Paprika

How easy is it to get a Road Hazard Warranty honored for a blown tire purchased from Tire Rack online? Anyone here ever have to do it?

I would call but they're closed and I'm wondering if I had a blown tire from them could I just buy a new one immediately and get reimbursement later since I don't wanna ride on some random spare for days waiting for a shipment.

Also would you say the Kumho KR21's are decent tires, my local tire spot I wanted to get them from has them on "Sale" for $77/each installed but I get them shipped to me for a little under $200 from TireRack I need to do the math.

In addition whats aggrivating my problem is the local spot yes is offering these tires with a Tire Protection Plan but for some reason Tire Rack doesn't. I guess this is more of an appropriate question to ask them directly over the phone but thats something I'm very interested in having...

nsxtasy

The Tire Rack's road hazard program is described on their website here, including a link to the .pdf of the specific conditions of how it all works. The key thing to understand about the program is that it's really a warranty for after-the-fact reimbursement on the tire you bought from them. If you have to buy a replacement tire, you don't have to buy it from them; you just have to have the tire place - the one you take the tire to - determine that it needs replacement, and then basically they work it out. You then get some or all of your money back. So you can go ahead and get whatever tires you want now, without having to wait for anything to be shipped. You may want to make sure your local tire shop holds onto the tire until the Tire Rack approves your reimbursement.

Disclaimer: I do not work for the Tire Rack and don't speak for them.

The Kumho KR21 is a really crappy all-season tire in terms of performance, although it may be cheap and last longer and it comes with a road hazard warranty (from Kumho, no matter where you buy it, including the Tire Rack, as noted [url=http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Warranty.jsp?make=Kumho&model=Solus+KR21&tirePageL ocQty=]here) for its first 25 percent of treadwear. It's the kind of tire you typically find on family sedans and minivans, where performance isn't important. Kumho makes some excellent tires and some that are just not geared towards performance and handling. I recommend their Ecsta ASX, which is an excellent all-season performance tire. It comes in 15" and larger sizes. (Note that the ASX is sometimes called the KU21, so don't confuse the name with the KR21.) If your car has 14" wheels, I recommend the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position all-season.

You can see how the KR21 compares with the ASX in these diagrams (click on them for more info on each from Kumho's website):

Paprika

Hey thank you very much for the information. I don't want it to seem like I didn't try to find out this stuff on my own, I read up on the Tire Rack Road Hazard program including the PDF which went into all the details, I have a bad memory sometimes and forgot the example in their PDF was actually speaking on reimbursement. But I definately did not realise Kumho offered their OWN Road Hazard program for that specific tire.

The thing that makes my situation so gay is that I'm still rollin on 13" wheels so my selection is kinda limited, especially in stores.

The reviews on the KR21 were good tho on Tire Rack... :-/ What I want is performance 1st, comfort 2nd and then treadwear last. And the performance is geared in the name of safety. Now what would be reccomended for stock 175/70 13 tires?

nsxtasy

Yeah, you really don't have a lot of options for performance tires in 13" sizes (other than track tires). Even in 14" there aren't all that many choices.

In 175/70-13, the Tire Rack has one choice in their "Performance All-Season" category (their third best category in terms of performance) and that is the Yokohama AVID T4. They have five choices in their "Standard Touring All-Season" category, including the Kumho KR21. Their categories don't always correlate with performance, but they're usually a pretty good guide. So you might want to consider the Yokohama AVID T4. It's a bit more money than the Kumho ($49 vs $39).

I don't pay a lot of attention to their user reviews, as they tend to be biased by the fact that these are people who only buy that particular tire and have never tried others, so they're almost always very positive.

burke420

goto to Discount tire co. next time to buy tires... and buy the 100% replacement program... i see soo many ppl daily with tires that arent repairable from ppl who cheaped out and didnt buy them!

nsxtasy

The extra-cost warranty programs offered by the tire retailers are big money-makers for them. Most people never have a problem within the designated time, and never collect anything in return.

But if it makes you feel more comfortable having it, feel free to buy it.