Tire Sidewall problems of the 2013 Chevrolet Volt

These tires are shown as being the original equipment tires gm put on their Volts. In my experience they are severely below normal durability. My Volt's FL tire was replaced at 17k miles (slow sidewall leak) followed by the rr failing at 24k miles (catastrophic). Despite the usual pothole and road debris encounters my previous set of pirelli p4 tires ran 115k+ miles failure free and the michelins I had before them lasted 64k miles without a failure. Additionally, I see my two remaining factory tires are down to 6/32 to 7/32 of an inch tread after only 24k miles which might explain their distressingly poor grip in rain and snow. To put that wear in perspective, the pirelli tires still had from 5/32 to 7/32 of an inch tread left when at 115k miles. That these tires seemingly need replacing at the rate of one tire roughly every 6k to 12k miles suggests they suffer from a fundamental design deficiency. I gather my experience is not a fluke. A visit to a Volt owners' site found complaints of 5 flats in 36k miles, 2 flats in under a year, 3 flats in 3 months, 2 flats in one year, 4 flats in a year and a half, 2 flats in 10 months and 2 flats in 22k miles. Such dismal reliability and apparent dangerous fragility suggests a recall, or at least an investigation, might be justified for safety. . Read more...