I've owned one for about 2 years now and so far as I can tell, it's a pretty good trainer (haven't used any others extensively). My one gripe is that the resistance was never very consistent. I would be pedaling along in one gear and all of a sudden, it would get VERY difficult to pedal, to the point where you'd have to get out of the saddle to keep the cranks going; sometimes the opposite would happen as well, where you'd end up almost spinning out because it got so easy. I broke down the trainer to see if there was something funny with the bearings, or if something was getting stuck, but couldn't see anything weird. In all, my experience wasn't all bad with it, as it is compact enough to slide underneath a bed when not in use, and the parts are all nicely machined and anodized, but I've been happier with a magnetic resistance stationary bike that I bought in November.
Oh, and it does go through tires, or at least it did through my last set of spec armadillos.