THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



The Question of Tire Guaranties and Adjustments. 



FROM THE OUTSET of tire manufacture tire guaranties have 

 been burning questions, and so they still continue. If a 

 tire does not give the guaranteed mileage or better the 

 consumer asserts that the product is faulty, while the manufac- 

 turer maintains that it has been abused in use. Each claims that 

 the other is at fault and should stand the loss. To an unpre- 

 judiced third party who does not know the facts it seems that 

 both sides make out a good case. What then is the truth of 

 the matter ; what has brought such a situation about ; how are 

 such differences of opinion possible, and is there a remedy? 



During the early years 

 of bicycling, and when 

 the automobile was young, 

 rubber manufacturers 

 knew little about building 

 tires, and had no machin- 

 ery or other facilities for 

 turning them out in large 

 quantities. But the bicy- 

 cle and the automobile 

 caught the popular fancy 

 and supplied a genuine 

 economic need. The more 

 serious problems which 

 had previously hampered 

 their development were 

 eliminated by the use of 

 rubber tires and so rapid 

 was the increasing demand 

 and so insistent did it be- 

 come that rubber com- 

 panies were forced to ex- 

 periment and develop their 

 product and methods of 

 manufacture as they went along, with the result that tires have 

 been an ever-changing product in constant process of evolution. 



Some firms succeeded much better than others and by secret 

 and patented processes turned out higher grade tires than their 

 competitors. Seeking to maintain the prestige thus won, and to 

 protect the public against inferior goods, they established guaran- 

 ties at first based on time and later on mileage. 



Although originally instituted with the best intentions, these 

 guaranties soon became the bane of the tire trade and brought 

 about the worst forms of cut-throat competition. There was no 

 uniformity about them, and some firms made the mistake of of- 

 fering more lavish guaranties in order to get big orders when an 

 attempt to discount the prices of their competitors failed. So 

 reckless did they become that many concerns conducted business 

 at a loss and would gladly have given up half of it to be rid of the 

 guaranty nuisance. 



For several years it seemed impossible to get the manufac- 

 turers together on a common ground to remedy the evil. In 

 1896, however, twenty-one leading tire manufacturers were 

 licensed under the Tillinghast patents owned by Colonel Theo- 

 dore A. Dodge. This and the fact that he was less actively en- 

 gaged in competition than other tire men gave him a more inde- 

 pendent position in the trade. Under his leadership The Rubber 

 Tire Association was organized and a standard form of guaranty 

 was adopted. 



Under this guaranty tires showing defective material or work- 

 manship were replaced and all practicable repairs were made 

 free of charge no matter how the injury had been caused, pro- 

 vided the tires were delivered to the manufacturer express pre- 

 paid and further that anti-leak preparation had been used. Thus 



The Debatable Ground of Tire Mileage Guaranties. 



pneumatic tires were at first guaranteed against punctures. 

 So liberal a guaranty, it was believed, would deter any manu- 

 facturer from using poor materials or allowing imperfect work- 

 manship, for it seemed that nobody could afford to offer this 

 guaranty on any but a good tire. And such would probably have 

 been the case had it not been for the loose manner in which the 

 guaranties were made good under the stimulus of keen competi- 

 tion. Whoever needed new tires could usually get them gratis 

 from the manufacturer. This injured retail trade. Moreover, so 

 long as new tires could be had without paying for them, neither 

 the price nor the quality 

 mattered. Prices had to 

 be unnecessarily high in 

 order to cover these in- 

 ordinate losses, and even 

 then many manufacturers 

 did not break even on 

 their tire business. 



Later tlie guaranty was 

 limited to defective mate- 

 rial and workmanship, and 

 cutting of the rim, but 

 punctures were still re- 

 paired free. Year by year 

 the terms were still nar- 

 rowed and the time limit 

 was also shortened. There 

 were guaranties for a year, 

 then for a season, and in 

 1897 manufacturers began 

 to charge for all repairs. 



Several years ago all tire 

 guaranties were placed on 

 a mileage basis, and year 

 by year with better materials and improved methods of manu- 

 facture these guaranteed mileages have increased from 1,500 

 miles at the outset to 5,000 or 6,000 miles for fabric tires and 

 8,000 to 10,000 miles for cord tires to-day. At first the public 

 manifested some tendency to buy cheap tires, but soon began to 

 learn that the best is the cheapest. The change therefore im- 

 proved matters considerably, yet it was still possible to get a new 

 tire by claiming defective material or workmanship and paying a 

 small percentage of the full purchase price based on the service 

 mileage obtained from the alleged defectivve tire. Never 

 has there been a greater temptation toward prevarication than has 

 been offered by tire mileage guaranties, and the resulting situa- 

 tion is well shown in King's cartoon in the "Buffalo Express" of 

 August 12, 1919. 



Thus while tires generally have improved enormously in quality 

 in recent years, they have been bought by the public not alone on 

 their merit, but to a considerable degree on the liberality of ad- 

 justments made by certain companies. Guaranty conditions have 

 been widely violated ; the adjustment privilege has been greatly 

 abused, and millions of tires have been sold annually at only a 

 fraction of the full list price. Such a practice of putting a prem- 

 ium on the tricks of motorists and cyclists to replace their dam- 

 aged and worn-out tires at another's expense has been manifestly 

 unfair to manufacturers and honest consumers, and has kept 

 prices unnecessarily high. 



Manufacturers have by no means been ignorant of these abuses, 

 hut until recently the peculiar conditions of the trade have been 

 such that neither could these abuses be checked nor the guaranty 

 conditions adequately enforced in making adjustments. Leading 

 makes of tires are now giving such excellent service, however. 



