Jay - may I ask you what you bought?
As for letting my tyres get old, yes I'll put my hands up to that one. The Continentals I have on at the moment grip OK in the dry but haven't gone as hard as some XASs that I had on my old 4/4 which got so they wouldn't wear out. They were exciting in the wet and you never knew which way you were going to slide especially when the brakes were grabby.
