[emanuscript]

Went consumer court on 27th. First time in a court of law. Took many hints from the bench clerk to understand that I have to bow. I was 2 minutes late from the time that was given to me and after pleading the bench decided to give me a hearing though the case was postponed in my absence.

After going through the mail communicaions to Bridgestone as well as the manufaturing warranty, within five minutes the court was convinced that I had a case. The case was taken in record and the first hearing with all the accused fixed for 27 Dec.

I know this does not mean anything but I think sometimes some of the cult brands take themselves for granted and just become irresposible or its just a bunch of officials who can't see beyond the current month's profitability figures (on 2 tyres ????) or...I don't know just baffles me..

To all those who says this is caused by a road hazard, I have a question, what road hazard can cause your sidewalls of two tyres onthe same side to crack without any damage to any other part of the car?

It would be great if you could point out some/any scenario.

Regards,
Manu.

[Harbir]

Manu, you are presuming that hazards cause damage only on the tread. This is not necessarily the case. the tread can take the impact and transfer the energy to the sidewalls and cause damage there from excessive compression, distortion or stress. As you know, a tyre flexes and distorts as it goes over the road surface, and an excessive distortion can damage the sidewalls.

I will give you the example of my father's Honda Accord on Michilen tubeless tyres. Driving in Punjab, a truck in front of us went over the edge of the road, and its rear left tyre went over a brick and tossed it onto the road right in front of our car. the front left tyre hit the brick hard at and went right over it, and seconds later we stopped with a flat. The sidewall of the tyre was gone. The brick had not touched the sidewall (there was red residue where the tread had hit it, but the impact had destroyed the sidewall.

The tire is like a baloon. If you squeeze it one place, it can burst where you pressing it, but it can also burst in some other place where the stress was highest. it is not necessarily at the point where the force was applied.

[cypher]

Originally Posted by emanuscript

To all those who says this is caused by a road hazard, I have a question, what road hazard can cause your sidewalls of two tyres onthe same side to crack without any damage to any other part of the car?

It would be great if you could point out some/any scenario.

Glad to know that the court is convinced you have a case. Wish you all the best for the hearing.

I guess you have asked this question in order to be prepared for a defense. Consider a scenario, where a small blunt metal object, say a 3 inch bolt, is protruding from the road. This could be left over from some construction work on the road e.g. if a railing is being fitted. If the bolt is not exactly vertical, there is a possibility that when you're driving over it, it will tear through the edge of your tyre/sidewall. If both tyres go over the bolt (very much likely) both tyres on the same side would get punctured.

This is just a hypothetical scenario, not saying that this happened in your case.

As I understand, since the burden of proof is on you, the defense logic would most likely be something like this -

1 defective tyre - a possibility
2 defective tyres - low possibility
2 defective tyres bursting at the same time - even lower possibility
2 defective tyres on the same side of the car bursting at the same time - even lower lower possibility.

The last highlighted part is what gives the possibility of a road hazard some credence.

Again, all the best for your hearing.

[Jyodi Backster]

Even I had a bad experience with the stock Bridgestones on my Cedia.
I changed them to Michelin PP2 on the very first day,
when the OEM tyres were removed, the tyre guy showed me a deep cut on the tyre, I don't know if it was due to some sharp stone or something else.
The Mitsubishi dealer JWC at Pune replaced the stock tyre without asking a single question.

Are the stock Bridgestones too soft?

[Harbir]

Originally Posted by cypher

1 defective tyre - a possibility
2 defective tyres - low possibility
2 defective tyres bursting at the same time - even lower possibility
2 defective tyres on the same side of the car bursting at the same time - even lower lower possibility.

exactly what Cypher said.

but I also want to say that is is possible for road hazards to cause failure that should not have happened but did happen because of defect. So if two tyres sit the same thing in the road, IF THEY HAVE THE SAME DEFECT, then they can be expected to fail in the same way at the same time.

The question is whether the two tires had the same defect. It is unlikely unless the tires are very close to each other in serial number. If so that creates the possibility that if a batch of tyres went wrong, the two tires were from the same patch.

But, like I said, this can also happen to non defective tyres due to road hazards.

[emanuscript]

Cypher, Arbir:

That was very objective reasoning, especially the one given by Harbir - Thank you vey much.

My case is, if it cannot handle a 3" rubble on Indian roads - remember my car has no damamges - and by the same logic, any Bridgestone tires going over 3 - 4" tires or similar pressure inducing materials are suseptible to bursting, its high time they pulled out of the business in India - because such is the condition of many a roads in India.

And I have heard atleast 3 Bridgestone 15 " tire stories so far with similar circumstances..

Thank you for sharing your thoughts nevertheless..It helps -I am the complainant as well as the lawyer..

Regards,
Manu.

[Ali G]

All the best for your hearing, just to add that I busted 2 bridgestone rear tyres approx. within a month too.
The first one on mumbai-pune expressway, this pic has been posted before.


2nd one, day before yesterday when i did a 180 spin atempting to park facing the opposite direction. In this case one of the metal wires inside just popped and shredded the tubes.
@ Mods: Apologies if Ive bent any rules.

[kuttapan]

@johy - Just that I read many threads over here about Bridgestone tyres having sidewall problems etc, when the car was bieng driven enthusiastically over bad roads. One off cases are ok, but I have a feeling that Bridgestones are not good for our kind of roads, or no roads.

I am the sort of guy who goes on intuition, so Michelins for me. Besides, reviews for XM1 were good.

@Manu - Sorry for the off topic post.

[DieselFan]

Came across this thread by accident. Now I am really curious to know what happened to Consumer court case of Manu?

[lohithrao]

I used Bridge turanzas on my OHC for over 20k kms....Majority of kms was done on very bad roads... wonder how many times i got into bad pot holes....turanza never gave up...

I guess its all abut luck!

[married2speed]

Hi Emanuscript

It's really unfortunate what transpired espcially a damage on something "new".
I won't be able to help you with anything techinical related to your problem, however, I would like to say that we do tend to get aggressive at times when it comes to demanding things, be it like replacement or other stuff, which is not wrong in a certain way, considering how things are run in this country but it won't be completely wrong to massage the ego of the guy who's authorised to change the tyres. You have to remember that aggressive behavior may not necessarily give you the desired results, leading to even more frustration. This too when you are the receiving end. At times a polite conversation with a subtle use of the word "compassion" does work wonders. You just have to realise that in this world of cut throat competition and over-sight on quality control, out quest for perfection may not be attained & hence a polite conversation should not be mistaken for low self-esteem or inflated ego

I hope this helps you see another side of things


Good Luck
M2S

EDIT - oops! Did not see the original date of posting. Mods, Please delete if required

[ghostrider]

Me too. Really curious to know what's happened with this case.
Manu: Any updates?

Originally Posted by DieselFan

Came across this thread by accident. Now I am really curious to know what happened to Consumer court case of Manu?

[lohithrao]

I think this situation is faced by all the consumers when the product thay have bought fails! why is it so difficult for the sellers to tackle such a situ???

No matter which company it is, they are difficult when it comes to after sales!

[DieselFan]

I do not see any updates from emanuscript.
What happened to the consumer court case? Just curious to know.

[throttleking]

i recently faced similar issue with Goodyear, front two tyres got flattspotted due to hard breaking. my complaint was rejected by goodyear. they can not provide any replacement in any case except if it is manufacturing fault. but all i was questioning was the quality of the product. but no listeners.

dont panic, you got the new set of tyres, enjoy the ride. dont spend much time on it. thats my experience.