Ferrari Mailing List: OT - NY Times - "Run-Flat Tires: Are They Solving a Problem or Creating Several?"

[Dennis Liu (bigheaddennis]

March 11, 2007
Motoring
Run-Flat Tires: Are They Solving a Problem or Creating Several? 

By CHRISTOPHER JENSEN

RUN-FLAT tires, which have been offered on some new cars for the last few
years, are a soothing security blanket. They can be driven for miles after
losing their air, allowing drivers to delay fixing a flat until there is a
safe place to stop and avoiding a harrowing tire change along a busy
highway.

But consumers have begun to report problems with the tires. Jennifer
Stockburger, a senior tire-test engineer for Consumer Reports magazine, said
the tires offered a safety advantage, but the tire forum on its Web site
(consumer.org) had many complaints from run-flat owners about
higher-than-expected replacement costs, difficulty getting repairs and what
some considered excessive wear.

Some owners have been unhappy enough to make a federal case of it, resulting
in two class-action suits. The latest was filed on Monday in United States
District Court in Los Angeles against Honda and Michelin.

Tire company officials say that run-flats, which typically have stronger
sidewalls to support the tire when it loses air, should wear just as well as
conventional tires and that problems often result from poor maintenance,
including improper inflation.

Run-flat tires are offered on fewer than 3 percent of the vehicles in North
America, said Tom L. Chubb, the vice president for original equipment
marketing for Michelin North America, which makes several types of run-flat
tires. He sees that growing to 4 percent by 2011.

Run-flat tires are most often found on luxury vehicles. BMW has been the
most enthusiastic proponent among the leading automakers, and seems likely
to make the tires standard on most models eventually. Run-flats are also
showing up on less expensive cars like the Mini Cooper S. 

Run-flats have also reached upscale family vehicles including minivans like
the all-wheel-drive Toyota Sienna and the Touring edition of the Honda
Odyssey.

Tire makers said that in the case of a blowout, a vehicle with run-flats was
easier to control. Automakers like the tires because no spare is necessary.
That means the space gained can be used to carry more cargo or make
mechanical changes. For example, eliminating the spare tire in the 2004
Toyota Sienna allowed the company to turn a front-wheel-drive minivan into
all-wheel drive by making room for a driveshaft.

The suit filed on Monday is over the Michelin Energy LX4 PAX run-flat used
on the 2005-7 Honda Odyssey Touring and as an option on the 2006-7 Acura RL.
The suit doesn't dispute that the tires offer a safety advantage, but says
buyers were deceived about replacement costs and repairs.

The PAX, instead of having stronger sidewalls, has a supportive ring inside
made of polyurethane. Michelin said the ring allowed a more comfortable ride
and better fuel economy because the sidewalls did not need to be so stiff,
yet the vehicle was still safe and easy to drive when a tire went flat. But
it is that design that makes the PAX more difficult to repair. 

Michelin stores or car dealers must have special tire-changing equipment
that can cost $3,000 to $15,000 depending on what the dealer already has,
Chris Naughton, a Honda spokesman, said in an interview before the suit was
filed.

He said some dealers did not have the equipment yet, but that about 90
percent of Honda's roughly 1,000 dealers would have it by the end of this
month.

Mark F. Anderson of San Francisco, one of the lawyers who filed the suit,
said it was "ridiculous" that repairing a PAX tire should be so complicated.
Mr. Anderson also filed a class-action suit in 2005 against Toyota,
Bridgestone and Dunlop over run-flats used on the 2004-6 Sienna with
all-wheel drive.

Lynn Mann, a Michelin spokeswoman, said the suit had "many misstatements and
errors."

Mr. Naughton of Honda said the company had not seen the suit, but that the
tire was a "great product that provides convenience, added safety and peace
of mind for our customers." Although not a plaintiff in the suit, Maria V.
Ocampo, an Odyssey owner from La Mirada, Calif., has had what she describes
as a love and "there is room for improvement" relationship with PAX tires.

She has had two flat tires and loved being able to still get her children to
school and reach work on time.

"I didn't have to panic," Ms. Ocampo said. But she says she has had several
disappointments. 

She had to call Michelin to find a Honda dealer that could repair the tire.
Also, she says her tires wore out after 20,000 miles; a Honda dealer
recently told her that a new set would cost $1,600, including installation. 

"That is a lot of money for us," she said. 

Acura is not requiring its 250 dealers to buy the special repair equipment
because few RL's are sold with the PAX, Mr. Naughton said. He said about 15
percent of Acura dealers had the equipment.

For travelers who can't find a shop to fix the tire, Michelin said it could
get a PAX tire and wheel delivered to customers in less than 12 hours.

The support system doesn't work, said Jean Carper of Key West, Fla., an RL
owner and one of the plaintiffs. She said she was stranded on a Saturday in
upstate New York with two flat tires last year. She said she could not find
a shop to fix the run-flats, was told by a Michelin dealer that it would
take five days to receive replacements and had to wait until Monday to order
them through an Acura dealer. She had them on her car by Tuesday.

"It was a nightmare," she said. "They did not have any facilities anywhere I
was."

As for the cost, Honda dealers are typically charging about $180 for a PAX
tire plus another $60 for labor, Mr. Naughton said. 

Michelin said a PAX's tread should last about 35,000 miles. One reason some
consumers may have thought their tires needed to be replaced is that the
design of the shoulder of the PAX can make it look as if that part of the
tire is badly worn, Mr. Chubb said.

Assertions of poor tire wear were the core of the suit against Toyota. In
November, an out-of-court settlement was approved in United States District
Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. 

Toyota said there were no problems with the tires, but in the settlement it
agreed to expand a tire-replacement program it was already offering.

Bridgestone and Dunlop, which made the run-flats for the Sienna, also said
there were no problems with their tires. However, engineers for the tire
companies said in statements filed with the court that they changed the
tires' design in 2005, a few months before the suit was filed, to improve
wear. They said they made the changes after learning of complaints, which
they attributed to improper inflation.

Still, there is apparently a big range in what Sienna owners can expect for
tire wear. A pamphlet that comes with the 2007 Sienna says that the
run-flats may get as little as 15,000 miles to 20,000 miles or as much as
40,000, depending on conditions and maintenance.

Clarence M. Ditlow, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety,
said the court statements from Dunlop and Bridgestone engineers showed "the
first-generation run-flat tires for the Sienna were poorly designed and wore
out prematurely."

"Whether it is tires or cars, consumers are well advised to avoid new models
because they are prone to bugs," he said.