Age of "new" tires

-
mopowers

mopowers

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2006
Messages
8,525
Reaction score
4,722
Location
West Sacramento, CA
Quick question for you guys - When you go to the local tire shop to get a new set mounted and balanced for your daily driver, how old would be too old for the new tires? For instance, if the new tires had a date code showing they were 3 years old, would you say something??? It happened to me over the weekend and I just noticed the date code now. I guess I should've looked sooner, but I'm curious what you guys think.
 
Considering that most tire manufacturers now consider 7 years to be the maximum age I wouldn’t accept 3 year old tires on a new install. Some tire shops will not service tires more than 7 years old now too.

I could understand tires that were maybe a year to 18 months. I’d bring up anything much more than that. I would suggest bringing your receipt and going back to that shop.
 
Yeah, I'll definitely go back and at least ask them about it (nicely). I'm kind of ashamed I didn't notice it before I paid them. In my defense, the date code is on the inner side wall and I had to pop them all off just now to check.
 
Yeah, I'd want at least the current year. I don't think that's askin too much.
 
mopowers said:
Yeah, I'll definitely go back and at least ask them about it (nicely). I'm kind of ashamed I didn't notice it before I paid them. In my defense, the date code is on the inner side wall and I had to pop them all off just now to check.
Click to expand...

I would just start by bringing it to their attention and see what they say. Then take it from there if you have too.

I don’t know what kind of miles you put on your car or how many miles the tires you bought are supposed to be good for, but I’d definitely want a solution if you’re not going to wear those tires out before they’re aged out at 7 years.
 
mopowers said:
Quick question for you guys - When you go to the local tire shop to get a new set mounted and balanced for your daily driver, how old would be too old for the new tires? For instance, if the new tires had a date code showing they were 3 years old, would you say something??? It happened to me over the weekend and I just noticed the date code now. I guess I should've looked sooner, but I'm curious what you guys think.
Click to expand...
I'd take em back... Or ask em to prorate em! Whatever the % of 3 outta 7 is! Almost 50% What do they think? That they can just Pawn off their old stock, for full price?
 
Thanks guys. I'm glad it's not just me being picky. They're good guys and I take all of mine and my fiance's cars there for tires. We just bought a set for her Focus a couple months ago actually. I always pay cash too so they appreciate it. I'm pretty sure they'll make it right.

72bluNblu said:
I would just start by bringing it to their attention and see what they say. Then take it from there if you have too.

I don’t know what kind of miles you put on your car or how many miles the tires you bought are supposed to be good for, but I’d definitely want a solution if you’re not going to wear those tires out before they’re aged out at 7 years.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the thing, this pickup only gets about 6000 miles a year max, so they'll age out long before they wear out. In fact, the tires I replaced were 'only' 6 yrs old and I happened to have one blow out last week. I only had 30k miles on that set.

Thanks again for the input. I appreciate it.
 
mopowers said:
Thanks guys. I'm glad it's not just me being picky. They're good guys and I take all of mine and my fiance's cars there for tires. We just bought a set for her Focus a couple months ago actually. I always pay cash too so they appreciate it. I'm pretty sure they'll make it right.



Yeah, that's the thing, this pickup only gets about 6000 miles a year max, so they'll age out long before they wear out. In fact, the tires I replaced were 'only' 6 yrs old and I happened to have one blow out last week. I only had 30k miles on that set.

Thanks again for the input. I appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Seems like everything that is rubber, is outsourced to China, Taiwan, India, ect. Our good ol American rubber I've seen in pretty doggone good shape after 40 years or so (not speaking of tires), and I've seen this new stuff (even though these people don't have the regulations we have here at all) just produce garbage, that turns to crap, within a couple of years. I remember when I was younger running 20-year-old tires on cars. For a tire that new to blow out to me that's unheard of man that's just crazy
 
mopowers said:
Yeah, I'll definitely go back and at least ask them about it (nicely). I'm kind of ashamed I didn't notice it before I paid them. In my defense, the date code is on the inner side wall and I had to pop them all off just now to check.
Click to expand...
Considering they are about 40% used up, time wise, a 25-33% refund might be in order?
 
7 years....I may put 1000 miles on them in 7 years. Time for new ones? Just sell me some plastic Pos-a-Tractions that last 30 years.
0%2Fpict%2F272608719431_%2FUSED-Lot4Muscle-Car-Hot-Rod-Tires-Pos-A-TractionTorque-Twister-G60-15.jpg
 
There was a question ( I think on the B side) about the age of a set of Goodyear polyglas. They were soft, next to no wear, very few cracks......... and they were 45 years old. I guarantee the stuff they are making now won't look like that in 45 years......
 
yes. I dont get it out that often and when I do, It was either a 120 mile round trip to spring fling or a drive to the Donuts car show 13 miles away and maybe a few weekend jaunts in between. Its not my daily driver for sure. It has no A/C, brakes are 1967 vintage, gets <20 mpg and the brake lights are 1965 bright, as in NOT bright through 58 year old lenses and with no 3rd brake light, young drivers have locked them up behind me more than once because my "3rd brake light was not working" yeah, really. Afraid to park it anywhere where Karen isn't going to ding it with her door. Its crazy around here.

7 years for Motorhome tires too? Talk about low mileage tires! My neighbor has taken his 2012 Class A out about 8 times in 10 year. His 6 tires are done.....3 years ago?
 
Just an fyi. It has been Federal law for many years that all tires sold must have the DOT numbers and the purchasers name, address registered. This is done mostly by computer but they have the dates. It is required in case of a recall.
 
33IMP said:
There was a question ( I think on the B side) about the age of a set of Goodyear polyglas. They were soft, next to no wear, very few cracks......... and they were 45 years old. I guarantee the stuff they are making now won't look like that in 45 years......
Click to expand...
In the early 90s, I bought a clean and soild running 68 Coronet 4 Dr. For 300 in change! Had a set of original bias plys... ran em on my big block 4 spd Coronet with 4:56 gears and open headers around town... they worked well. Till I burned em slap off!
 
Just my 2 cents...

Let's say you take the chance and run old tires, now let's say your driving 65 to 70 on the interstate and a tire let's go. Assuming you keep it on the road and upright you are looking at minimum, of a tornup fender. There is $2,000 to $3,000 in repairs minimum. Was 500.00 in tires every 7 years all that expensive?
 
PolyGlas tires last forever because they're terrible. Traction, handling performance, wet traction/handling, temperature and speed ratings, all absolutely horrific by any kind of modern standard.

50 years later tire technology has improved. Traction is better, handling and performance is better, wet traction and handling is better, temperature and speed ratings all MASSIVELY improved. But people complain because the tires have to be replaced after 7 years.

Sorry, but I'd much rather buy a tire I have to replace in 7 years that will outperform that PolyGlas hockey puck in every single metric there is than run a tire that will suck for 45 years. I just buy 200 treadwear tires, they'll probably only go 30k before they're worn out and I can do that in under 7 years.

pishta said:
yes. I dont get it out that often and when I do, It was either a 120 mile round trip to spring fling or a drive to the Donuts car show 13 miles away and maybe a few weekend jaunts in between. Its not my daily driver for sure. It has no A/C, brakes are 1967 vintage, gets <20 mpg and the brake lights are 1965 bright, as in NOT bright through 58 year old lenses and with no 3rd brake light, young drivers have locked them up behind me more than once because my "3rd brake light was not working" yeah, really. Afraid to park it anywhere where Karen isn't going to ding it with her door. Its crazy around here.
Click to expand...

1,000 miles in 7 years isn't any kind of driver.

Most of the way your car is outfitted is completely your choice, you can upgrade the lights so they're brighter. Polish the lenses, restore the buckets, all of it. No reason to run 1967 vintage brakes, there are LOTS of options to upgrade the brakes, even for 14" or 15" wheels. No third brake light? Door dings? C'mon, you're just making excuses.

My '74 Duster doesn't have A/C. It doesn't have a third brake light. It gets about 13-14 mpg the way I'm driving it most of the time and it only runs on 91 octane. I run LED bulbs and polished my lenses up, they might not quite be modern car bright but they're close enough. I run 13" disks up front and 11.7" disks out back. I put ~120 miles on it every time I drive to work for about 600 miles of commuting a month. I've got over 1,000 miles on it in the last month because I've been doing some fun runs up the hill and back, usually 60-80 miles round trip. I'll still drive it most of year if I can, obviously now that I'm snow country I'll have to rock my 4WD some in the winter. But we don't use salt here so when the chain controls go down the Duster will go out. Cars were meant to be driven!
 
Just something to consider. If the car sits outside in the sun, and high temps (like here in Florida) I would not buy a tire that was not current year. No matter how many miles a year I put on them. If the vehicle sits in a garage, out of the sun, when not being used, You can get away with older date code.
I bought a late model used car a few years, ago. After dealer and I got done haggeling on the price, and had a deal, I hit them up for a new set of tires. The ones on the car were 9 years old (on the car when it was sold new). They put on a set that was between 2 and 3 years old. I told them "not good enough", I want not more them one year old. They did comply.
PS: You can't compare todays tires to the tires that were made 20-30 years ago. The rubber compound is totally different. I have two sets of M&H slicks that are identical. One set was made more then 20 years ago. The other set about 6 years ago. The sidewalls on the older tires look better then the newer tires. I think the tires from "way back" have more "NATURAL" rubber, in them.
 
Last edited:
72bluNblu said:
Considering that most tire manufacturers now consider 7 years to be the maximum age I wouldn’t accept 3 year old tires on a new install. Some tire shops will not service tires more than 7 years old now too.

I could understand tires that were maybe a year to 18 months. I’d bring up anything much more than that. I would suggest bringing your receipt and going back to that shop.
Click to expand...

At our dealership here in Canada, its 7 years from the manufacture date on the tire. Tires don't last long enough in stock at this dealership so never ran into the pro-rate issue, Also, we cannot install tires, customer supplied, with expired manufacture dates.
 
Well, I went back and ask them about it. The supervisor said that all the 'new' tires they get now are 2-3, or even 4 years old. He cited covid-related issues, which seems to be the default excuse for all poor service these days. Who knows, maybe that's just me. When I asked him if he thought that was okay, he said yes. He said the law allows them to sell tires up to 5 years old as 'new.'

He offered to replace them with another set, but couldn't guarantee they'd be any newer and said the best he could do is give me a $40 refund, which is what they apparently charge for labor.

On another note, I had them check one tire that I noticed didn't have any balance weights on it. I asked them about it when they installed the tires last week because I saw them struggling with the balance machine on that one. At the time they told me the tire zeroed out and didn't require any weight. Well, low and behold, it needed a couple. When I asked them about it, they said it must've fallen off on the highway. :BangHead:

Needless to say, they lost a loyal customer.
 
For what it's worth, I've been turned away from some chain tire stores for tires 3years or older "unless we installed them". This was in both southern and northern AZ in the early 2000s.

First time I wanted a patch for a small nail hole in the center of the tire - had to find a place that sold tacos and tires from the same trailer to get it done. The second time I was just looking for a rebalance. Got told that it was too much risk because dry tires could explode on the balancer.

It was obviously horse **** both times, but I learned that lots of bigger outfits and chains (which tend to put the small shops out of business) will put their sales quotas over service every time.

As a result, I wouldn't take old stock tires if paying new prices. Imagine having a flat that no one will repair while on a road trip? It's also why I try to deal with small local outfits even if I pay a couple hundred more.
 
To me, a couple year old tires on a driver will be worn out before seven years, and I wouldn't worry about it.
I have several cars with timed out tires on them. Until I KNOW I will be putting on a couple thousand miles a year on em, the aren't getting new.
When they do get new tires, they better be NEW, cause I need those seven years.
 
mopowers said:
Well, I went back and ask them about it. The supervisor said that all the 'new' tires they get now are 2-3, or even 4 years old. He cited covid-related issues, which seems to be the default excuse for all poor service these days. Who knows, maybe that's just me. When I asked him if he thought that was okay, he said yes. He said the law allows them to sell tires up to 5 years old as 'new.'

He offered to replace them with another set, but couldn't guarantee they'd be any newer and said the best he could do is give me a $40 refund, which is what they apparently charge for labor.

On another note, I had them check one tire that I noticed didn't have any balance weights on it. I asked them about it when they installed the tires last week because I saw them struggling with the balance machine on that one. At the time they told me the tire zeroed out and didn't require any weight. Well, low and behold, it needed a couple. When I asked them about it, they said it must've fallen off on the highway. :BangHead:

Needless to say, they lost a loyal customer.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that doesn't track. I could understand "new" tires being a couple years old because of the whole international shipping/port issues that have arisen. But, 3-4? Sorry, but that's pre-Covid. Which makes it before the factory and port shutdowns. Nope. I get it, the ports are backlogged now and we will be dealing with that for awhile because like a lot of things the ports were running at max capacity before the shutdowns to maximize profit. And if you're already at max capacity clearing a backlog isn't fast. But it is definitely being used as an excuse to screw people over too, and it seems like that's what's going on here.

And what's legal is a whole different story. Maybe it's legal to sell somebody 5 year old tires as new, but if no one will repair them past the 7 year mark it sure as heck isn't right.

Sounds like you need a new tire shop. If nothing else, they certainly don't seem too concerned about keeping you happy or doing a good job.

33IMP said:
To me, a couple year old tires on a driver will be worn out before seven years, and I wouldn't worry about it.
I have several cars with timed out tires on them. Until I KNOW I will be putting on a couple thousand miles a year on em, the aren't getting new.
When they do get new tires, they better be NEW, cause I need those seven years.
Click to expand...

I think you missed the part where he said he only puts like 6k miles a year on this particular truck, they were going to age out before they wore out from the beginning. Which makes the age a lot more important. I don't stress out too much over timed out tires as long as they still look good, but even if they look good and are 7+ most tire shops won't even touch them now. So your ability to go past 7 years is entirely dependent on not needing any tire repairs.
 
72bluNblu said:
Yeah, that doesn't track. I could understand "new" tires being a couple years old because of the whole international shipping/port issues that have arisen. But, 3-4? Sorry, but that's pre-Covid. Which makes it before the factory and port shutdowns. Nope. I get it, the ports are backlogged now and we will be dealing with that for awhile because like a lot of things the ports were running at max capacity before the shutdowns to maximize profit. And if you're already at max capacity clearing a backlog isn't fast. But it is definitely be used as an excuse to screw people over too, and it seems like that's what's going on here.

And what's legal is a whole different story. Maybe it's legal to sell somebody 5 year old tires as new, but if no one will repair them past the 7 year mark it sure as heck isn't right.

Sounds like you need a new tire shop. If nothing else, they certainly don't seem too concerned about keeping you happy or doing a good job.
Click to expand...

What's funny (and something I neglected to mention) is that the tires are made in the USA, so I'm not sure the shipping delays would apply. Or maybe they do because they're waiting on supplies... Who knows?

72bluNblu said:
I think you missed the part where he said he only puts like 6k miles a year on this particular truck, they were going to age out before they wore out from the beginning. Which makes the age a lot more important. I don't stress out too much over timed out tires as long as they still look good, but even if they look good and are 7+ most tire shops won't even touch them now. So your ability to go past 7 years is entirely dependent on not needing any tire repairs.
Click to expand...

Yep putting only 5-6k miles per year on this pile means I'll likely only get 15-20k on this set before they'll need to be replaced. No biggie I guess. I learned a valuable lesson - look at the dates before you hand over the cash. I normally do, which is the frustrating part. I just spaced out this time and forgot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top