When I got my 500SLC back on the road. I needed a set of tires as the ones on the car were pretty dry rotted. I webt back and forth between spending money on a nice set of tires such as Michelin's or opting for a cheap no brand tire for about 1/2 the cost.

The logic behind it was that I currently have 7 or so cars that I drive so this car wont see a lot of mileage and the tires would probably dry rot before the wear out.

Even though, I ended up buying a set of Michelin's from Costco as they had a special. Four months down the line, and i'm starting to see cracks in the side wall. The rubber is still soft, but it looks like dry rot cracks. Is this normal?

I'm now about to buy another set of tires for another car and am faced with the same dilemma.

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With best regards

Al

In the future you may want to read the date code on tires before you buy them. The ones I've seen are in an oval on the side wall. The last four digits indicate the week and year. I just bought a tire delivered and mounted on the 3rd of July, the date code has it made in the first week of June (2309) of this year.
The General's I have on the SD were produced in the first week of July 2008 (2708). Both of the tires above were bought from TireRack.
It wouldn't surprise me they've been sitting around in a warehouse for some time.
Now you know why they were on special!

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83 SD

84 CD

Al, recommend going to Costco and see if they will replace the 500SLC tires free-of-charge since they are only 3-months old. In the future you'll know to check the manufacture date on "special sale" tires.

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Fred Hoelzle

Thanks guys. I'll go to Costco this week. It was not a 'special' in the sense that they were trying to clear them.

Costco, was offing $100 instant rebate a set of any four Michelin tires. As they only sell this brand and BF Goodrich, I assumed that they were not clearance items.

I think this was a manufacturer deal that was available at all tire vendors.

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With best regards

Al

Check the date code, as noted above. Then go back to Costco - they will take care of it.

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Bill Streep
San Antonio
'57 190SL (toy)
'08 S5500 (mine)
'09 CLK550 (wife's)
'06 SLK350 (daughter's)
'11 GLK350 (daughter's)
'03 CLK310 (spare)

I find it hard to believe that they would be setting around the warehouse long enough to develop cracks in the side wall.Most of the tires we sell are only a few months from Michelin at the most.Even if they are a slow seller we can not sell any tire older than 3 years old and I have never seen any tires, even the dogs, get older than 1 year.I would take them back and have the Manager look at them to see what"s going on with them.Any chance of posting a pic so we can see what your talking about?

Actually I should have followed up on this.

I took them back to costco and asked them to take a look. I told the guy at the front desk that I bought a set and after less then 3 months, they are showing dry rot. He came out and took a look and refused to believe that they sold these tires to me because the DOT date was around Aug 2006. Luckily i had the receipt in the glove box which cut that conversation before I lost my patients with him.

When he saw that they actually did sell the tires and checked the serial numbers. He spoke to the manager who called his area manager that made him ask a bunch of idiotic questions such as "do you use armorall on the tires" and "have you been parking the car outside overnight?"

Eventually they told me that Costco will sell tires that are up to 3 years old (these were 2 years and 8 months old). They should be kept in climate controlled locations so they don't dry rot and dry rot is not typically covered under warranty, but they will replace them for me at no charge.

I always thought Costco had a reputation for being a customer champion so I was surprised at how it was handled. While they did eventually agree to replace the tires, I felt that I had to convince them every step of the way that something as obvious as dry rot after 3 months is something that they need to take care of.

I always expected a quality product from Michelin (I've had Goodyear on most of my cars) How dry rot after 3 months is not a warranty issue is beyond me. I would not expect dry rot from a 7 year old tire let alone a 3 year old one.

On my latest project, I decided to buy some cheap off brand tires for a fraction of the price of what I paid for these Michelin's. They may not last very long but given that I have 8 running cars. The chances are that my tires will dry rot before they wear out, and if that's going to happen. I would rather pay peanuts for them. This is the first time I put off brand tires on my car but so far so good (it's been less then a week).

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With best regards

Al

Michelin makes one or more Costco-only tires. They're clearly not the quality of their mainsteam tires. For one thing, you can note on Michelin's website that they do not incorporate low rolling resistance features.

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Kent Christensen
Albuquerque
'07 GL320CDI, '10 CL550. '01 Porsche Boxster
Two BMW motorcycles

Nonsense.

The "Costco only" tire is a club tire that is also sold to Sams Club and BJs (an east coast warehouse club.) It is usually just a slightly different tread pattern from the mainstream tire that Michelin sells. Michelin also makes "bespoke" tires for Wal Mart, Sears, Discount Tire Center etc, and many times, those tires are just renamed, versions of the stock Michelin tire with a slightly different tread pattern.

Go to Costco and see if they have the Michelin Data Books from about 2003/ 04. Take a look at the individual pages for the Michelin LTX M/S vs the Michelin X-Radial. If you look at the graphical representation of the tires with the circles denoting the tires and compare them on the pages you will see they are in the same exact place. In fact, on one of the books the X-Radial also has LTX M/S in that circle.
Same for the Michelin Harmony tire. The (almost exactly) same tire is sold at Costco/ Sams/ BJs as the XRadial, while at Sears it was the Destiny etc.

What you are saying is analogous to the Chevy Tahoe being inferior to the GMC Yukon. Its the same thing, in slightly different clothes, and sold at different outlets.

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'O=00=O'
bmw 2002.
long live the legend

I would be seriously surprised is Michelin or any other company would make a branded product that was of inferior quality to their standard range. It would just cause too much damage to their reputation.

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With best regards

Al

Michelin bought BFG years ago, uses molds and manufacturing from both companies for both brands, and bottom-of-the-line tires from any manufacturer are inferior to their better tires.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Well yeah, but these aren't cheap tires. They ran me about $100 / tire which is pretty expensive for 14 inch tires.

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With best regards

Al

typically the "club" or private label tires are discontinued designs which are renamed to eliminate competitive price shopping.

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Please, call me to place orders or for more info
use my name for on-line orders

I see too much of this in the auto parts world - you get what you pay for.

Interstate sells batteries in auto parts stores like mine, and they also sell batteries at Wal-Mart. The Wal-Mart batteries aren't the same ones; Interstate won't even let me warranty them b/c of the differences. It's a lesser battery, but it makes Wal-Mart happy. Tires sold to Discount, TireRack, and NTB etal are a tire of one quality, and the tires they sell at Wal-Mart, Costco, and Sams etal are of another quality. Are the tires crappy? No, but they're not the same quality as their "premium" tires. I once had it explained to me as thus: when they make tires, the final product can come out as an A tire, a B tire, a C tire, or a D tire in terms of perfect round, perfect balance, and a perfect mold; the Discount Tire etal get the A tire, the Wal-Marts get the B tire, and small mom/pop/wholesale guys get the Cs and Ds.

It sucks that Costco would sell you a three-year old tire when six years is the max that the tire manufacturers allow as "safe". You paid a discounted price, but you got a tire that was already half way gone on its lifespan. Which, I'd say, proves my point about why not to buy tires from Costco. They should have changed those tires out, so their customer service was good, but in the future I'd (a) check the date codes on any new tires!, and (b) avoid getting the "Best Deal" from a substandard tire seller.

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

What the! they weren't cheap. Probably the most I've ever paid for a set of 14 inch tires. $150 more expensive for the set then the goodyear Ultra LS that I bought from NTB a few months before (which they no longer stocked).

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With best regards

Al