of $230. My MPG did go down ever so slightly but when you're talking 51 to 49 who cares, I'd never make that money back in saved gas. They grip better in winter too. 6,000 miles is pretty extreme, but maybe the Ford needed to go with really soft tires to get the handling characteristics they wanted? Going by the Ford we used to own I think their engineers are a make-it-work bunch and don't care too much about longevity (which is too bad, other than horrendous reliability it was a great car).