TIRES...
Everybody needs them even if you ride a bicycle.

At what point did the tire manufacturers come up with the idea of "Road Hazard Warranty".
This basically places the blame for any tire failure on the owner, and subsequently greatly diminishes the tire manufacturer's risk of involvement at any stage. If you have the "Road Hazard" the tire is replaced and nobody is the wizer, including the NHTSA because no investigation is performed to determine cause.
If you don't have a "Road Hazard" there is no investigation either because you are to blame, no matter what.

Second rant, why do I have to buy a "Road Hazard" on all 4 tires, this is like buying insurance on my car 4 times. Why not sell me a "Road Hazard" for one tire and replace the "one" tire that may get damaged. Well, because we don't know which tire you bought the "Road Hazard" for, umm, does it matter, obviously I bought it for the one that's flat.

Third, according to the powers that be, less than 2% of "Road Hazard" insurance is actually paid out. In a million tire annual sales volume that's about 20,000 tire failures. That's also 20,000 tire failures that NEVER get investigated.

It's time to put this practice out to pasture. Stop buying this "optional" service and force the tire folks to take responsibility for their products instead of constantly raising the prices to satisfy investors and / or moving the manufacturing off shore to a lesser industrialized nation and importing this inferior crap to the USA. AND, requiring me to buy a "Road Hazard Warranty" to cover your collective asses due to poor quality control and under trained work force.

That's all I have to say about that.
My Hero,
Forrest Gump

 

A Road Hazard Warranty is to cover exactly that, road hazards and not for defective tires. Defects are covered under the original tire warranty. It covers damage that is not the fault of the tire. You pay for coverage on all four tires because you want all four covered. Your theory is like insuring one car but having four. You can't expect to have insurance coverage on the one that is wrecked regardless of which one is insured.

 

Ok, I get the obvious.

Have you ever tried to get a tire that has suffered an unexplained failure covered under the so called "warranty". The actual warranty is for tread wear, not tire failure.
Try proving an actual tire failure. The tire is on your car, you are driving on the road, there is no obvious damage like a tire iron sticking out of your sidewall or a hole in the tread. Still, a road hazard because you are driving on the road.
So, the bottom line, roads are hazardous to your tires, stay off the roads.

 

I had purchased new tires for the wifes car and later developed a vibration and a pull in the car. It was determined a belt broke in the tire and it was replaced free of charge under warrenty.

I never buy road hazard

 

Shouldn't this be in GD?

 

I like your thinking on this one. Theoretically should work... I'm going to suggest it next set of tires,,, just to see what the response is.

I have gotten a tire covered because the sidewall bulged, but because there was much wear on the old tire they prorated the price on the new one, and given the mark up they may have still made money on the deal.

My gripe is the cost of tires. Tire manufacturers persuade vehicle manufactures to use expensive tires because there more is profit in replacing them. I'm not sure where all that profit goes though. Back in 1970 you could purchase Goodyear stock for under $20, and today it sells for $13.

 

The cost of tires keeps going up because the cost of manufacturing them keeps going up. Auto design has changed alot just in the last 10 years and tire design has had to change to keep up. Does anyone remember bias ply tires? Would you want a set of those on an '04 and up F150?

A radial design from just 15 years ago would fail on a modern vehicle. Today's suspension and ABS systems put incredible stress on tires, and they need to stand up to it. There's a lot more to tire design then you might think.

 

Quote:

Back in 1970 you could purchase Goodyear stock for under $20, and today it sells for $13.

I don't own any Goodyear stock so have no reason to keep track of it, but do you know if that stock has split, or does it pay dividends? How many times has it split (if it has) and was it a 2 for 1 split or a 3 for 1 or even more? There's a chance of a lot more to the price of stock than just looking at the price in 1970 compared to 2010.

There is also a whole lot more to why the manufacturers put high dollar tires on today as compared to 1970. I know they put some pretty cheap tires on some cars back then, but I doubt that the Gov. had much in the way of regulations then, if any! In this litigious day and age, the manufacturers would be foolish to put cheap tires on, even if they didn't have all the regulating factors that they do.

 

Roads are hazardous, no doubt about it. People are stupid and don't tie their cargo down (such as moving household stuff in a pick-up) and you find the roadway littered with everything imagineable, sometimes with disastrous results. Those are road hazards. I buy my tires from America's/ Discount Tire and they come with a free road hazard warrantee (which, by the way, they are great about honoring). It is pro-rated over the life of the tire. If you BUY a road hazard warrantee from them, you get a FREE tire for the life of the tire if it is road hazard damaged down to 2/32 of tread. I don't buy the warrantee, the free one is good enough for me. It cost me a few dollars to replace an expensive tire that had acquired a small cut in the tread. Factory warrantee covers all the rest of the tire failure problems. (workmanship and materials)

See BOLD: Not so, the factory warrantee is for build problems, I don't think very many tire co's will warrantee miles of service, regardless of what the tire is rated at.

 

I never buy the warranty. I also purchase good tires though. So the likelyhood of having a defect is virtually non-existant. If one does occur, that company stands behind their product and I don't have an issue (ie: Firestone, Michelin, Goodyear).

Road Hazard is a waste of money to help convince people they are covered when the poop hits the fan. It makes them feel better for buying cheap inadequate tires instead of spending the extra few $$$ and buying a quality tire.
what?

have you bought a new Ford anytime lately?

I've bought 3 in the last 4 years. All were "high end" models with the upgraded rims and rubber.

there is no way in hell I got premium rubber on any of those.

F-150 = Goodyear Wrangler AT/S - middle of the road A/T tire with a cheap price
Expedition = Pirelli Scorpion - $150 A/T that is pure ****
Mustang GT = BFG KDWs - another worthless tire that runs about middle of the pack relative to the $$$

I would say that Ford and the other manufacturers actually use the cheapest tires they can use most times, and use a moderately decent tire as the "upgrade". Ever wonder why the base models and XLT's come with General Tires? It ain't because they are expensive or good.

 

I buy my tires at Sam's Club. I pay them the $10 a tire for the full package. This includes mounting, new valve stems, LIFETIME balance and rotation (every 7500 miles), free flat repair, and a prorated road hazard warranty. I had a blowout in my Taurus about 10 years ago, and they replaced the tire under the road hazard warranty, no hassle. Yes, I did have to pay for the amount of tread used, but that's fair if you think about it. The blowout wasn't the tire's fault, I ran over something doing about 75 mph.

Rebalance and rotate ONCE is worth the 40 bucks.

 

My brother took my lifted S-10 out to the dezert when i had just bought brand new KM mudders and broke a A-Arm and had to tow it back.When i looked at the A arm it destroyed the inside of the tire.Went down to buy another one when the guy looked up in the computer and said u bought road hazard.Let me take care of that.Paid $15.00 bucks and i was back on the road to re-install the tire.It works.In my case it did.

 

I'll give you that one.

This is only one reason, but it is a good one. I picked this up from reading the Wall Street Journal last fall.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...150147524.html

The replacement tire for my wife's vehicle is V rated. What in the design of that auto warrants a tire rated for 149mph?

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=212408931152

 

That is already taking into account the split May 5 1993 of 2 shares for each 1 share. Currently GT stock does not pay a dividend as would be expected for a company posting a loss of $1.55 per share.

 

As I said, I don't own any Goodyear stock, and I guess I'm glad I don't!