My brother owns a 2021 Subaru Outback Touring XT, and when he had it at the dealership for service recently, they informed him that he needed to replace his tires–at 16k miles. While OEM tires are not usually very long-lived, he was surprised to find that his tires were evenly worn to 3/32, and he asked to speak with the Service Manager.
He had a respectful discussion with the SM, and told him of his extreme disappointment at the very short tread life of the OEM tires, and he asked if it was possible for them to be replaced under warranty. Of course, the SM informed him that this wasn’t possible, but he promised to kick the issue up to the corporate folks to see if they would authorize replacement of the tires.
Well, it took a few weeks, but the SM got back to him and said that he was surprised that the corporate folks agreed to replace the tires–gratis. Yesterday, they mounted a set of Bridgestone Duellers, and a free alignment was included.
If somebody other than my brother reported this, I would have been skeptical, but he even forwarded a copy of the zero balance invoice for me to see. So, even though this request was something that I would have considered to be unlikely for approval, he was successful, and I think that this is a good lesson for everyone–that being forceful, but respectful–can sometimes result in a positive outcome from a car company’s corporate customer service staff.
I have found that that approach is the most likely to get some cooperation. If needed, be persistent but avoid getting steamed up/abusive. Tell them the positive thoughts you had that led you to that business.
Good for Subaru Corporate for appreciating their customers & backing up their promises they make for their product. Just curious, do the Corporate folks have a pretty good reason to believe your brother might be looking soon for another new Subaru?
He is definitely in the market for another car, but it is doubtful that it would be a Subaru, because they don’t currently make any PHEVs or EVs in which he would be interested. His wife currently drives a Toyota Avalon hybrid, but she finds the seats really uncomfortable, so they want to replace the Avalon. They would consider an EV, but the Subaru Solterra (identical to the Toyota bZ4X) doesn’t have a very good battery range, and the Crosstrek PHEV has a short battery range.
After riding in my NX, they found the seats to be much more comfortable than the ones in the Avalon, and they like the idea of a PHEV, so they are considering a few PHEVs, including the NX 450h+.
Also, I should point out that the Bridgestone Duellers that they put on his Outback have the same really poor wear rating (260), that the OEM Yokohama Avid tires had, so he will almost surely be shopping for tires again in a couple of years.
Me too. That’s why I didn’t buy one in 2017. I liked the rest of the car though.
I like my Model 3 Tesla a lot. If they prefer an SUV, the Model Y is attractive. The EPA rates the base model range at 279 miles. My Model 3 range is similar and it works for me. As a second car it might make sense. The base price is $32,890 and that seems attractive.
The base Y starts at $44k, RWD and 260 miles on a 100% charge. The Long Range starts at $49k, AWD and 330 miles. Performance model is AWD, 303 miles and $53k.
My seats are fairly comfortable for me and have adjustable lower lumbar support. The ride isn’t too bad for 35 series tires, either.
Service managers are awesome. I’ve always had a good experience with them.
That said, needing tire replacement at only 16k is nuts. How does your brother drive? I’ve seen Hondas on the same pair of tires with 50k miles from 2021(sedan fwd).
Extremely poor tire wear is not that unusual for OEM tires, especially when they have a treadwear rating of only 260, as his original Yokohama Avids did. The free replacement tires are Bridgestone Dueler, which–coincidentally–also have a treadwear rating of only 260, so he will be shopping for tires again in a couple of years… most likely.
Like me, he keeps his tires properly inflated, has a 4 wheel alignment done when necessary, and does most of his driving on rural roads at speeds of 45-50 mph. No matter how prudent someone is with tire care, when the treadwear rating is only 260, they are just not going to last very long.
My last set of tires for the Mustang ran 16,000 miles and 5 trackdays with 240 treadwear tires. They still had legal tread but no grip. Clearly run harder than your bros car!
… and poor treadwear on OEM tires predates the days of treadwear ratings by… a lot.
The BF Goodrich Silvertown tires on my father’s '66 Galaxie 500 were evenly worn-out in 16k miles. Since I was in charge of maintenance, I know that they were consistently properly inflated, to ~3 psi over spec, and my father certainly drove conservatively. I didn’t drive it as conservatively as he did, but he drove it more than I did.
We replaced the OEM tires with Pep Boys’ “premium grade” Cordovan tires (made by Cooper, I think), and they lasted for more than 30k miles, with superior wet weather performance, as compared to the BF Goodies.
I had a big time lawyer customer that drove a Z06, his 1st set of Goodyears got 6-7K miles out of them, he didn’t race it or anything, it was one of many high end vehicles he drove… We put on Bridgestone’s and he got 10-11K out of them, he was very happy with that outcome and the performance/handling… BTW in 2016ish it cost him $1100-$1200 a pair, not set but a pair… Loved seeing him roll up… lol
Rears were like 335/25R20’s, I don’t think B’stone even makes that size anymore…
OEM tires seem to be where manufacturers can safely cheap out. Everyone wants tires that are:
cheap
long lasting / high mileage
Safe and gripy so they corner and stop well
Low rolling resistance for good MPGs.
The problem is that the manufacturers must install tires that are 3 (safe) and have low rolling resistance to help meet MPG targets. At the same time they want to spend as little as possible so they must be cheap. The manufacturer doesn’t care much about how long they last. So they install tires that are low mileage and perform well too. They might last 30,000 miles, if we are lucky. The tires on my 2021 Ram 1500 had to be replaced at 25,000. Now I see that wasn’t so bad. Grrrr
Not necessarily.
My 2002 Outback came from the factory with Bridgestone Re-92 tires that had such a total lack of traction on winter road surfaces that I had to buy my first set of winter tires a few weeks after buying the car.
Addtionally, they weren’t good on rainy days, so even though they were only worn to ~5/32, I dumped them in order to have decent tires mounted.
So, I definitely had a gripe regarding the non-grippy nature of those OEM tires.
My Camry came with terrible Bridgestones. Car next to it at dealer had Michelins. Both had steel wheels. Swap? Nah. I just drove carefully for 3 yrs and lease ended.
OEM tires are the best of the best out of that batch of tire (at least with both 'Stones), kind of like the high end steak houses get the best steaks 1st then Waffle House then Kroger’s… The smoothest, most roundest, best balanced tires go to the manufactures, then the dealers and or tire shops… The reason is cause some manufactures want you to fall in love with the ride of the vehicle you are looking for and buy it… And in doing that sometimes the tread is softer and wears much faster, or they just ask for a very soft low mileage tire… The old B’stone SE200’s that came on some OEM’s only has a 320 treadwear, but the dealer and tire stores were all 560 treadwears, And I have seen them (560) go 80K miles on a Civic… However the old F’stone FR710’s on some OEM’s didn’t last with the same treadwear rating as the tire shops, and the tire shops would go the distance…
Good point. I have definitely noticed there’s quite a bit of difference in inherent balance, tire to tire. Stands to reason the same applies to the out of round spec.
When I sold my 2017 Accord to my son in law the car had a little over 42,000 miles on it with original tires. There was still 6/32” of tread remaining. There could easily be another 10,000 miles remaining.