2016 Dart purchased on Oct 31st 2017 for the wife. In October 2018, my wife hit a pothole and tore open the sidewall of one of the front tires. Since the original tires still had a lot of tread left, I replaced 2 instead of 4.(I replaced the other two in March of last year...the car is now my daily driver)

A few weeks ago I removed the snow tires I had on the car and installed the summer wheels/tires. That's when I noticed that both tires that were purchased in October 2018 are cracked just inside of the outer tread row. They are cracked all the way around the tire. There are no other cracks in between the other treads or on the sidewall. On May 8th, I drove to the tire dealer who installed the tires so they could look at them. The salesman took pictures of the cracks and said he would sent them to his rep. A week ago I still hadn't heard from them so I gave them a call. The salesman said that his rep sent the pictures to the manufacture so the engineers could make the determination on whether the tires were safe or need to be replaced.

The tire store called me this morning and said they still haven't heard anything back from the manufacture. He offered to replace the two tires for what I paid in 2018.(the tires are now more expensive then they were back then) So, what would you do? Just pay to replace them or wait and see what the manufacture says? The tires have been in service for only 2-1/2 years. The DOT date says they were made in Feb of 2018. It looks like I have 50K miles on them but the tread is still showing half.(about 1/8" above the wear indicators)

50,000 miles is pretty good if you are only at half-way on these tires. What kind are they?

Your dealer should give you prorating on those tires to a new set of the same tire.

Since the dealer is trying to settle, it sounds like the Manufacture is trying to get out of the picture. That is what they use their dealers for.

50k is a little heavy on their part. The car has 50k more miles on it then it did when the tires were installed but they sat all winter when the snow tires were on. They have maybe 43K miles which is still good though.

I didn't want to start a cheap tire/ tire brand debate so I purposely didn't list the brand. They are not a super cheap off brand tire. They are a name brand.

The cracking would bother me, and I'd replace them.
I would think it's a mfg defect, especially if the tires spend half the year indoors when you're running winter tires.
If I was planning a trip, or drove highways with the car, replace now, save the old ones, press for warranty reimbursement.
If the car's only used low speeds, you might wait, but if one hatches they'll likely blame a road hazard.

It's never been a perfect world, and [censored] doth happen, but we're currently in the Age Of Mediocrity, whether its parts or services.
Sorry it's reeled you in.

Replace with a different brand from a different tire store

The car my wife drives has 72,000 miles on it since 2008 and is on the 4th set due to cracking safety is 1st.
And that comes from a guy who used to have high HP and 4 wheel drums when I was young and not as smart.
The ones that came on it new did not wear well. Nor did the ones that replaced them but road damage killed one. so one was replaced by a road hazard warranty and the other 3 prorated. 3rd set cracked bad with, almost no miles so paid for 4th set.
4th set is a cheap BFG Touring with rim saver that has been the best so far.

I'm sure this is going to start a schitt show, but tire manufacturers have stated that a radial tires life span is no longer than 7 years from DATE OF MANUFACTURE, not date of install. My inlaws have a 2014 f150 with the original pirellis it came with, the truck has 60k miles on it with plenty of tread, and the entire circumference on all 4 tires, between all the treads are cracked. Driving around on broken ass tires will put you, your loved ones, and innocent people at risk. Replace the tires.

and will add the 50K on a set of tires IMO is time for replacing.

Most major tire brand warranty their tires for 6 years for weather cracking,on a pro-rated basis.At least I know Goodyear does

That's still exceptional. You could potentially get 75k out of them which is fantastic for a car tire.

So what exactly does the tire shop think of the cracking? Are they insisting they need to be replaced? If so, throw the ball in their court and demand prorating. If not, tell 'em to put it in writing on an inspection.

Are they thick cracks or hairline ones?
I don't put a lot of mileage on my cars so I usually end up replacing tires anyway because of age and cracks but I've never gotten the rated mileage out of tires.
Cracks of any type seem to becoming the norm for a lot of rubber stuff.

Tires today are just not made well. I play around in old Honda Mini-trails as well as cars. I have a couple of Hondas with the original tires on still from 1970. Rubber still looks great. No cracking, no checking, etc. Other bikes with 5 year old 'new' tires and they are garbage. Face it, like most all consumer items, the stuff being made today is not going to hold up over time. Kind of like the garbage shingles they sell for your house...

These are only 3 years old from the date of manufacture. Tire manufactures also say that cracks like I'm showing are SAFE as long as they don't extend down to the chords.(but how are you going to make that determination with just a quick glance or a picture) To be clear, I'm not asking if these are safe to drive on. I WILL have them replaced. I was just wondering if most on here would wait to get some kind of answer from the manufacture or just pay for new tires themselves.

Here is a quick pic I just took with the cell phone. You get the idea...

Next time don't buy Goodyear. As to the cracks, looking at your picture I'm not sure I would be concerned. They look like surface cracks that aren't that deep. At this point I'd keep driving them but I'd keep a close eye on them.

They are NOT Goodyear tires.

We put a fair amount of miles on our cars so the age thing hasn't really been an issue. The tire tread is usually worn out long before they get close to 7 years old. We put 82K on the Dart in 3.5 years. I keep an eye on the tread but the age is in the back of my mind. The tread wear and age of these isn't something that would of had me concerned.

Typical on Michelin tires (not saying that's what you have). My first experience with Michelin was the '94 Chevy CC dually I bought new. When it burned up in '98 it had about 40k miles on it with at least half the tread left. Had cracks about the same as your picture. Fast-forward to last year when I bought a vehicle with Michelins made in 2017 (tires, not vehicle). Same cracks.
As to running them or replacing them, I think that falls into the wha- makes-you-feel-better category. I personally wouldn't hesitate to drive on them but that is me.


Tim

100%. I tell customers that I will not warranty any rubber suspension bushings regardless of brand. I have seen many come back through the shop 4-5 years after install cracking or splitting.
I had a customer bring his car in a few years back. I called him and said your strut rod bushings need replacing. He said you just replaced those 3 years ago. OK, So I pull up the records and it states "Installed customer supplied front end kit" He said leave it for now.
Rare parts, PST / Kanter may be better as they do offer life time warranty's but not on the labor. And then getting the replacement is almost as much hassle or more than changing the part.
It Amazes me that the factory stuff went decades or 80-100K and the current offering can't make it 5K or 5 years. Seems like we've forgotten how to make rubber . Hope this doesn't make it over to the condom Mfr's, LOL

Yeah - I was going to say - I would NOT run that brand anymore!

I bet they are michilins, seen a ton of em do it very young age, on the other hand I never saw any come apart...

In Pennsylvania, for your yearly inspection. You aren't allowed any cracks in the tires. They would fail at my shop.