Tyre wear woes I am writing this on behalf of my friend, who owns a Santro Xing.
He purchased it in October 2006 and it has run about 18000km so far. Immediately after purchase, he shod it with alloy wheels and Michelin tyres that were 1cm wider (165) than the factory fitted tyres. It had been regularly serviced at the authorized dealer's service centre in Kerala (KTC Hyundai, Trichur/Calicut). At 14000km, he noticed uneven wear in the front tyres, with the inner thread becoming visible. A tyre maintenance shop found that the wheels were mis-aligned, and corrected the same. They also found that the rear tyres also had uneven wear.
He then complained to the dealer who had been servicing his car, and was told the following.
1. Wheel alignment is done only every 20000 km unless explicitly requested by the owner.
2. The company is not responsible for uneven wear in his case as he was not using a) factory fitted wheels and b) tyres of the original size.
Both the statements, to me, lack logic.
Since the tyre lasts only for 25-35000 km, what is the logic in checking for alignment after 20000km? And it is difficult to believe that the service centre expects the client to know all about the intricacies of car maintenance and request the same at the correct intervals.
How does uneven wear and loss of alignment occur if you fit alloy wheels, generally considered superior to steel wheels, in your car?
And how does loss of alignment occur if the car's tyres are 10mm fatter?
He wrote to Hyundai, but received no reply. He is now looking out for others who have been similarly mistreated by the company and this particular dealer, so as to file a suit in the consumer court.
Any takers? |