Buying Automobile and RV Tires, Look Out for old tire date codes

The Plot Thickens!

I recently wrote another article called Auto Service the Big Money Maker that you might be interested in..

It is about my experience buying a new Battery for my wife's car from an Automobile Dealership, along with how the service system seemed to be set up to milk the maximum amount of money from the consumer by the dealership.

Well, the pot does indeed thicken.

First let me explain. My wife and I own two cars.

One, that we call mine, is a 3-year-old Jeep, which, by the way, I bought used, We use the Jeep almost exclusively as a tow car when we travel in our RV.

And being retired, we travel for up to 6-8 months a year. In fact, we have just returned from a 5-month trip traveling around Florida over the winter, and used my car as our main transportation.

The other car, that we call hers, is a 4-year-old Cadillac SRX, that we also bought used, and is the one we use when home; to run to the grocery store, go shopping, and visit the Kids in NC and VA, etc.

It is a very comfortable vehicle, that we put a lot of miles on the first year, but since then have only put around 6000-7000 miles a year on. We plan to keep both of these vehicles for a number of years, until we have literally worn them out, before we buy a replacement for either.

Now, I like to get my money's worth out of vehicles, and at the same time, I am careful to keep them well maintained. I buy one-year-old used vehicles just for the savings.

And, I use quality parts and I have things serviced properly.

That is why I finally went to a GM dealer to get my battery replaced once the susceptibility of the cars computer memory came in to question.

Well, when we left home several months ago, I already knew that I needed to get tires for the car.

But I also knew that the car would be sitting in the garage for several months, so I decided to wait until we returned from our trip before purchasing replacement tires.

Anyway, when we returned home, I fired up my PC, went to the local yellow pages, and did a search for tire dealers, and eventually over twenty of them popped up on the screen.

I broke out my pad of paper, pen and Cell Phone and began my search for the right tires at the right price.

Immediately, I found out that my car is special.

You can interpret that as tires are expensive for my car.

For some unknown reason, GM designed my SRX, which is a small Crossover SUV with a V6 engine, to require high performance tires, with two different sizes for front and rear. The front tires are 235/60R18 and the rear tires are 255/55/R18 tires.

They also have an "H" rating. This means that the vehicle is designed to do over 130-mph, thus it is required, by law, to use only "H" rated tires.

The third little fact about them is that they have air pressure sensors in the valve stems, so the vehicle computer can monitor the actual tire pressure and display it on a small data display on the dash.

These facts, all together, pushed the price of tires for my Cadillac into the stratosphese.

Before I retired, I owned a Corvette for a few years, and I loved that car, and, at one point, I had to replace the tires on it. So I know what expensive tires cost, from experience.

Oh, by the way, that Vette COULD do 130-mph, and more, when called upon. And it used "H" rated tires.

Anyway, I am usually a Costco person, but they wanted a total price of $1274.64 for Michelin tires. That price was "all inclusive" including; mounting, balancing, rotating, disposal fees, valve stem kit installation, and taxes.

I choked on that price and I moved on to widen my search.

Well, after several more calls, I had prices from $905 to that $1200 price, all of which were all inclusive prices. Most were Michelin tires, and several were other brands, but all were 50K-60k mile warranty, top-end manufacturers tires.

The $905 price was from a discount tire sales chain, and were also Michelin tires. So, I called them back and made an appointment to drop over and get their tires.

When I walked in, they wrote down my information, confirmed the price, and I asked them to repeat everything that was included, and I relaxed a little, thinking that all was well with the world.

Then the rep asked for my keys, just as I happened to be looking out their window where I saw a MotorHome pull into their parking lot.

And then a thought struck me.

For your information, and as all RV owners know, tire manufacturers do not recommend that anyone drive on a tire that is over 5-6 years old.

Tires are made of combination's of synthetic and natural materials, and they actually begin to physically degrade from the moment they are manufactured.

Now they are essentially over-designed to still meet their original specs after 5-6 years, but after that it is anyone's guess when or if they will go bad.

Heat, Cold, the Sun ..... all of these variables can accelerate this tire degredation.

SO, I turned and asked the rep what was the manufacturers date code on the tires he was selling me.

That's when I saw that strange look come into his eyes, as he looked down for a moment, and then said that he didn't know.

I told him that I wanted new tires and he needed to check the tire date code, so he reluctantly went out to the back of their building.

He returned after a few minutes, and said that the date code was 2007.

I slowly inhaled, counted to ten a couple of times, composed myself, and said to him:

2007! That makes these NEW tires of yours 3-years-old. You do know that the manufacturers do not recommend tires even be used after 5 years ...... don't you?

Is the fact that the tires are so old, the real reason you are selling them so cheap?

His reply was: No Sir. We are selling them so cheap because we have so many of them.

I told him to check on his other inventory, and he reluctantly went to the back of the rear of the building ... again.

He returned after a couple of more minutes and told me that his whole inventory was dated 2007, and he had almost 200 of them.

Then, and I loved this, he looked at me and defiantly asked me if I wanted them or not.

I almost exploded, but I controlled myself and explained to him again that I wasn't in the habit of buying degraded parts, at any price, and turned to leave.

I got halfway to the door, and he stopped me and asked if I would take a newer dated set of tires at the same price, if he could get them.

He went on to tell me that because the tires were slow movers, they would probably only be able to get tires dated 2008 at the newest, but he was willing to try for me.

I replied that I would accept tires dated 2009 or 2010 only and he, to my surprise agreed to call me back within two hours. And that he was confident that he would have the tires delivered within two days.

Of course, the call never came, and I went back to the phone this morning and made more calls with my new requirement.

Needless to say, several other potential dealers fell from my list. I ended up with another turn-key price of $970, and a guarantee that the tires would have a date code of 2010.

Delivery was in a couple of days. We will see!

My point here is, look out for that great tire price, if you care about the safety of yourself and your family.

And be sure you get a quote that is for NEW new tires, and not OLD new tires.

In my opinion, here is where a new consumer law is required, of some sort.

At the very least, tire quotes should include the dealer stating the manufacturers date code on any product where the date of manufacture is a safety matter for the consumer.

What scares me, is that I have a number of other things I want to do to my two cars over the next month, and after these two instances, I have developed a small case of paranoia.

Have a Nice Day!

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