News Article about Tire Age Limits

BB_TX wrote:
Surprising to me the trade group would be against it. Looks like they would be pushing for it to sell more tires as they age out.

Always look for the unintended consequence:
- The vast majority of passenger vehilce tires never make it close to 6 yrs. National average is something like 12-15k miles per year on a car. If your typical car tire lasts 30-50kmiles, that is 3-4yrs on a set of tires. My guess is they see very few extra sales as a result.
- While the popular sizes and styles won't have a problem odd ball sizes such as big off road tires (which are expensive and profitable) may have an issue. If you have a $2000 set of oversize mud tires that have sat in the warehouse (protected from UV damage for 3yrs, is the customer going to refuse to accept them or demand a big discount as half thier "life" is gone?
- Will people come back angry after they are told thier tires are out of date and they find out after the fact that they were 8 months old when they bought them?
- This also creates a perverse incentive for manufacturers to produce a tire that only lasts 6yrs (plus a little margin for error). There is no incentive for them to develop tires that will last 10yrs because the tire has to be replaced regardless. There is no advantage in developing such a tire. If a similar rule was applied 30-40yrs ago, we would be replacing our tires every 1-2yrs even though the technology allows for safe use well beyond that time frame.