Why Tread-Life Warranties are Next to Useless

In making a tire purchase, long tread life is among the most important features sought after by many consumers, yet our real-life treadwear tests have found so much variation between the promise and the reality that it’s impossible to use the stated tread-life to accurately comparison-shop between brands.

For that reason and others, Consumer Reports painstakingly performs vehicle treadwear testing and rates tires for tread-life. And now, we are introducing comparative mileage projections. (See the complete tire Ratings.) Of course, your actual mileage will vary by what, where, and how you drive among many other factors.

Many car tires come with a prorated mileage warranty, also called a tread-life warranty, that is often used as a selling point. Think of that mileage limit, generally somewhere between 30,000 and 100,000 miles, as a figure highly influenced by a marketing department. It may be close to what you get, but in the comparisons we’ve made, it may be way under.

Moreover, if the tire doesn’t live up to the wear promise, you may find that the so-called warranty imposes so many restrictions and conditions that it’s nearly impossible to collect on. It may even be pointless to try, although a diligent and truly determined consumer can sometimes manage it.

Read “The Truth About Tire Treadwear.”

How It Works

A tread-life warranty is not a money-back guarantee. As with other prorated warranties, what you can collect is only a partial credit. With tires, that credit is usually good only toward the purchase of an` essentially identical tire from the same manufacturer. If you didn’t especially like those tires, and maybe wanted to upgrade to something better, tough luck. Then you get nothing.