The tyre warranty is valid from the date of purchase

The production date is not relevant for consumer protection

Should the tyre production date matter to the driver? It turns out it should not. The best tyre manufacturers give warranty for new passenger tyres from the date of their purchase, not production. New tyres are understood as unused, not necessarily just manufactured – tyres are not food with an expiry date! Tyres do not start to lose their properties from the moment of their production – and produced even a few years ago are a sterling product. It is far more important that you keep your receipt, which includes the warranty start date, in a safe place.

Even a tyre that is several years old will retain all its properties and quality during storage. Tyres wear out during operation, not when stored in a factory or a warehouse. Anyway, buying tyres with a production indicating that their production took place just a few months ago is usually impossible – even tyres in popular sizes are produced several months in advance of the season! In addition, we have to take in to account the time it takes to distribute them to wholesalers and further to stores. Less frequent sizes are usually produced during a certain week of the year or even once every two years. Checking the production date when buying tyres makes as much sense as checking the production date of windows or wipers in a new car.

– Buying new tyres is definitely an investment that must be planned in the home budget. That is why leading tyre companies give their customers a sense of security by providing warranties from the date of their purchase, not production. Tyres do not wear out in the period between their production and sale – they are brand new. Besides, thanks to market demand research, we will not find tyres older than 3 years in the official distribution, even for rare cars –– points out Piotr Sarnecki, General Director of the Polish Tyre Industry Association (PTIA).

The DOT number is used by tyre manufacturers only to identify the production lot. The date of production is part of this code, which also includes and indicates the factory, size and model of the tyre. The code was introduced by the US Department of Transportation (hence the abbreviation DOT) in order for there to be an official international marking to identify tyres – giving any other meaning or additional validity to the production date is simply a mistake.

– Tyres are a very important part of the car’s safety equipment – the only element that comes into contact with the road. It is a technically complex product that has to reconcile opposing requirements – such as grip, durability or aquaplaning resistance. However, it does not matter whether the tyres are several days or several years old at the time of their purchase – this aspect does not affect the warranty period – adds Piotr Sarnecki.

If we have already bought our dream tyres and we have the manufacturer’s warranty for them, now it’s our turn to take proper care of them. You will need to find a service that will not destroy them during assembly. This is much more important than their production date. There are nearly 12 thousand tyre services in Poland. Unfortunately, the level of their service and technical culture varies greatly. Then there are services that torture tyres mercilessly during assembly, because they believe that rubber can withstand everything. Unfortunately, it cannot. When forcibly mounted on faulty machines, the tyre bead tears very easily. This is the only point of contact between the tyre and the rim, transmitting all engine and braking forces to the tyre. Such a tear – depending on its size – leads to a loss of pressure in the tyre or even to it sliding off while driving. Of course, as customers, we will not notice any tears, because the rim edge will effectively hide them from us…

So, when buying tyres, let’s think about where we will assemble them in order to ensure safety and our satisfaction with their performance for several seasons. To facilitate this, the Polish Tyre Industry Association, together with the independent certification company TÜV SÜD, introduced a system for assessing and awarding professional services based on an independent audit of equipment and qualifications of technical personnel. It is worth choosing workshops with a PTIA’S Certification of Tyre Services, which have been audited and thoroughly checked. Safe service means your safety.

This post is also available in: polski (Polish)