Safe-Guard Tire & Wheel Protection/Roadside Assistance

That may be a little tempting. And could depend on factors like rural vs urban(might be easier to get a tire shaved down in a big city), and driving conditions(do you visit a lot of construction sites or run on rock/gravel roads) and whether you but tires that are cheap or expensive. Also, i wonder if that warranty is universal? Some ext. warranties require you to go the A dealer. In the past some even required you to go to THE dealer you bought it from! Dealer cost of tires will be higher than aftermarket.

Personally, I'd put that money in a 'car fund' and hope I don't need it. If I do, well, it'll help offset the cost of a set of tires.

meh

Carl

You can buy tire with a road hazard warranty. Big O even has a free repair program if you buy your tires there.

I looked it over. The first thing they offer to do is repair a tire. This is anywhere from $20-30 for a (minimally acceptable) inside patch-only with rebalancing, up to maybe $50 to do a complete patch and plug with the hole properly drilled out. Their website doesn't have all their terms, which I'm sure is spelled out in their contract. They don't specify if there's a pro-rated repair payout or limits (if any) on repairs. The Tire Rack's Road Hazard Program clearly spells out that they have a $25 limit on repairs and a prorated replacement payout based on elapsed time.

You realy need ask yourself "when was the last time you had a complete tire failure" ??

Then put the money back in the bank. In a special account if you want to.

Update:

I called them, direct, and they have a plain Tire & Wheel protection, without the Roadside Assistance, for $399, but, when expressly queried about "replacing all four tires if one goes bad", they stated they'd never do that, only the one, no matter how worn the tires are. They asked who told me that, and, when I said my dealer, said that they would call and clear that up.

So, as I thought, a Rip. I'll put my money in the bank, as you guys have suggested...

I think the concern is for some AWD systems, especially the early one Volvo used. In the Volvo forum there have been a number of reports of destruction of the AWD system due to uneven tire sizes, including one that didn't make it 10 miles on the spare because the spare had not been included in the tire rotation. An alternative to replacing all four is to have the new tire shaved to the size of the others.

Subaru AWD doesn't have that problem, does it, y'all?

Mike

I think the primary problem is with some of the electronic AWD systems (4EAT an an example?) that go with the automatic transmissions. Detect slip and it goes to work with an electronically controlled transfer clutch. If the tires are of uneven size, it'll start freaking out and working overtime. In no time flat it could wear out like someone riding a clutch on a manual transmission.

The manual transmission models use a viscous coupled mechanism. Not prone to rapid destruction from mismatched tires (although I hear it can happen long term). I've used the compact spare on my 5-sp WRX and it didn't die after 20 miles at under 50 MPH.

Also - those 225/55-R17 tires on the Outback are really, really pricey.