After my car developed a vibration, I looked at the tires and underneath the car for signs of the cause. I'm not very good at that kind of thing, and I didn't notice anything at first. But after another week of the vibration, which seemed to increase and decrease in severity, and which was most pronounced at 5-20 m.p.h and over 60 m.p.h., I formed the opinion that it must be a tire.
I looked at the tires again, and noticed that the front driver's side tire had a subtle bulge that ran about half the tire's circumference, right at the edge of the tread.
That seemed like a dangerous thing, so I took my car and its seven-year-old tires to Goodyear, where the tires had been purchased.
It turns out that 1990 Ford Festivas are now difficult cars for which to buy tires.
"Those are 12-inch tires, and I can tell you right now we don't have any of those in stock," said they guy at the counter, after he had looked at the bum tire and announced that it was a manufacturer's defect that had caused my concern.
He checked his computer, and it told him that his Cincinnati
"You only want the one, you said, right?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said. All the tires are a bit worn ("and show signs of dry rot," said the guy at the counter), but with my car, I don't see the sense in replacing anything until necessary. I put on a new windshield wiper last week after the rubber blade of one of them flew off, and that made me feel like I was sinking a lot of money into it.
He said that since it was a manufacturer's defect, he could prorate the cost of the tire, but since the tire was so old, he would only be subtracting one-ninth of the new tire's cost.
That though bummed me until he announced, after clicking on his computer a little more, that the tires only cost $26.00 each. "Prorating it will take three dollars off of that," he said.
So he called his warehouse, but they could not find the tire. It's just one little tire, he explained, and in a warehouse full of 60,000 tires, it's hard to keep track of.
Then he called Ken Towery, and they didn't have the tire either. All his leads came up dry. "A twelve-inch tire is just hard to find," he said. "They don't even make wheels that size any more. They started phasing out that size years ago."
He suggested that I contact the dealer and find out about having thirteen-inch wheels put on the car. <i>No thanks</i> I thought to myself. I decided to visit Big O Tires, which is where Kim went after becoming dissatisfied with Goodyear a few months ago.
The guy at Big O looked at my tires, furrowed his brows, and exhaled deeply. "Boy," he intoned, "That's a tough one."
He didn't think he had any of those in stock, and a quick check confirmed it. Then he made a phone call.
This call was a success. "Oh, you do have some? Great!" he said into the phone.
They ordered the tire, which ended up costing me $76.00 (I guess it's now considered a specialty, novelty item now) and had it the next day.
If it gets to the point that I can't find the tires I need, I will complain to Ford. How dare they sell me a car with a tire size that eventually becomes obsolete? Whatever happened to product support, to standing by your merchandise? It hasn't reached that level yet. But it might, soon. My car is only 18 years old, dammit!
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