I would say that any defect that causes a safety issue it one too many.

That said, I really don't think the defect rate is all that high nor do I believe it has increased over the years. In fact I would have to guess that the safety defects have reduced quite a bit.

In addition the quality and value of tyres has increased greatly. Modern Winter tyres are far better than the old snow tyres in every way. All season tyres are better than the old tyre designs.

So why do we see so many complaints. I would suggest two reasons. First people have come to expect something better than we got back in the 1960's. So even if a tyre is better than dad got on his Chevy we often see it as less that it should be. Second we tend to be able to hear more complaints today. People don't tend to comment on line about tyres that work, so all we hear about are those that don't.

In short, I don't agree that the industry is turning out poor quality today.

I suggest that someone works for a tire company!!! BTW, how is the pension plan at Michelin, Mr Meehan?

My experience: I've had lots of defective tires, with companies which won't always back up their warranty. Or, tires that wear out WAY too quickly-- say, at 15,000 miles (are you listening, Les Schwab?)... Not to mention scummy dealers who add on hidden charges ("We added $50 for siping, cuz we figured you'd want it.")... ditto, for Les Schwab.

Is there such a thing as a belt "slipping" on a new tire? I've posted part of this under ball joints...a mechanic said this probably was the front in problem I've experienced. Make sense to anyone?
Thanks.

There is no such thing as a slipped belt.

The origin of the term comes from the early days of building radial tires where bias tire equipment and processes were used and occasionally a belt would "slip" during the expansion process. This would cause an unusual wear pattern in the tire.

Modern radial tire building doesn't use an expansion process, so the belts can't slip. But there are unusual wear patterns that some folks think can be attributed to the tire, so they incorrectly use the term "slipped belt" to describe why the tire is at fault. It is also common to think the belt "moved" after the tire was cured - and that's impossible, too!

Most commonly, the term is used to describe "irregular wear" - which is a fairly large category and includes diagonal wear (like you've described), feathering (This is a normal wear pattern, but misalignment can exaggerate the effect), cupping (In bias tires this was easily identified, but modern radial tires don't get this as easily and the term "cupping" is used where "irregular wear" or "diagonal wear" would be more appropriate), heel and toe wear ( A normal wear pattern, but misalignment exaggerates this as well.) and many others.

The term is also used to describe a separation - where the internal components of a tire come apart. And while there are many causes for this - both service related and manufacturing related - the belt slipping isn't one of them.

So while the term is occasionally used, it is used incorrectly.

I, too, disagree that it's any worse or better than any other time. The only comments to be voiced are the bad ones, never the good ones. Here at my Ford dealer we stock General, Continental, BFG, Michelin, Uniroyal,Pirelli,and Goodyear tires and in the past five years of the Ford ATW program ( where dealers have tires in the building instead of buying outside )I've seen only two mfg defects. Complaints are always the first opinion we here but consider the ratio to sales totals and, when "no news is good news" you'll see that it's not so bad at all .

No tire problems at Ford? Well, at "Quality Comes First" Ford, you guys also believed that the Pinto was a good car!!! Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaa!!! Sorry... my mom owned a Pinto... the last American car she ever bought...

I tend to buy pricier tires/ultra performance tires(Michelin/Bridgestone) so I have not run across this problem. Typically my tires have been made in Japan or Western Europe.

IMHO you get what you pay for in tires.

That giant sucking sound-only it's China and not Mexico. Consumers insist on the lowest absolute cost so producers look for any competitive opportunity to save costs on labor etc. You gets what you ask and pay for. A start is to deal with reputable companies such as Goodyear who do a good volume and avoid places like Sears, Costco, Walmart, etc. In my humble opinion anyway. How did we get there indeed.

So you think Michelins purchased at Costco are inferior?

Inferior no, old yes.

What? How do you figure?

At least in my town, the Costco is one of the highest volume tire sellers in town and they only sell the most commonly used sizes, so their tires typically haven't been sitting on the shelves forever like the tires at a lot of places. I know at least the last two sets of tires I've bought there have had manufacture date codes within a few months of when I bought them.

I've never had a problem since I figured out that buying good name brand tires is the way to go. When I was buying tires cheap as possible, I ended up with a couple sets that were, IMHO, criminally low-quality tires. I think that, like many products these days, there's a lower-tier of really cheap tires that didn't really used to exist. Back 20 years ago, the cheapest tire you could get was still going to be an okay tire. But nowadays you can get a cheaper tire, but they're really crummy, with poor handling, poor tread life, poor traction and they're FAR more prone to damage from improper inflation or road hazards. None of the problems I had with them were anything that would be technically considered a manufacturing defect, but they still caused all sorts of problems.

I agree with Bing. I usually do internet research on tires before changing to a different brand and found a tire that seemed to be just what I wanted. So, I went to several local tire stores to purchase the tires only to be told that the tires were out of stock and on back-order. There were, however, plenty of them available through the internet from several large tire wholesalers, so it was puzzling to me why there were so many of them out there, but none of the retail outlets could get any. When I dug a little deeper, it turns out that the manufacturer stopped manufacturing that particular tire but was preparing to come out with an improved version of the same model tire. Retailers who got their tires through manufacturer's wholesalers or from the factory were all backordered. Thetires that were in stock at the independent discount warehouses were older versions of the discontinued tire.

So, I believe that Costco could very well have older tires in stock.

Does anyone actually believe that the NEW improved tires of the same model tire is actually BETTER then last years model?? It's called a MARKETING GIMMICK. Consumers have been falling for that one for YEARS.

In all the years I've been buying tires and the close to the 1 million miles I've driven...I've only had ONE tire failure....I've had several tires wear out prematurely, but only ONE failure. And the tire shop promptly replaced it free of charge. I've bought from the discount places for years...I'd still be buying from them if the closest BJ's didn't turn over their tire installation shop to Monro Muffler (what a sleeze outfit). So now I buy from a local independent who's prices are very good and. Been there for a few years with not problems what-so-ever....Never had a problem with tires from BJ's either.

I don't agree. I think tire companies do try and improve their tires, especially if the older versions had some problems. Not everything is a gimmick and tires do get better. The only point that I was trying to make is that tires do get discontinued and are not available from the manufacturer, but thousands of the older versions are out there with the discount warehouses. So, yes it is possible to get an "older" version of an improved tire. Now whether you actually believe there has been an improvement or not is a separate question.

Not everything is a gimmick and tires do get better.  

Usually over a long period of time. If you look at tire improvements over the past 20 years...they really haven't improved that much.

From personal experience I can say that the Bridgestone Dueler AT Revos are better tires than the orginal Dueler AT's. And that's no small feat as the Dueler AT's were excellent all around tires IMO.

I just put a set of the new Michelin Primacy MXV4's on my wife's Accord ($550 installed) and the other day I was washing the car and I noticed that they were made in Romania. Ya never know anymore.....

I have not experienced a defective tire. And I have worked with tire manufacturers in the past. They often have advanced degrees in physics and chemical engineering even on the marketing side.

Of course, nothing is 100 percent so I won't say you didn't have bad tires. Even so, vibration is most often due to faulty installation, worn steering and suspension components, wheel misalignment, improper wheel balancing, wheel damage, or dragging brake pad or parking brake shoes. Those issues can play out differently on different tires. If I had a vibration, I would not suspect the tires first.

You've been lucky. Advanced degrees are irrelevant when your manufacturing quality control processes include factors for an "acceptable" level of defects. Not only is 100% not achieved, it is not even a target goal.

I think that the quality of tires has improved over the years, but it is possible that a defective tire may slip through. Back in the 1950's my parents had a Buick that had a vibration between 55 and 60 miles per hour. The tire dealer blamed the car. The service agency at the Buick dealer could find nothing wrong with the car, although the service manager would take it for a ride and drive it 95 miles per hour and couldn't detect a vibration. Finally, an independent shop determined that one tire was out of round. It wouldn't show up on the balance machine. My guess is that in the case where you replaced all four tires, you probably had one that was out of round and all four tires were condemned.

In recent years, I've never had a defective tire and this includes some bargain priced whomp brand that I purchased for my old car at WalMart.