Discount Tires

To whom it may concern,

I'm concerned. Quite frankly I fear for my safety.

Roughly 2 or 3 years ago, I bought a full set of Road Hugger tires at

the Discount Tire in Boulder, CO for my 97 Audi A4. After about a year

and a half or so, two of the tires had really bad dry wrought.

Originally I was told I would need to replace all 4 tires because my

vehicle was all wheel drive, but they changed their minds saying the

tread wear was close enough. I had those two tires replaced. At that

point, I went ahead and invested in the extended warranty for all 4

tires. While I didn't want to repurchase the road huggers because it

seemed odd that two tires would have the same problem, I was talked into

it by the associate working there.

About a year (maybe less) later, I noticed dry wrought again on one of

my rear tires that was so severe, there was about a 1/4 wide slit that

ran about 3 inches along the sidewall of the tire.

The thought process at that point was, "Thank God I decided to buy the

warranty". When I went in to replace the tire, I was told that I would

have to replace all 4 tires due to my car being all wheel drive.

Unfortunately, the warranty could only be used on the one tire that was

faulty.

After sitting back and thinking about it, I realized I had paid almost

$100 in warranties on those tires, and I was being compensated with 1

$78 tire. Then I had to purchase the remaining three tires. After

receiving credit for the prorated amount of mileage left on the

remaining tires, I coughed up something like an additional $225 to

replace all 4 tires again. They were nice enough to transfer the unused

warranties to the newly purchased tires.

Here I am 4 months later, and I'm driving down the interstate when my

girlfriend started to smell something funny. As we progressed, we

smelled what more and more seemed to be burning rubber.

We started to go around a curve on I-70 at about 70mph, when the car

jerked violently. The car missed hitting the median wall by about a

foot as I tried to regain control. I managed to get the car to the side

of the road before my rim started grinding on the concrete. My front

right tire had blown for no apparent reason. The tread of the tire

completely tore off the sidewall on both sides of the tire. Luckily I

was able to avoid wrecking my car during the blowout.

Naturally, after having issues with 4 different road hugger tires, I'm a

little wary. I tried to exchange the tires for something better, but

the Boulder store would only give me a $50 credit per tire. I don't

understand why. The tires were worth $105 each when new, and they only

had 6,000 miles on them. They were rated as 60,000 mile tires. When I

originally bought the first set of tires in 2004, they were on sale for

$78 per tire. When I prorate that, my math says that the tires should

still be worth about $70 each, especially in these extenuating

circumstances. The sales guy disagreed sighting the fact that I had

only paid about $25 each the last time I replaced them. While that was

true, (I think) I still don't understand his logic. He was telling me

that I should only get about a $22 credit (90% of $25) for each tire,

but that he would do me a favor and give me $50. I was unable to

explain to this sales person that it didn't matter how much I paid for

the tire, that the difference was credited to me because I gave them 3

tires with 75% of the treadlife in tact, and the faulty one was under

warranty. He couldn't comprehend that I had already paid the original

price and then some. So far my tab over the years is creeping near the

$800 mark.

After butting heads for a while, he came back and said that he could

upgrade all four tires to the Yokohamas for $380. The original price of

that tire is $115 each.

I guess the way I look at is:

road hugger - $105 ($78 with discount)

yokohama - $115

Worst case scenario, I should get at least $70 back for each of the

three remaining road huggers (90% x $78 based on the original discount

and tread life) plus I would lose the warranty I purchased. I would get

a $105 credit for the road hugger that blew, bringing me to a grand

total of $315. The new tires would run $115 each for a total of $460.

Slap the new warranty on at $25 a piece, and I should have been looking

at a difference of roughly $245. And that would be without being nice,

and "hooking me up."

I'm not asking for much. I just want to be treated fairly. Am I wrong

for thinking in this manner?

I want to feel safe, and I feel like I should be able to do that in a

manner that is fair. I generally purchase extended warranties because

you get treated better if there is a problem. I don't feel like that is

the case at all in this situation.

I've already had them replace the tire with a road hugger, because I

didn't want to cause a scene. I'm sure that voids any hope I had of

getting different tires, but maybe not. I just hope that there is

someone out there who cares, and takes pride in the Discount Tire name.

I don't think I'm asking for too much, just for someone to stand behind

their product and warranty enough to come up with a fair solution.

Thank you for listening,

Kevin Davey

IT Support Manager

Imagine Nation Books

303.527.5447

Comment On This

I'm really concerned! I bought 4 Road huggers from Discount for my daughters car. They kept loosing air and I thought it was from bad valves. When she took the car in to rotate the tires 2 of them had such bad dry rot the store replaced them with a brand I've never heard of, at a cost of 20 dollars each. I'm worried now that the other two are bad. Why haven't they been recalled?