First, it is a common BELIEF in the tire industry that properly stored tires are "new" until they are 6 years old. I say "belief" because I don't know of any studies that confirm this.
HOWEVER, the company I used to work for had data that indicated that there was no difference between properly stored 3 year old tires and freshly made.
Also, the clock starts ticking when the tires are SOLD - and the date of manufacture is only used in the absence of a purchase date (no receipt!) Check the warranty for details.
Further, it is common for some tires to be produced only once a year. That means the tires sitting on the shelf could easily be over a yaer old and no one on the retail end of things is going to care.
So I think the OP is going to have some problems with the tire dealer - except for the fact that the dealer did agree to supply tires less than that - Poor salesmamship!
