Road Hazard Warranty...Worth it?

[Todd & Meg]

So what do you think about Road Hazard Warranty offered from Discount Tire? Normally I wouldn't buy a warranty like this but I Just got a screw in a tire right at the side wall and couldn't be repaired. Still had about 10,000-15,000 left on the tires.So the three tires will get moved to the teardrop camper and we are getting 5 new for the Jeep.

The new tires are $250 each and the warranty is about $220 for the 5 tires. On the last set, the warranty would have paid off.

What do you think?

Todd


Side note...When I went in to pick up the rim after they couldn't fix the tire, the counter guy said I really should buy two new tires. That you should never just replace one tire with the wear we had, it's a safety issue. I said I have to think about what we are going to go with next. And walked out. Came back a week later and got a price on new tires and another guy was trying to sell me on the warranty and I asked him,

Me, "So if I have a tire that can't be fixed you will replace two tires?"
Sales guy "No we only replace the damaged tire."
Me, "But I was told it was told you should never just replace one tire, it was a safety issue. Why would you send me on my way with an unsafe vehicle?"
Sales guy, "deer in the headlight look"
Me, "Wow, it's funny how now it's ok to just replace one tire?

I knew I could have some fun with this guy for probably another 10 minutes but I felt my time would be better spent across the street at Taco Bell.

 

[Anak]

You have to remember that the house always wins.

A warranty is just a gamble. If you are buying the warranty you are betting that your luck is worse than the average person's luck. The house has actuaries who have very deliberately calculated their risk and determined how much they need to charge for that warranty in order to assure themselves of a comfortable profit on the product (that product being the warranty, not the tires).

I have bought the warranty for trailer tires because it is hard to monitor conditions of the trailer tires from inside the tow vehicle. That can easily lead to a destroyed tire. Whereas on the vehicle I am driving I am more likely to detect a tire with low pressure and deal with it before it is beyond repair. (Note: I will most likely repair it myself.)

In general a product warranty is just another profit center for the retailer, regardless of the product. If you want to increase their profits, go for it.

 

[grubworm]

I felt my time would be better spent across the street at Taco Bell.

that is true with most things...

 

[Flipper]

Cut my right rear tire pulling my small boat to Ponce Inlet Friday morning, I dont know what I ran over but the tire went down in about 30 seconds. We were at highway speed, by the time I pulled off the road the tire was completely destroyed. We go pretty well equipped so we were back on the road in around a 1/2 hour. While I was putting the spare on ,the Wife was on the phone with Tire Kingdom setting up an emergency stop. There was a TK about 5 miles down the road, one of the reasons I buy my tires there they have stores all over the country, they had the tire in stock. 10 minute ride, pulled in, they jacked the truck up in front of the building since the boat was still hooked up, swapped the tires and we were back on the road in an hour. I’m not one big on extended warranties but on some things I bite the bullet and get it. The bill was still $80 but when your looking at $500 without the warranty seems it paid off this time.

 

[Boostpowered]

I buy my tires on the internet have them shipped to my door and i install them myself so if anything goes south its my fault and i have no one to blame but me. Its way easier than dealing with highschool dropouts at discount tire etc.

 

[MidOH]

No.

[Ohio area rant on]
I'm not going to pay an idiot extra, so that idiot can tell me what to do. We're the tire experts, not the uneducated slob behind the counter at a tire shop. You can learn more about tires in one day on the net than these guys have learned in their entire careers.

These shops don't even know how to properly mount a lug centric wheel, or how to properly rotate DRW trucks. I used to work at these shops when I was a kid. Nothing funnier than watching techs balance a wheel 5 times trying to get it smooth. They were torquing lug centric wheels on the ground, not in the air. Lolz. But I was just a kid, everyone ignore me. Haha. Vibration moved to a different corner of the vehicle everytime they popped a wheel off. So then they'd rotate and balance the bad tire, then the good one would vibrate. Hilarious.

Generally, road hazard type flats occur towards the end of the tires life, and then you need two tires. And road hazard rarely covers one whole tire, and never covers two. The whole, ''we'll give you a discount on your next tires bit'', makes me violent. It's just a rip off.

It's best to just bring loose wheels to these moron shops. Tell them it's for an ''off road only'' buggy.
[Ohio rant off]

 

[MidOH]

99% off tires shops don't know what this is, or how to properly install it:

I keep plug/patches on my truck now. So I can have nails properly removed, and repaired. Assuming that I find a shop that can follow the simplest of instructions.

 

[Anak]

It's best to just bring loose wheels to these moron shops.

This is exactly what I do.

Largely because I have had repeated experiences comparable to yours. I think it took 5 tries for them to get things right on my GTA. First it was telling me my tires had come in, when only two of the four were there. Then wheels with different offsets seemed to be a new paradigm for them. Followed by the concept that some tires have one side that should be to the inside and another side that should be to the outside. And then there was that pesky issue of cross-threading a lug. And that was all on just one vehicle.

I just drop off the rims anymore. And I have never had to explain why or what for. Perhaps at this point my reputation precedes me.

 

[Flipper]

I buy my tires on the internet have them shipped to my door and i install them myself so if anything goes south its my fault and i have no one to blame but me. Its way easier than dealing with highschool dropouts at discount tire etc.

Yeah, I know what you mean about some of the employees. I don’t take my eyes off them doing the job and if they do something I don’t like I politely call them on it.

 

[Todd & Meg]

You have to remember that the house always wins.

A warranty is just a gamble. If you are buying the warranty you are betting that your luck is worse than the average person's luck. The house has actuaries who have very deliberately calculated their risk and determined how much they need to charge for that warranty in order to assure themselves of a comfortable profit on the product (that product being the warranty, not the tires).

I have bought the warranty for trailer tires because it is hard to monitor conditions of the trailer tires from inside the tow vehicle. That can easily lead to a destroyed tire. Whereas on the vehicle I am driving I am more likely to detect a tire with low pressure and deal with it before it is beyond repair. (Note: I will most likely repair it myself.)

In general a product warranty is just another profit center for the retailer, regardless of the product. If you want to increase their profits, go for it.

Very good info. Thank you. Like I said I never buy extra warranties, but I was wondering by going off-road if I would be tilting the odds in my favor. But I read in another forum that Discount Tires warranty says in the small print "For on highway use only". One guy said he cut a sidewall and took the truck in and they looked at the tires and said the vehicle was off-road and the warranty doesn't cover that.

 

[old_man]

I tend to buy my tires at Sam's Club. The road hazard/rotation/balance, etc is quite cheap and worth the price of rotation only. They have stores across the US and are rarely more than 20 miles away.

Forget CostCo. They wouldn't mount my tires because they weren't the factory size. I made them refund me my membership.

 

[Anak]

Very good info. Thank you. Like I said I never buy extra warranties, but I was wondering by going off-road if I would be tilting the odds in my favor. But I read in another forum that Discount Tires warranty says in the small print "For on highway use only". One guy said he cut a sidewall and took the truck in and they looked at the tires and said the vehicle was off-road and the warranty doesn't cover that.

And that is how they rig the tables.

Might as well go play in Vegas. At least there they might comp you a drink.

 

[The other Sean]

I never do. Though, the main reason is All the free flat repairs and rotations I get from discount tire for buying tires there in the first place, I feel if I have to buy a tire here and there, I'm still even.

 

[Delux2769]

I don't do the road warranty. I buy my tires online or off craigslist, and have a small shop mount them down the road typically... No warranty there, except for the balancing they give me, which has always been better quality than when I used to use Discount or Firestone or Big-O.