So, long story short - last year I picked up a set of nearly new Pirelli Sottozeros for the V.
Within 1.5 months of putting them on, I got hit by a guy who ran a red light and destroyed the front driver's side of the car.
The dealer who did the insurance repair work ($7K! glad it wasn't my fault!) said that they couldn't get the tires because it was April, but that I should be able to get them in the fall and they gave me the money that the insurance company allocated for the tire.
Now, Pirelli apparently discontinued our size of that tire over the summer (245/45/18 W240 Sottozero). I called Pirelli to see what I could come up with and what I learned was surprising.
I asked how they would handle this if it was a warranty problem. He said, if this had been a warranty problem for the tire, then at most Pirelli would replace only the bad tire with the next most comparable tire. So when I confirmed with him if it was OK for me to just replace that 1 tire - he said that they absolutely didn't recommend that because the tread patterns are "radically different". I poked around a bit, but in the end, his message was that even if this was a warranty problem, Pirelli would not replace the set of tires even though they discontinued the size..the consumer would either have to deal with a mismatched set of tires against the recommendations of Pirelli, or eat the cost of the other 3 tires.
I guess I just wanted to do my part as a consumer and inform others so you can make informed decisions on tire choices...
Crap!
Anybody have a spare Pirelli Sottozero 245/45/18 laying around?
-Chris
