Re: Toyota Dealer Hard Sell on Service

I suspect that the tread wear warranty is from Costco and not from the tire companies themselves.

I discovered many years ago that tire makers build inferior tires for Costco. Sorry to burst your bubble. I bought a set of Yokohama and they had a warranty of 40,000 miles. I got 30,000. I expected a pro-rate of 25%, AND discovered that America's Tire actually had a better Yokohama than Costco carried FOR THE SAME PRICE. I wanted the pro-rate on the tire and I wanted new tires from America's Tire, not the same tires from Costco. In the course of my ranting and raving, I was told that the tires made for Costco were not offered through the retail outlets, and if I wanted the pro-rate then I had to go back to Costco. I got the pro-rate off of the America's Tire version of Yokohama. Yokohama got the sale, I got the discount. I call that a win-win.

I'm all in for America's Tire Stores. Free rotate. Free flat repair. Better product at the same or better price.

No hot dogs though. That is a problem. The best lunch in town, any town, is a Costco Polish Dog with a double shot of sour kraut and all the fixin's and a drink, for a buck and a half.

That they use a different, Costco-specific model number for the tire compared to the retail outlets doesn't mean that they're making an inferior part. It only means that the buyer can't comparison shop for price between Costco and a retail tire outlet, for example.

Go ahead, try to price shop a GE appliance at Sears against the "same" appliance at Home Depot against the "same" appliance at an appliance store. It'll be the same stuff, but the model numbers will be different.

That's common practice in the retail world. No magic, no conspiracy, no foil hat.

And that could very well be. And that could be why Costco gets a different model number than the retail outlet.

But let's face it: the tire maker doesn't have the capacity nor the incentive to make a markedly different tire, nor do they want that model name sullied by slapping it onto a markedly inferior tire just to make Costco "happy".

The retail world is far, far more complex than he recognizes.

You're right, that alone doesn't mean the product is inferior. (Maybe "inferior" is a term that is a bit harsh. I don't remember that I used it, I said that the retail product was better.)

But added to the experience of a set of tires that lasted 25% less than the advertised spec surely means the product is inferior. Not one tire, but all four of them.

Then, the manufacturer indicated on the phone that the product at retail was better than the product at Costco.

This adds up to an inferior product.

Not a probably--that's a definitely.