The other day, when I was driving back from my gf's place, I ran over something in the road, and a couple miles later my tire pressure monitor went off, and by the time I found a safe place to pull over, my tire's sidewall was pretty much ... well, gone. I'd bought a set of GS-D3's from Luke @ the tire rack (who provided great service), so I immediately called him up and asked him a) if I'd remembered to get the Road Hazard Warranty (idiot me didn't), and b) if I could order me another tire to replace it.
Well, idiot me didn't order road hazard (I could've sworn I did, but hey, I admit that I was an idiot) but their customer service lady was nice enough to offer me a replacement tire at a very reduced rate (which I appreciate, by the way). The only problem is, the Tire Rack was out of stock, and didn't have a ETA on when they'd get more.
So I call up a couple of local places, and the local Goodyear place (said they had 'em in stock) was happy to sell me one for a whopping $100 more than the tire rack, and a Discount Tire which was very reasonably priced as well. So, I went over to the discount tire, since they can't process a phone order (!?!).
Guess what? None of the Discount Tires have 'em in stock, even though they're showing as being inventoried (ghost inventory).
The manufacturer doesn't have any.
The local Goodyear place doesn't have any. Apparently the sales weenie was.. well... a weenie.
Apparently Goodyear has a backorder of 700'ish orders of these. They're not out of production. They just don't know when they're going to make another production run.
So, if you're running GS-D3's (non-runflat), be VERY aware that they're not currently aware anywhere in the nation. I ended up going with a Eagle F1 GS (non-runflat), but damn I *hate* the idea of not running 4 identical tires on my car.
Sorry to hear that story. I spent 4 years worrying about the same thing when I had KD runflats on my C5, availability was always a problem with those tires. I was lucky, never had to get one in a hurry.
There are some advantages to staying with the factory tires...
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2009 Coupe; Victory Red w/Cashmere interior, transparent top, A6, Z51 but base susp shocks, NPP exhaust, 3LT package, Nav+XM+PAL/Ipod. Minor interior mods but otherwise stock. Michelin PS2 runflats in summer, Michelin A/S runflats in winter.
I just ordered my GSD3's from SamsClub last Wednesday night. They called me today and told me they came in. I'm going to get them mounted in a couple of hours. Try Samsclub. I have Z06 wheels and got these sizes: 275/40ZR17 for the fronts and 295/35ZR18 for the rear. Their 10.00/tire mounting fee includes roadhazard, lifetime balancing, and free flat repair.
jeff
Up north that was the date quoted for me , if we are lucky??? Been waiting for 3 weeks alreadyand went with the new kuhmo's SPT. Going on a road trip in 2 weeks, and need tires. Maybe next time. It seems all the manufacturers are in the same vote. Kuhmo's are the only ones I could get that I wanted.
It is my understanding that the D3's are manufactured by Goodyear in Germany. I ran into the very same problem last year with a road hazard encounter on the RR. I took off the LR also since it had only half tread life left and I did not want to run different circumferences. I had to wait 2 months to get 2 new rears. What do I have now? Firehawk Wide Ovals. I have been to the track and I LIKE 'EM.
It is bad enough that Goodyear did not keep us supplied a year and maybe even two years ago, but it is down right irresponsible to have the same problem exist today!
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Airport bum, Track bum, regular user of go-jo hand degreaser. LT4 - 372HP/355Torque, LS6 450HP/373 Torque.
Corvette Store
Goodyear Eagle GS-D3's - national backorder
