Road wear warranties on tires...

Visirale · #1 02-11-2009, 03:58 PM

Get them.

Someone slashed one of my tires two nights ago when I was downtown for a gig... I wasn't too mad, those things happen.

Well I got a new tire yesterday and they asked me if I wanted to get a road wear coverage warranty for like $20. I didn't think I'd need it...

Fast-forward to today. I was driving around, minding my own business and I didn't notice a broken piece of curb hanging out in the road. It caught the same tire I JUST BOUGHT YESTERDAY and fatally wounded it.

Needless to say, I'm having to replace it again... this time I am getting the road wear warranty for sure.

Chunk-O-Funk · #2 02-11-2009, 04:08 PM

+1

The warranty can be really convenient. The tire manufacture will only cover defects, which is usually never the case. I work at a Toyota dealership and all the replacement tires we sell through the Toyota program come with the warranty automatically. Just about anything that happens to the tire is covered too.

MJ5150 · #3 02-11-2009, 04:26 PM

I have never been asked to pay for that, it is always included. The place I buy tires from has this slogan..."If we can't warranty it, we won't sell it".

-Mike

Mike N · #4 02-11-2009, 05:09 PM

I got road hazard coverage on one set of tires years ago because the tires were $250 each. Other than that I don't bother with it. Besides, the tires on my daily driver only cost me $20 each, so for the price of road hazard coverage I could buy another tire.

Mike N · #5 02-11-2009, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJ5150

I have never been asked to pay for that, it is always included. The place I buy tires from has this slogan..."If we can't warranty it, we won't sell it".

-Mike

And this is how it should be. Everything should be included in the price of the tire, rather than everything being extra.

One of the local tire chain stores does what they call "out the door pricing", where the price per tire they quote is mounted, balanced, new valve stem, road hazard and old tire disposal. So when you call them and they tell you a tire in your size is $75, that's with everything, versus the other places telling you it's $50 for the tire, $15 to mount and balance, $3 for a valve stem, $ to throw out the old ones etc...........

Linas · #6 02-11-2009, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike N

I got road hazard coverage on one set of tires years ago because the tires were $250 each. Other than that I don't bother with it. Besides, the tires on my daily driver only cost me $20 each, so for the price of road hazard coverage I could buy another tire.

What kind of tires are you getting for $20 a pop?

ulrich · #7 02-11-2009, 07:06 PM

Warranty=Insurance=gambling. Odds are you're gonna loose. The tire company has the stats; they've set the odds to be sure they win in the long run. Insurance is for stuff you can't afford, like surgery, cancer treatment, car crashes... I can afford new tires, so I don't need to insure them.

Mike N · #8 02-12-2009, 05:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linas

What kind of tires are you getting for $20 a pop?

155 80 R13 Nokian snow tires.

Mike N · #9 02-12-2009, 05:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ulrich

The tire company has the stats; they've set the odds to be sure they win in the long run.

How do they do that?

Disco_Gee · #10 02-12-2009, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike N

How do they do that?

Duh, with magic.

PSPookie · #11 02-12-2009, 05:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike N

How do they do that?

Actuaries. There is an entire profession dedicated to figuring this out. The basics lie in the statistical analysis of the likelihood of failure combined with the cost of replacement and administrative costs. The insurance price is set so that the insurer comes out ahead in the long run.

The SOA (society of actuaries) used to have a paper available on their website called "The Nature of Risk and Insurance" or something like that which laid out the mathematical foundations for insurance. It's a fascinating read if you have a head for numbers.