How to get compensated for defective tires on new Prius (all 4 have tread separation at 30k miles)?

New Prius? It has 30K miles, why do you state a new Prius?

30K miles on tires is no too bad, and if Goodyear will only give you a $30.00 credit that is what they have prorated them at, based on the miles on the tires.

 

I understand your annoyance that these tires failed before they reached the end of their tread life, but the fact is that they reached 30,000 miles and Goodyear is warranting them on a prorated basis per their warranty. This is the way it would be handled by any major tire manufacture. Remember any new cars warranty does not cover tires. Tires are warrantied by the tire manufacture. At this point you have the choice of buying Goodyears again and taking the $30.00 or buying a different brand of tire.

 

Just suck it up and pay for it. Not everything is someone else's problem. The tires that come with the car are crap anyways. And ontop of the crap tires, the car makers get the bin-1 rejects anyways so they don't even last as long.

My Leaf tires are bald at 10K miles. Oh well, that's life.

 

You drove on them for 30K miles... Now you want new tires? Good luck, but it is NOT happening. Maybe if you are nice to them you can get some credit for something for the inconvenience but really for such a small amount of money the energy you are going to put in fighting this is not worth it.

Sometimes you get defective products. Oh well. Go get new ones. Making other people pay for your problems is just childish.

 

If you check other threads on tires, most of us are getting about 40,000 miles from our tires. So you really only had 10,000 miles plus or minus left on your tires.

 

I'm not sure you can do anything.

The tires on a new car DO NOT come with any road hazard or other "warranty" on them. If they wear out way prematurely (say within 20K), you'd have more of an issue because you clearly got defective tires or have an alignment/balance issue that should not be present on an "off the assembly line" car.

After 30K, there's arguably enough room to argue that you got most of the tire life and you may have done something driving to cause premature wear. Even then, road hazard warranties comp you based on the life left in the tire. Most OEM tires are lucky to make 40K. Odds are you'd not get much for them (as someone already pointed out).

My parent's Highlander had a super quiet ride, but the tires were shot in a very short time. They put on longer-life tires and had to deal with road noise. Toyota went with very soft compound tires to make for a better ride when selling the vehicle. Soft compound = short life.

 

Buy a set of Michelins and move on with your life.

 

one cause for concern, the vibration may have damaged components of your suspension system. after you put new tyres on, if you still have vibration or other problems, file a complaint. all the best.

 

Something isn't right. If the tires have "serious tread separation problems and extreme wear", you'd take photos (for redemption claims) and replace them immediately. Damage on that level would be easy to see and dangerous. Continuing to drive with them doesn't make sense.

 

Easy.
They're not their tires.
They're yours.
It's a pro-rated warranty for tires with 30,000 miles on a 3 year old car.

If it were me, I'd take the $30 and call it good.
If, as suggested above, you're ready to re-brand then I can recommend Michelins, although you're going to notice, and undoubedly fuss about a slight loss of fuel efficiency.

I'm thinking that the tire place that you went to is highly motivated to.......(wait for it!).......sell tires.
You think they might be exaggerating just a bit?

I hate dealerships.
They're loathsome
However (comma!)
If I were arbitrating this issue, I think that I would question why somebody would use a product for 30,000 miles and three years and then claim "serious tread separation problems (and extreme wear as a result)."
If I were the dealership, I'd let you throw paper topside and claim customer neglect/abuse of the tires.......

Roger.
OUT.

 

Quoting Judge Judy here:
"What you FEEL is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the contract, which in this case is the written tire warranty that you were given when the car was new."

As has already been mentioned, all tire warranties are limited and pro-rated.
READ your tire warranty pamphlet......if you still have it.......and then don't argue if they are giving you what it states in the warranty.

 

nice attitude, jeffboy. these things are public though.

 

Arbitration
Toyota encourages it, hopefully the dealer typed the op's complaints as they happened onto their computer (timeline) and obviously, the tires have been defective all the while, dealers don't need enemies, well, we hope.

 

Based on tire tread? Can the shop predict the future? 30k miles is a lot of wear and tear on the tires. Depending on road conditions and you're driving habits will determine how many miles you " could " get. If you knew you had this problem from the beginning of owning this and didn't take care of it then that's your problem. And when I mean take care of it buying new tires. You decided to drive on defective tires BC you felt someone else was responsible. You fought for 6 months and didn't get anywhere. Sounds like to me nobody else was responisble except for you. You're lucky you, friends or family weren't seriously harmed. You took a risk and drove it to 30k miles and now you want brand new tires for free. Be thankful Goodyear is giving you credit for the tires. Suck it up, pay for the new tires, read the fine print on the new tires, get warranty on them, hazard protection, etc...

 

I think specifically as far as the tires go, you're stuck with whatever pro-rated warranty coverage the tire manufacturer offers. Toyota is out of the picture here.

If you've been suffering from vibration and balance problems and had the vehicle in for service and diagnosis based on these symptoms I do think you can question why the dealership did not discover the tread separation. If you specifically brought it in for these issues, then an inspection by the dealership should of revealed the problem.

However at 30,000 miles it's not really the dealerships or Toyota's "fault" the tread is separating. Any deserved compensation in that regard is directly with the tire manufacturer,

In short, I don't think you can expect Toyota at this late point to offer any compensation for the tires condition.

And conversely I don't think you can expect Goodyear to compensate for the Toyota Dealerships inability to diagnosis the separating tread, and the subsequent cost of balancing the tires.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to get much sympathy here. You might have been able to persuade the dealer to comp the alignment had you been able to prove the tires were "defective" at the time of the alignment. However, as others have said, you've gotten 30,000 miles out of OEM tires. Tire warranties are notorious for being almost worthless, even more so on used vehicles, in that they only pro-rate any compensation and that is usually off new tires of the same brand.

I do find it odd that all 4 tires are "defective". I also think we're missing some information. For example,:

What was the mileage when you bought the car?
When did you first notice the problem?
At what mileage was the alignment done?
Was the problem still there right after the alignment?
If not, how long before it recurred?
If so, did you take it back and what did the dealer suggest trying next?
If they suggested new tires, why didn't you?
How long after that did you finally go to the tire dealer?
Do you now have new tires?