Consumers warned against buying into `new' tire fraud

Old, worn car tires have appeared on the market and are being sold as new, said Terry Huang (黃怡騰) secretary-general of the Consumers' Foundation (消費者文教基金會), who has criticized these dealers as "heartless people without a conscience."

Unscrupulous have mixed these tires with new tires, so many unsuspecting customers have put them on their cars, Huang said. But these tires may explode at high speeds or suddenly lose air pressure, making the car difficult to control.

Not recycled

These tires are different from recycled tires in that approved recycled tires have been treated by an approved factory and can be legally sold as long as they carry a sticker, Huang said.

The tires, however, are unused tires that may be unsafe because they have passed their expiration date, yet are still passed off to customers as new. More and more incidents of exploding tires or tires that suddenly lose pressure have been reported lately, and the Taipei Prosecutors' Office is now investigating at least two of them.

Exploding tires

In January, Tseng Wan-huo (曾萬火) bought a new tire in a shop in Hsintien City. After less than two months, the tire exploded while Tseng was driving on the highway. He managed to maintain control of the car and an accident was avoided.

But Tseng was curious why a new tire would explode. He contacted the manufacturer, who sent someone to inspect the tire. They discovered that the tire was actually manufactured in 1989 -- 16 years ago -- whereas new tires have a time limit for use of three years.

The Taipei District Court recently sentenced the owner of the shop that sold the tire to four months in prison for fraud.

Translated by Perry Svensson