My thought on this thread may be different than others. The OP was hit in a parking lot and the offending parties insurance is repairing the damage. My parking lot damage was a hit and run which meant using my insurance and paying deductible. The tires are near there end so just be glad you don’t have to use your own insurance and plan to get 4 new tires which you would have to do anyway, wreck or no wreck.
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I guess I agree. Have them pay for the one new tire, then buy three more matching ones yourself. Your tires are at the end of their life. Same as mine and I’m going to the tire shop this week.
As far as mis-match issues, as my high school chemistry teacher used to say “it’s in the book. look it up”. Owners manual should cover it or a quick call to the dealer, but they may not always be up to date. Myself, I wouldn’t want any mis-match.
Thanks to everyone for your replies and opinions. You all were a great help in supporting my case. I have settled with the insurance company. It was an interesting few days gathering facts to use and negotiating with insurance. The short version is: insurance agreed to pay pro-rated cost for both tires on the same axle. I felt that was fair.
Details:
First, I should correct myself and tell you the tires on the car had 6/32 tread left, not 4/32 as I originally stated. That probably influenced some of the responses.
My owners manual never commented on allowable difference in tread depth. It only said tires need to be of same brand, model and tread pattern. It suggested rotating for even wear.
Lexus.com in both e-mails and phone calls would not commit to anything. They referred me to my dealer. Absolutely no guidance from Lexus.
Dealers were elusive, but with some persistence, I got answers:Dealer #1 tried to refer me to Lexus, but eventually found a statement in a Lexus manual stating tread depth should not be “remarkably different” between tires. Whatever that means.
Dealer #2 said 2/32 difference in tread depth was the most allowed between tires on the same axle. No concern with difference from front to back. This was the only quantifiable number I got, so it is what I took to the insurance company
Dealer #3 said they recommended replacing all tires, but that the Lexus AWD design could accommodate for the tread depth difference. (I was telling them I had 4/32 tread left on the tires). So I guess Lexus has a pretty forgiving design. Good to hear.
Pirelli.com (Pirelli’s are on the car) kept deferring to Lexus. Finally I asked them if all the tire sales people were lying when they tell us tire wear should match and sell us all four tires when we try to replace one damaged tire. To that they said “we recommend replacing tires in sets of four on AWD vehicles”
Happily, I then learned insurance calculated pro-rate value incorrectly initially. They had calculated I had used 6/32 and only 4/32 remained. Actually case was opposite that. Interestingly, they also calculate tire life on the full 10/32 depth being usable, when Pirelli, most other tire companies and I believe most states consider 2/32 as worn out. In this case, the insurance calculation worked in my favor. I am effectively paying 40% of the new tires cost when I have really used up 50% of the usable tre tread.
My conclusion: For Lexus AWD, tread depth difference doesn’t matter from a driveline wear and performance perspective. I have to believe significant tread depth mismatch does affect handling, especially if on the same axle. TireRack.com makes that case. I will probably replace the other two tires, even though they have plenty of life in them. I like a matched set.
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Good that you got it resolved.
Another data point about AWD tire wear – Subaru manual says the 4 tires must be “the same” in circumference, degree of wear, size, brand, model.
But obviously they are never identical. Even 4 new tires from the manufacturer are not identical in circumference. There has to be some tolerance. But Subaru is silent on this.
Congrats on resolution and it sounds very fair to me as well. It helps to be well prepared and deal in a calm and confident manner. Sounds like you did both and it worked out. Disappointing that the car mfr wasn’t willing to commit to a specification for allowable variation…
The other party’s insurance company is in a weak bargaining position here. In addition to paying all medical and repair bills, there is usually a final settlement check that you accept in exchange for not suing them in the future. This final settlement, and only accept this AFTER all the other bills have been paid, should cover 4 brand new tires, typically its about $1000.
If they don’t make an offer, then let them know you will be contacting a lawyer. Do not demand this settlement, let them make the first move on this. If they don’t make it soon, end your next conversation with them by saying that you think you will just get a lawyer. That alone should motivate them.
Most people would have just accepted what the insurance company was offering. I’m guessing that’s what they were hoping. Good for you for not accepting their proposal without more discussion and clarification, and by doing so helping to keep them in line for the rest of us.
I had a problem with my insurance company one time. They didn’t automatically report to the state that I had insurance with them, even though they were required to. I was able to work around this by sending in proof of insurance to the state when I did my annual registration. At some point the state wouldn’t accept my proof, saying the VIN didn’t match what the insurance company said it was. I told this to the insurance company, and explained the VIN in their computer was wrong, and the one in the state computer was correct. The number the insurance company used didn’t even have the correct VIN format for the vehicle. Guess what? When the insurance company made the correction to the VIN, they inadvertently changed the model year … lol So the VIN’s matched, but the model years didn’t. So the state still wouldn’t automatically renew my registration without me sending in proof each time. It took 3 years of back and forth with the insurance company for them to finally get it all right. And I don’t have much confidence it will stay that way.
I’m still trying to figure out why my insurance company says my Camry is an SE model when everything I have from the bill of sale to the window sticker to the owners manual and the badges on the car say it is an XLE.
I would call them to explain your concern
The SE is the sporty model, whereas the XLE is the luxury model
I could envision scenarios where the insurance company pencil pushers believe that SE models are driven more aggressively, and are thus more expensive to insure
Also highly likely that if the car was totaled the insurance company would base fair market value on the less expensive SE.
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@db4690 and @sgtrock21,
I called the company, they explained it to me like this. In their records it is listed as a Camry SE/XLE. On the insurance card you carry in your car there is only room for a certain amount of characters in the model field so the /XLE gets dropped. But thanks guys I did check.
Reminds me of when we published our employee directory in the old days. I had to set a limit of 26 characters per name in order to fit on a standard page with all the other info in one line. I think there was only one person though that had to get a shortened name. These days though with hyphenated names, you really have to allow about double the space, or of course now we have computers.