The automotive world is traditionally considered a "man's world", so in theory every decision here should rest on clear logic and solid arguments. In most cases it does — but when the talk turns to tyres, all that rationality very often evaporates, giving way to myths and speculation. Strangest of all, in some cases the front line runs not only between the tyre retailers competing in the Lithuanian market. Perhaps the most striking example of this battle is the dispute over tyre age.
Where does the "wooden tyre" bogeyman come from?
The most prominent spot on the website of one of the longest-established companies in this business is occupied by a slogan announcing that "there are no 'wooden' tyres here" — meaning the company does not sell tyres older than three years, because "tyre rubber ages even when stored in ideal conditions" and "3–4 years after the manufacturing date the tread becomes noticeably harder".
In truth, that is the tyre bogeyman painted in its gentlest colours: during both the spring and the autumn tyre-changing fevers, the "facts" put into circulation usually dramatise the situation far more. Drivers are frightened with tales of tyres that have exhausted their "shelf life", lost their elasticity, hardened and no longer grip the road properly. A car shod with such tyres, the story goes, needs a far longer braking distance, becomes uncontrollable, turns every trip into a mortal danger — and so on.
How much truth is there in such claims? How do the "working" properties of stored tyres change while they wait for their buyers? When and why do they become unfit for use? Do tyre manufacturers really offer a product whose shelf life is comparable to that of pasteurised milk?
The manufacturers responded officially
Representatives of the world's two biggest brands — Bridgestone and Michelin — were quick to react, providing official answers to precisely such questions. The companies' engineers confirmed that the properties of the various materials and rubber compounds that make up a car's "footwear" do indeed change over time — but only if the tyres are stored improperly, that is, if they are constantly exposed to direct sunlight, moisture and temperature swings. Where the manufacturers' requirements are observed (Michelin, for example, has set strict tyre-storage requirements and standards for tyre retailers — those who fail to comply simply do not receive the company's products), tyre properties do not change over a 4–5 year period in the way some unscrupulous sellers claim.
We review the detailed positions of Bridgestone and Michelin — with specific figures and recommendations — in a separate article: Bridgestone and Michelin comments on tyre age.
The German dispute: ADAC vs BRV
Interestingly, a similar dispute over which tyres may be called "new" flared up in Germany last year. The country's famous motoring club ADAC proposed reserving that epithet for tyres no more than two years old. In response to this odd position, the German tyre trade and vulcanisation association BRV (Bundesverband Reifenhandel und Vulkaniseur-Handwerk e.V.) initiated tests of tyres of different ages and, having summarised the results, published its conclusions. They stress that correctly stored tyres retain all their properties for at least five years and may therefore be sold as perfectly safe throughout that period. The tyre manufacturers themselves confirmed this to the BRV in legally binding form, agreeing that tyres up to 3 years old are considered "factory fresh" and tyres up to 5 years old — "new".
BRV: the properties last the tyre's whole service life
The BRV emphasises that modern car tyres — summer and winter alike — are engineered so that their dynamic and safety properties endure throughout their service life. Admittedly, this statement (like treating tyres unused for 5 years as "new") holds true provided the storage conditions meet the manufacturer's requirements. A comparison of brand-new tyres with unused tyres stored for one to four years showed no essential differences between newer and older tyres in durability or endurance. Nor were any significant differences recorded in the results on wet or snow-covered surfaces.
"Tyres age because of various physical and chemical processes — ultraviolet light, water, heat, cold and so on. To soften their impact, special substances are added to the rubber compounds which ensure that properly stored tyres do not change their properties even over several years and are therefore identical to brand-new ones," states the document of the German tyre trade and vulcanisation association.
What does Egzotika say?
Commenting on all this, Rokas Lipeikis, head of Egzotika, observed that anyone claiming a tyre stored for two years is "bad" should, by the same logic, re-shoe their own car with new "good" tyres after roughly a month and a half of driving.
"Does a single person in their right mind do that? Probably not — yet some tyre sellers insist, without blushing, that the opposite is true. Such things are obviously a desperate attempt to discredit the sale of so-called clearance tyres when one cannot offer competitive prices. Our chain's range, for instance, often includes clearance premium-segment tyres that cost less than the mid-range tyres offered in our colleagues' shops. That is exactly when rumours are set in motion claiming that 2–3-year-old tyres are 'bad' and only tyres made in the current year are 'good'," remarked Lipeikis. Manufacturers like Bridgestone and Michelin treasure their reputations, recommend replacing tyres after 10 years purely as a precaution — and would certainly not grant warranties on their tyres if they had the slightest doubt about their safety after 8 or 9 years.
The myths are still alive today
False articles misleading consumers and contradicting the declarations of the major manufacturers Bridgestone and Michelin have recently reappeared. The company that has been commissioning such articles for years, scaring drivers, claims on its website that it does not sell tyres older than 3 years — and then refutes its own claim by "explaining" that it does sell them after all, only at a discount… Meanwhile, all the major retailers have long published each tyre's manufacturing date, and it is obvious that clearance stock is sold at a discount. Which raises the question once again: why try to intimidate buyers — to earn more by selling "fresh" tyres at a higher price?
