Date of manufacture of a tyre
When buying new tyres, you must always check the date of manufacture of each one. Sadly, Ukrainian buyers are often sold last year’s tyres (if not older) at the price of new ones.
You need to pay attention to this not only when buying part-worn tyres, but also in a tyre shop when buying new ones. The thing is, it is not unusual for unsold tyres from past seasons (we may even be talking about tyres three or four years old) to be bought up wholesale for next to nothing at European tyre centres (so-called old stock), then shipped to the Ukrainian market and sold as new. Or Ukrainian tyre centres, without any embarrassment, pull tyres that did not sell last year out of storage just before the season and sell them as a “new collection”.
The problem with such tyres is usually the conditions in which they were stored and transported for the whole period since their date of manufacture. What is more, tyre makers usually give no guarantee that a tyre will keep its performance properties after 5 years of storage, even if every requirement has been met. So think carefully about whether it is worth buying a tyre made one, two or even three years ago - it definitely will not last as long as a new one, and if the storage conditions were significantly breached, you may well find yourself having to buy new tyres again before long.
In any case, last year’s tyres simply cannot cost the same as fresh ones of the same model and size - that is an axiom.
How do you find out a tyre’s date of manufacture?
Under the requirements of the US Department of Transportation (DOT - Department Of Transportation - this body, among other things, certifies tyres for sale on the US market), the date of manufacture must be printed on the tyre’s sidewall, in a strictly defined form. Since 2000 it has been a four-digit number inside an oval, the first two digits giving the week number of the year and the last two the year of manufacture. So, for example, the code 3706 (as in the picture above) on a tyre’s sidewall means the tyre was made in week 37 of 2006. This rule applies to every tyre from every maker that sells its products on the US market among others (DOT certification is compulsory for the American market). In practice, virtually all leading tyre makers follow this rule, regardless of where their tyres are sold.
Before 2000, the date of manufacture on tyres was shown with a three-digit code (the first two digits the week number, the last the year code).