Bridgestone tires receive sharply more complaints in 2016

www.12365auto.com, a website collecting information on car defects, have received 388 complaints on Bridgestone tires by this story is released, of which about 330 complaints happened in 2016 and about 50 in 2012-2015.

Statistics showed nearly 350 complaints, or 90 percent of all, were about tire cracking. The rest 38 complaints were about tire bulge, peeling, abrasion, burst or tire pressure problems.

-- Customers question Bridgestone's denial of quality problem 

The first complaint on Bridgestone tire cracking occurred in 2012, while the manufacturer did not take it seriously until two years later.

In 2012, Mr. Jiao found rings of fine cracks on the sides of the left rear tire after driving his new Toyota RAV4 for fewer than 10,000 kilometers in half a year.

More than a year later, Bridgestone identified the fine cracks were resulted from natural aging instead of a tire quality problem.

The identification has been questioned since complaints burst out in 2016.

Surveys showed cracks appeared on some tires after 6,000 kilometers of driving, which cannot be attributed to natural aging.

More and more customers doubt certain batches of Bridgestone tires have quality problems.

Yet Bridgestone explained "Oil, water, sunshine and low-pressure driving can accelerate tire aging."

It is disclosed some 4S shops have secretly replaced defective tires for customers and signed confidentiality agreements with the latter.

The self-contradictory practice further convinced customers that there are indeed quality problems with Bridgestone tires and require the manufacturer recall the tires.

-- Customers require Bridgestone recall defective tires

Bridgestone used to attach great importance to complaints received by 12365auto.com. By December 31, 2015, Bridgestone had replied to up to 92.86 percent of the complaints on the website, a much higher rate than other tire makers and even most carmakers.

However, in the first few months of 2016 when complaints surged sharply, Bridgestone replied to only 6.55 percent of them.

Quite many car owners believe Bridgestone is deliberately shunning the real problem, as the company has not given a convincing explanation.

Some customers have claimed more than once that they would pursue legal procedure to safeguard their rights if Bridgestone refuses to admit the quality defects of its tires.

Actually, Bridgestone recalled tires for a few times globally in the past.

Related carmakers must make quick decisions on whether Bridgestone should recall tires in China, while the government should investigate into the problem as soon as possible, analysts say.