I have a 2010 Honda Accord. I took delivery of it at the end of October and I just had it in for it’s first oil change at 7100 miles. I didn’t take it to the dealer becuase - well you know why - I wasn’t going to pay $50 for an oil change, I took it to a reputable shop and when the gentleman was done with my oil change he came in to ask me if I had felt like my tires were low on air, I told him no and he looked sort of confused he said "well someone must have because your tires were well over inflated, they were at 46 psi and he said the recommended was somewhere between 32-36 (He gave me the exact but I wasn’t fully listening at this point) This was the first time I had had someone do anything at all to my car - so the car came with overinflated tires - which means for 7100 miles my tires were overinflated, the technician said he took the preasure down but didn’t want to rotate my tires because of the uneven wear and he suggested next time I have an oil change I should start rotating them. My concern or question or irritation is should I go back to my dealer and take issue with them - how excessive or unnecessary did my tires wear over that time period because of the dealers mistake? Before I do anything I want to make sure I’m not making an issue out of something that’s not that big of a deal. Thank you!!
What you’re telling us is that over the course of almost five months and 7100 miles you never once checked the air pressure in your car’s tires.
I doubt you’ll get much sympathy, here or at the Honda dealer. But you could try. The guys in the service department can always use a good laugh.
Rotate the tires, set the pressures correctly, and drive on. Maybe buy a pressure gauge and check them once in a while.
A lot of technician will inflate tires to the “max” pressure on the sidewall. The max pressure should NEVER be used on any tire at any time. The maximum pressure came about due to some asinine law passed by the U.S. government years go. You should always follow the air pressure recommendations from the vehicle manufacturer. It’s in your owners manual or on a placard on the vehicle. I always use 32 psi which has always worked for me.
Sorry, but mcparadise is correct. Like checking oil, checking tire pressure should be done regularly by the owner of the car. These aren’t things that you assume can be “set” either initially at a dealership or at whatever the last service was. They are things that have to be monitored on an ongoing basis. A lot can happen in 5 months and 7k miles, and if you went to the dealer and they said they have no way of knowing whether or not they are responsible for it I’d have to agree with them.
“The maximum pressure came about due to some asinine law passed by the U.S. government years go”
What about the max pressure? Do you mean having the max pressure recorded on the tire’s sidewall? I’m not sure why that is asinine.
Since you neglected to check your tire pressure regularly as you should have, the majority of any tire wear issues are your fault, not theirs.
I’ll take a wild guess you haven’t bothered to check the oil yet either.
3 thoughts:
It is common for tires to be overinflated at the factory so they don’t flat spot in transit. They are supposed to be adjusted just before delivery of the vehicle - and sometimes this isn’t always done.
Unless you have a specific issue with the tires that you can demonstrate to the dealer, you will not get very far. And even then, he is going to say to rotate the tires and let them run another couple thousand before you come back. That way it would be clear that the problem has not been resolved.
Tires are warranted by the tire manufacturer, not the vehicle manufacturer, and the tire warranty strictly covers factory defects. Wear is specifically excluded. This makes any tire issue where the vehicle or the vehicle dealer is potentially at fault much more difficult to get resolved.
It’s asinine because they never thought out the law completely before passing it. The pressure should have been coded because your average drive or shadetree mechanic simply looks at the number and over-inflates the tires. I’ve seen this for years and the resulting blowouts. If you follow the recommended air pressure guidelines in the owners manuals and the placards on the vehicles all would be ok. The law has created far more problems than it’s avoided. Hence the word “asinine”. It’s a foolish law.
What does the law do? Do you mean to have the max pressure on the tire sidewall? I am simply unfamiliar with the law.
But if it is to have the max pressure on the sidewall - sorry, but its a pretty important spec. I want it there law or not. Its odd that you would think having it there was asinine. Rather than saying that people shouldn’t be so asinine as to not know how to figure out what their tire pressure should be. Its also funny that you simplify the “cause” as being the law itself.
Out of curiosity - what do you suppose led to the law?
If you really think its so asinine, start the campaign to add “consult manufacturer’s vehicle specifications for proper cold pressure” or something.
As Mcparadise said…you do not have anything to take issue with the dealer.
Not checking your tire inflation for 5 whole months is beyond ridiculous IMHO.
I would venture to speculate you haven’t read your Owner’s Manual either. In the long run this will prove to be a very costly mistake.
Proper car ownership is not limited to just gassing up the car and changing oil whenever one remembers. Todays cars are very complex electro-mechanical devices that need quite a bit of attention. Trying to treat it as a lowly TV remote control, will only bring grief and unecessary expense.
All cars should go through a PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection) before sale. When I worked for Honda we mechanics did these on the side (easy money) and after you do a dozen and get the routine down a tech can breeze right through the PDIs.
However, there has been a tendency to have these PDIs performed by the dealer detail guys (monetary outlay is far less) over the years and needless to say the detail guys are not mechanics and only a few have even a mild amount of mechanical ability.
(As an FYI, a PDI means checking tires, lighting, all fluids, belts, engine/trans operation, wipers, A/C, heat, etc. along with exhaust hangers, the rechecking of all suspension component bolts, etc. along with a test drive. Whether this is done today I have no idea but I wouldn’t bet money on it. As a further note, the factory pays the dealer to perform these PDIs. Heck, many years ago a tech even had to install the floor carpeting as part of that PDI.)
A Yugo PDI?
Sorry. I see no reason to have the actual number on the sidewall. Why would I want people to consult manufacturers vehicle specifications when most people won’t even read their owners manuals. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree since you obviously don’t understand human behavior. It would be easy to code the number so that people in the profession would know but the general public would not. If you don’t see the danger here then I guess you live in a cave somewhere. I still contend that it’s an asinine law.
I agree with the others who stated, or implied, that the car owner has been negligent.
Failure to check the tire pressure even once in 7,100 miles is a very good example of negligence.
As a result, any tire wear issues are on the head of the car owner, IMHO. Similarly, if the car was found to be low on oil after 7,100 miles, it would also be the fault of the car owner.
Cars do need to have things like tire pressure, oil level, brake fluid level, etc monitored on a regular basis. Failure to do so is…shortsighted and negligent.
I have no experience with the Yugos but assume that if it rolls off the transport truck into the lot without leaving a trail of parts it receives a free pass. 
Back in the 80s I worked for a large multi-line dealer and was real close to leaving there as it was such a screwed up operation that every day I felt like I was a fingernail on a chalkboard.
Rumblings appeared that we might become one of the first Yugo dealers in the country and that yours truly would likely be assigned to take care of these things. Not on my watch because I just knew there was going to be a total lack of support as to parts and warranty along with many complaints from people for whom the novelty of a cheap new car would wear off within a week. “But it doesn’t ride like my Cadillac”, “it’s noisy”, “it has no power”, etc, etc.
I quit soon after and sure enough; about 6 months later they took on Yugo as a franchise.
Like most dealers who take on a car with a cheap price tag or an inexpensive tag as compared to other cars they do it for one reason only; it’s a magnet to lure people onto the lot so they can try to upsell them into something considerably more expensive.
Back when I sold cars, I was in a similar situation. When I started it was a Nissan/Kia dealership. But they built a brand new dealership 3 miles down the road that was going to be a Nissan place only. The current building would become a Kia only dealership. I was one of the unfortunate ones that got to stay at the old building. They (we) moved all the Nissans down to the new building, along with most of the desirable used cars. We were left with 30 kias and about 20 used clunkers that nobody wanted on the lot.
I went from taking 3-6 ups a day to about 3 ups a week. Since kias don’t have much gross built into the price our brain trust decided to put $1500-$3000 “market adjustment” stickers on the cars. Pretty ballsy to arbitrarily tack on an extra $2000 on $10,000 car, especially when you consider you could get a nicer Sentra (sans market adjustment) for less money. You can imagine how well that went over. I stayed there about 4 weeks, then moved on the Ford dealership across town.
You’re right, of course. I am an idiot who knows nothing of human behavior and lives in a cave.
I am also too stupid to know that if any problem happens anywhere it is because the stupid government made some stupid law somewhere.
Now, blinded by my own stupidity I go sheepishly off into the night, though I go enlightened.
Well, you mentioned putting the floor carpeting in the car, so I just assumed that’s what it was. 
I imagine the Tata, should it become available over here, will likely have the same kind of business use for upselling customers(and having floor carpeting being put on by the dealership as well :P)
Unfortunately many people give their car no more care than their toaster (dump the crumbs every 5 months…)
Oil, tire pressure, etc. These things should be checked at least every month.
Whenever somebody works on my car I do a quick inspection for the right pressure or leaks etc. right there in the shop lot before I drive away.
Tires are over inflated at the factory and obviously the dealership failed to check and deflate the tires to specification. The “reputable” shop was paying attention, and in doing so saved you a lot of money. Overinflated tires wear quickly in the center are dangerously prone to skidding, especially on wet pavement. A well managed dealership would appreciate knowing that their shop is overlooking important details in new car inspections.