I am reminded of a guy who I knew many years ago, who was always “shocked” by the price of tires–even the “off brands”. His comment–repeated whenever he had to buy a tire–was, “It’s just a hunk of rubber”, and nothing that I said ever convinced him otherwise.
He always bought Delta tires, so I assume that they were cheap. His '59 Pontiac sported Delta tires of 4 slightly different sizes, and varying width of the whitewalls.
LOL, he had a lot of company back in the '60s. Lots of people should just buy whatever was cheap, and would replace one tire at a time. My dad did this.
Around town, nooooooooo problem. (She’s no “snowflake.”)
Possible road hazard warranty is an excellent idea.
I just looked at the tire picture , this person even had to ask if they should continue to drive on it . Mr. Insightful , there is no way I would let anyone drive around on a tire like that , period.
There are a few interesting things about this thread:
That the OP would ask a question about a tire that had failed a vehicle inspection. Did he think he could appeal the decision?
The damage is ugly. Why did he originally think the tire wouldn’t fail? Or was it that he forgot about it?
The comments about the cords not being cut: If the cords aren’t damaged, the tire is not at risk of a structural failure (or at least not anymore than an undamaged tire.) For practical purposes, the rubber in the sidewall is there just to protect the cords from damage. it adds so very little to the structural integrity that it can be discounted. Further, if the rubber starts to crack, the crack will stop at the cords and the worse that will happen is the rubber will peel off.
As a reference, take a look at some race tires. You can see the cords in the sidewall. ie, there is no rubber to speak of.
Bottomline: The OP was right to question the call, as it is going to cost him money, but I very much doubt that another inspector would pass the vehicle.
Race car tires are meant to go a few miles before you throw them away, and are carefully inspected before each session. Passenger car tires are meant to go tens of thousands of miles before you throw them away, and many people almost forget their car has tires until one goes flat, hopefully not at-speed. You can look at a race car tire before you drive on it, every time you drive on it (i.e, once) and verify that there isn’t any structural damage. While you can technically do that to a passenger car tire, no one does including I’d wager the gearheads here.
If you get into a scrape with a race car tire that damages the cord, you’ve probably also damaged the car to the point that it’s coming off the track, often on a tow strap. Crashing at 150mph tends to do that. If you get into a scrape with a passenger car tire that damages the cord because the rubber is gone, you might have been doing all of 5mph when you scraped that curb, and you won’t think anything of it until you’re doing 70 and the tire blows.
Inspectors do not tend to fail cars because they aren’t all pretty and ready for Pebble Beach - they fail them because of safety and/or environmental defects that need to be corrected sooner than later.
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I clicked on the link, then “blew up” the image, and in my opinion, there is a bit of cut cord visible
When I looked at the pic, it also looks like there’s a chunk missing from the rim next to the tire damage, doesn’t it?
McDonald’s has several drive thru ordering stations with an optical illusion that makes you think the road goes a different way than it does. The ordering station is not installed parallel to the driveway. This causes drivers to hit the curb as they leave the station.