Phil1098

So the original tires on the car are ten years old. Manufacturers of both cars and tires say pitch em after six years of build date. I figure for safety sake I will buy new rubber. Discount Tire Direct is running a killer deal on eBay and knocking off $100 from their normal shipped price. I jumped on that and my tires arrived today.

Now for the question, the ONLY reason I am replacing these 6k mile tires is age. My new ones show up and two were made the second week of 2016 (plenty fresh) but the other two have a build date of the 43rd week of 2014. 2014?????? These two are a year and a half old already. If this car sees 3k miles a year it will be a lot. I guess I will just put them on, but I'm pretty disappointed, I'm trying to replace old tires, not buy them.

I called DTD and they said the tires are under warranty, well no ****. That isn't the point, so according to them they are sorry I'm disappointed, but oh well.

berzerk_1980

I live this life too (low mileage cars) and I'd be disappointed as well. I don't know what you paid, but on a $200 tire, you are talking about $35 depreciation - so $70 on 2, enough to get my attention.

But it may be a bridge too far to expect brand new tires from a mail order dealer. This is the kind of thing that having a relationship with a particular retailer is for. Like if you have a buddy that works there and you can call them and ask how old the tires in stock are.

By the way, I know it's little consolation, but you did save $100 on a set of tires that had only depreciated $70 or so. So you didn't get screwed, just didn't get the deal you thought you were getting.

Phil1098

I did some more research and it doesn't make any sense. The Tire Rack has a pretty thorough article about tire age and replacement. They say it isn't unusual for them to be sent tires from a manufacturer that are many months old and even over a year old. They go on to say that since they are stored out of the elements and not mounted they are fine. Then they turn around and say any tire regardless of age, storage, and not mounted should be pitched if it's six years old. They say the clock doesn't really start ticking until they are mounted and in the next they say six years and junk??????

Stoenr

To be honest I wouldn't worry too much about it. The newer tires, and major makers do not have much of an age problem like the older days. I put 10 year old tires off the shelf on my winter beater (Goodyear Snows) we had them and never sold. Never an issue, no abnormal conditions after several years usage. Somewhat Its the manufactures way of playing it safe in today's sue happy world.
Now some lower quality, less brand name tires, would bother me some. Seen too many tire issues even on newer ones. I have 19 years experience working at Goodyear.

Phil1098

Deep down that's how I feel too.

On my way in to work this morning I called the "day shift" help at DTD and what a difference. I talked to a very helpful person and she said she would be happy to check with distribution and see if they have some fresher ones that they can exchange with me. The guy last night just said tough beans pretty much, but she was totally can do and is willing to help.

Norm Peterson

I tend to agree with this. A few years ago (maybe 2010?) I bought a set of max performance summer tires (original Asymmetrics, Stoenr ) that turned out to be date-coded 2007 or 2008. I ran them 3 seasons for the next 4 years and part of a 5th, and ran them at half a dozen track days as well.

Probably wouldn't have pushed any off-brand tires that hard or that long, though.


OP - I think that at only 3000 miles/year, you should be basing your tire purchases based primarily on tire performance and using most anything except expected tread wear as tie-breakers. You're looking at aging out your tires long before you'll wear them out.


Norm

Phil1098

That is exactly the reason I was concerned about the age. It is a non issue at this point, my new friend Michelle at Discount Tire Direct has come through completely. I have UPS shipping labels to send the two tires back that are from 2014 and they have already shipped two more that are within one week of age as the fresh ones. All at no cost to me. I will guarantee I will never buy tires from any other company again, to actually have someone understand my issue and resolve it is pretty hard to come by these days.

Stoenr

Good to hear they made it right for you!

Norm Peterson

Excellent.

And thanks for coming back to report on the resolution.


Norm

WJL

Dude go burn whats left of those 6 year old tires