How old are your new tires?

[russiankid]

There was one incident that I remember watching and reading about. Some teenagers went on a road trip, and the drivers father had just got "new" tires put on. They ended up crashing and I believe they all were dead. It was later discovered that the tires were I believe 8 years old, and the tread separated from the tire which caused them to lose control.

[Tiger]

What country was this?

[Ross]

The esteemed journalists at 20/20 always seem to do just enough research to lend some credence to their alarmist position and stir the pot. Grandma takes this as gospel and runs to the nearest tire store where she is promptly hosed.
About the same time Ford and Firestone were in deep doo-doo over the blowouts(of underinflated tires) the Indianapolis speedway was reconfiguring for Formula One. I had an opportunity to walk the course. Those tire barriers are all brand new Firestones in Explorer sizes, with holes carefully bored in every sidewall.

[Russell]

Your point?

[Russell]

I was involved in the Ford Explorer tire recall on our 98 Eddie Bauer. IMO, the Firestone Wilderness tires we removed were terrible tires from a handling point of view. Very slow turn in, wandered, side winds would blow you all over the road and well rode like a truck. The replacement Bridgestone Duel HL tires were the positive opposite in every respect. Plus the lasted 50,000 miles before I felt they were too old and showing dry rot cracks.

I could not believe that Bridgestone/Firestone could make both tires or that Ford would spec such a crappy tire for one of their, at the time, best selling verhicles.

Rant over.

[Ross]

That I don't put much stock in what 20/20 has to say and I thought it interesting that Firestone had found a customer after all for it's so-called defective tires.

[Ross]

It was a cheap tire with a tall sidewall and low inflation pressure to try and give a truck a carlike ride. At the expense of already dismal handling.

[BMWCCA1]

People here in the USA actually buy tires for their BMW from other than Tire Rack?

I bought four new Yokos from The Tire Rack for my E34 last spring and they were only three weeks old when they arrived at my house. Made in Virginia, too. If you're relying on your local gas station, local tire store, Sears, or WalMart for tires, you're gonna get whatever they have.

Anyone else catch the staged drama of showing blown truck retreads on the side of the road? That's a stretch to an automotive tire problem. How much damage is there to vehicles on our roads every year because of tread separation on re-capped truck tires, and you'd think that'd be a more regulated area. It's not.

[bubba966]

Anyone else catch the staged drama of showing blown truck retreads on the side of the road? That's a stretch to an automotive tire problem. How much damage is there to vehicles on our roads every year because of tread separation on re-capped truck tires, and you'd think that'd be a more regulated area. It's not.

Yeah, I saw that they showed a pic of a truck retread and acted like it was the tread off of a regular tire that had failed due to age. Bit of false advertising like what Ross was pointing at.

FWIW I buy my tires at Costco, and have for years. When I get tires they have in stock, they're usually only a month or two old. But I also pick out my own tires when I buy 'em and make sure I get the newest ones they've got. Though I had to order a PS2 a month back as none of the Costco's around here stock PS2's. It was a year old. No big deal though as I don't quite get 2 years out of a PS2 anyways.

[SC David]

Mine are 5 years old. Bought them about 6 months ago. This is a statistic I'll keep in mind when buying tires again.