Audis or VWs 4Life

I just got a set of 'new' tires from tirerack and they are over 3 years old. Normally in my experience with them they won't send out stuff that is over two years old unless its seriously discounted or the customer is made aware of its age.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Glisse

I would not find that acceptable.

Psychwarfare

That's not ok. Like OP, I've usually seen older tires on closeout with a notation of production date.

I'd call (hold times have been brutal for me the past 2 days with them) and express my concern.

superswiss

There are no laws at least in the USA regarding how old a tire can be to be sold as new. I believe in Europe, though, the law says a new tire cannot be older than 3 years, as long as it was stored in a dark, temperature controlled room. The compound still start breaking down from the oxygen, but if the tire is stored properly the process is much slower than out in the real world where the tire is exposed to light and heat in addition to oxygen. Common wisdom says you should not buy a new tire that's older than 18 months, but technically if stored properly there's nothing wrong with a 3 year old tire. The only thing is that tires are considered expired at about 6 years, or at least should be inspected, so if your new tires are already 3 years old, you essentially only have 3 years left on them. That wouldn't be much of an issue for me as I'm typically going through a set in about a year, but that depends on the car and one's driving. I don't know if Tire Rack has any policies regarding how old a tire can be when sold new, so I would at least contact them and make them aware that they sold you 3 year old tires. See what they say. I'm guessing they will be willing to replace them if they have newer supply.

Here's some more good info:
https://motorask.com/how-old-should-new-tires-be/