Well, this sucks...

rockethead26

2019 CX-5 Reserve
:
N. Arizona @ 7000'
Getting ready to head down to Phoenix next Saturday to pick up my new GT-R. We're driving our 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee down for trade in (maybe $1000). The car still runs fine and I go out in the driveway this AM to drive it to work to give our Prius a break and the left front tire is flat, I mean flat. Now, I know I'm to blame here because we don't drive it much and the last time I really looked at the tires was last winter. Well, in the mean time, both fronts that are about 4 years older than the rears have completely dry rotted. The passenger side front is still holding air, but I'm not driving 130 miles on a 80 mph highway with either of them.

I have an appt at Discount tire tomorrow at 11:30 to buy tires so I can drive the final 130 miles. I'm hoping that they may have some decent trade-ins that they'll sell me. Otherwise, two new tires for the last drive. I think the Jeep knew we were giving her up after 20 years and wanted to make a scene.

What a PITA! Oh well, soon I'll be lovin' on a new GT-R. That's a consolation right there!
 
I had a 1990 Volvo (nearing 200,000 miles and running fine) and totaled it on a deer a few months after putting new rubber on it all the way around. One can only hope that Bad Timing/Good Timing at least break even in the long run. Hey, I bet that's what the deer's family said! ;)

Congrats on the Reserve!! I picked up mine in March and love it every time I get in it. I live in a very rural area and during nice summer evenings would go out for a long drive through these back roads. It had been a long time since I've done that.
 
Yeah, you just don't think about tires going bad from dry rot. A couple years ago my college age son just returned from a lengthy trip to Canada from Pennsylvania. Two days after he got home he blew a sidewall from dry rot. Fortunately it was 2 miles from home.

Congrats on the Reserve. I just replaced my first one which was rear ended & totaled at 2300 miles with it's clone. Up to 300 miles on the 2nd one.
 
Getting ready to head down to Phoenix next Saturday to pick up my new GT-R. We're driving our 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee down for trade in (maybe $1000). The car still runs fine and I go out in the driveway this AM to drive it to work to give our Prius a break and the left front tire is flat, I mean flat. Now, I know I'm to blame here because we don't drive it much and the last time I really looked at the tires was last winter. Well, in the mean time, both fronts that are about 4 years older than the rears have completely dry rotted. The passenger side front is still holding air, but I'm not driving 130 miles on a 80 mph highway with either of them.

I have an appt at Discount tire tomorrow at 11:30 to buy tires so I can drive the final 130 miles. I'm hoping that they may have some decent trade-ins that they'll sell me. Otherwise, two new tires for the last drive. I think the Jeep knew we were giving her up after 20 years and wanted to make a scene.

What a PITA! Oh well, soon I'll be lovin' on a new GT-R. That's a consolation right there!

Meh. I'd drive that at 50mph or less with fix-a-flat. I've had blowouts before in more unwieldy vehicles than a JGC. YMMV, and this is not advice, lol!
 
Thanks for the stories and encouragement, guys. Hopefully, my last trip in the JGC does not involve dead animals. Now I understand your moniker, Avoidin Deer. These two tires each have twin deep cracks all around the circumference of the treads. My initial thought was, "Holy crap, my wife and I have been driving around on these things". I don't think I'm brave enough for fix-a-flat, either! I sorta thought that dry rot was a desert SW thing, but it happens all the way up in PA. Glad your son was close to home, meow_man.

Looking forward to the drive home from PHX in the new Reserve but the forecast shows a good chance of rain on Sunday when we drive home to Flagstaff, not exactly the weather I was hoping for on a maiden voyage.
 
I think the Jeep knew we were giving her up after 20 years and wanted to make a scene.

That's one way to look at it. The other way is that she wanted you to see the condition of the tires before the drive, so that you wouldn't experience a blowout at speed. :)

Hopefully you can find some cheap take-offs for the GC's last drive under your ownership.
 
That's one way to look at it. The other way is that she wanted you to see the condition of the tires before the drive, so that you wouldn't experience a blowout at speed. :)

Hopefully you can find some cheap take-offs for the GC's last drive under your ownership.

Yeah, we agree with you. My wife just said this morning that it was our guardian angel looking after us. We could have had a blowout going 80 and not survived. Hopefully I can get something of a decent deal at Discount tire this morning. Thanks for your thought.
 
Tires are unsafe after about 6 years no matter what mileage...

I did not know that!

I found the original invoice for those front tires. They were purchased in 2006, 13 years ago. Yikes!

Got two new Coopers on the front for $160 installed, an unexpected expense, but now we'll be safe on our drive to Phoenix. That's about 15% of what the car is worth in trade.
 
You put $160 into that old car that they might only offer $300 for. So you might get $140 for your car, less than what you paid for the tires!
 
I did not know that!

I found the original invoice for those front tires. They were purchased in 2006, 13 years ago. Yikes!

Got two new Coopers on the front for $160 installed, an unexpected expense, but now we'll be safe on our drive to Phoenix. That's about 15% of what the car is worth in trade.

Because it's not true. It is more like 10 or 11 years old.
 
You put $160 into that old car that they might only offer $300 for. So you might get $140 for your car, less than what you paid for the tires!

Well, I guess it was cheaper than getting it towed 130 miles. I'm expecting $850-$1000 for the trade. Optimistic? Maybe, but the vehicle is in great mechanical and fair/good cosmetic shape. It does have a great Mercedes V8 in it. I won't complain if they only offer $500 though.
 
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Well, I guess it was cheaper than getting it towed 130 miles. I'm expecting $850-$1000 for the trade. Optimistic? Maybe, but the vehicle is in great mechanical and fair/good cosmetic shape. It does have a great Mercedes V8 in it. I won't complain if they only offer $500 though.

Maybe they will give you more than I thought, and you are right in the scheme of things $160 isn't much money. My '02 they offered $300 and I was sort of surprised at their offer, and I didn't take it. It had 5 full size aluminum alloy wheels which those alone I figured were worth $50 or $75 each and it was in pretty good shape. So I sold it on my own.
 
Well, I guess it was cheaper than getting it towed 130 miles.

And you'd still have to find alternate transportation to that distant dealer.

It beats messing with advertising it and dealing with that mess.
 
Maybe they will give you more than I thought, and you are right in the scheme of things $160 isn't much money. My '02 they offered $300 and I was sort of surprised at their offer, and I didn't take it. It had 5 full size aluminum alloy wheels which those alone I figured were worth $50 or $75 each and it was in pretty good shape. So I sold it on my own.

What did you get for it after all?
 
Tires are unsafe after about 6 years no matter what mileage...

I've read anywhere from 6 to maybe 10 years at the most, depending on the environment. I ran a set of snow tires on my Altima for 9 years with no issues.
Tires have a date stamp on them that show you when they were made. It's a four digit number.
The first two numbers are the week of the year they were made, and the second two numbers is the year.
3716 would mean it was made in the 37th week of 2016.
 
What did you get for it after all?

$900. I washed it, parked it at the end of my driveway with a sign of the price and specs and an hour later a person randomly driving by stopped and bought it. I probably set the price too low.

Even if I set the price too low, I am happy with the sale, because I do remember having a feeling of worrying about it selling and taking it off my insurance.

After buying my CX-5 the salesman was nice enough to drive my old car home for me, and then me driving him back to the dealership, which I appreciated.
 
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Because it's not true. It is more like 10 or 11 years old.

Nope - guess again.

Tire Age Date Code Rubber Aging

The rubber in tires will continue to cross-link via disulphide bonding whether it is exposed to oxygen, sunlight or what have you.*

Deleterious changes occur in tire properties after storage at ambient temperatures for five years or after use on cars for similar periods. T. Kataoka, P. B. Zettterlund and B. Yamada, Rubber Chem. Technol. 76, 507 (2003).
- cited in The Pneumatic Tire, DOT HS 810 561, Feb. 2006, Chapter 2

EVO magazine found that the winner of one of its tire tests performed worse than the last-place tire when a one-year-old example of the winning tire was mounted up and tested against the rest.*

http://www.tiresafetygroup.com/tires-expire-in-six-years/
 
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