Reparing Leak in Tire Side Wall

[sms]

Costco is one of the few stores that sells tires that actually honors tread wear warranties. They also include road-hazard insurance rather than charge extra for it.

Like any business they want to minimize the cost of returns. They get credit back from the tire manufacturer for tread wear returns but few people take advantage of this even though they are entitled to. Road hazard replacements aren't covered by the tire manufacturer, so they want to minimize them.

If everyone was good about keeping tires properly inflated then there would be little upside in inflating with nitrogen. They aren't so there is.

Remember, even though some tire stores may charge $5 per tire for nitrogen, the actual cost to generate that nitrogen is about 1/100th of that.

[dold]

I had a flat on my Durango while towing a horse trailer. Don't know when it happened, spotted it when I came out of a restaurant. Drove across the street to Big-O. They wouldn't even consider looking at it while the horse trailer was attached. grumble. They took it off, said it was unrepairable, a zillion dollars for a replacement. Fortunately, they were out of stock.

I had them put the full size, but different looking, spare on, and headed home.

My regular tire guy said nothing major, fixed the flat, and I wore the tire out.

[trader_4]

You keep making this claim that the cost of nitrogen is offset in labor and warranty costs, without a shred of supporting evidence. The only actual real world data that I've seen is a test by Consumer Reports that showed that tires that were purged of all air, then filled with N, had a tire pressure difference that was about 1 PSI higher over the same tires filled with regular air, a year later. It's hard to see how that tra nslates into labor and warranty savings at Costco, or anywhere else.

And I don't think the poster is saying that the customer specifically pays for Costco's costs on a line item, buy line item basis. But if Costco's costs do get paid for by consumers, one way or another.

[Tekkie®]

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