Hyundai Santa Fe Tires (crapola)

Just noticed the other day the OEM tires on my 07 Hyundai Santa Fe were looking a bit worn (already, what!).  The car was purchased in Aug of 07, has just a hair over 26K miles, and needs new tires.  Yes, that is just over 8K miles per year which is very low in my book.  In any case, I stopped by the local Bridgestone dealer to take a look assuming they could potentially be covered under warranty.  He explained the OEM tires are low grade and I was basically lucky they lasted as long as they have.  He carried the same tire with the same name, but his carried a 60K mile tread warranty.  This has to be a joke, common!  So, Bridgestone makes an OEM tire carrying the same name as a production tire, but lower grade, and no warranty.  Hyundai is going to get a call today.  Doubt they will do anything, but its worth a shot.

Note to self:  If I buy another Hyundai in the future, finagle production tires in to the deal!

[Update] Received a reply from Hyundai.  They are basically telling me this is Bridgestone’s problem.  So, I called Bridgestone.  I was told that Hyundai defines the spec’s for the tire, then Bridgestone brands them under an existing label, but with no tread warranty.  So, the “Dueler H/T D684 II” tires that come on the car are NOT the same tires you can go to the dealer and buy.  This appears to be a cost cutting mechanism employed by Hyundai, but somewhat of a scam if you ask me.  Well, now I am following up again with Hyundai.  More to come…

[Update] Hyundai is still pointing the finger at Bridgestone. However, Bridgestone will not touch these since they were defined by Hyundai and not the same as the after-market tire. Too bad Hyundai is simply installing junk tires at the expense of the buyer. Going to follow up with Clark Howard on this and post a complaint with the BBB. If this tire had a unique name and not that of an after-market, this would not be an issue. However, I appear to be looking at a tire with the same name, but too different makeup's...

[Update] Went to the local Bridgestone dealer.  The manager claimed he understood my problem and was willing to take care of the issue.  He printed out a quote which itemized tires totaling more than 900$ bucks that he was going to give me for 550$.  I looked closer at the tires he had quoted and could not even find them on the Bridgestone site, nor could he tell me the model number.  So, not sure if he simply jacked up the price on some junk tires so it would look like a better deal or what.  In any case, I ended up coughing up the cash for new Goodyears which are far superior to the Bridgestones.

Note to Bridgestone:  Marketing OEM tires with the same name as aftermarket tires is a bad deal.  You are losing customers as a result because the OEM tires are junk!  Would I buy or recommend a Bridgestone tire to a friend or family member, never.

Tired of fighting and arguing with people.  In this day in age, not taking care of the customer is a lost customer.  Can the auto industry afford this, guess so.  Lesson learned, double check the tires on new cars and ask lots of questions.  They may not be what they say they are.