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Spencer Harpin and his wife Kathy live with their two sons in a small northern town on the Atlantic coast in USA. They are reasonably well off, and consider themselves middle class family. Harpins have two cars - an old Volvo and a Malibu. Spencer generally drives the old Volvo to work. However, one day when he did drive the family car (Malibu), he noticed the steering wheel had a bit of “shimmy” to it. On his return home, he mentioned it to Kathy and asked if she had noticed it too. She answered in the affirmative, and said the car had begun doing it (shimmying) in the last couple of weeks. Spencer thought he would have the malibu checked out by a mechanic. But since he rarely drove the Malibu, he apparently forgot all about it.
A couple of weeks later, Kathy told Spencer that the “shimmy” had become worse. Spencer took the car out to drive to assess the situation and was really shocked by the extent of the movement in the steering wheel. The next Saturday morning, Spencer left the car at the local service center so that mechanics there could check out the problem. When he returned to pick up the car in late afternoon, a very young looking mechanic on duty, told him that the front tires were really bad and even his rear tires would soon require replacement. He stated that the steel belted front tires were so worn out on the edge that their belts were actually showing through what little rubber remained. He concluded that the car was probably out of alignment and this caused an uneven tire wear. Spencer asked why this would make the steering wheel shimmy. The mechanic wasn’t sure, but observed that the car had radial tyres, and when radial tyres get really worn down, their steel belts break, and this could cause the shimmy.
The mechanic did mention that the gas station sold the tires, but Spencer told him he wanted to consider the situation first. Actually he thought that a tire store would give him a better deal. He also wanted to think about which tire brands to purchase. Moreover, he did not know how much confidence he should place in this young mechanic’s assessment of the problem.
Next Sunday, Spencer spent sometime reading the newspapers - which included the advertisements from tire stores located in and around town. He was certain of his desire for steel belted radial tires, but he had no other strong preferences. After reading many ads for sales, he was surprised at the variety of tires steel belted radial tires that were available. It also became apparent to him that he knew very little about how to evaluate tires. Further, Spencer did not know if any of the tyre dealerships from nearby big towns were any cheaper than the two tyre shops in his town. It seemed logical to make enquiries at these two local shops as they were located conveniently in town, and also because he felt good about giving business to locals.

The next day Spencer asked some of his lunch buddies if they knew whether bad tires could cause a steering wheel to shimmy. Comments were made by many friends but none really knew. However, his friend Dave, who used to work at a Uniroyal plant, spoke up and Spencer listened to him carefully. Dave said some reasons for wheel shimmy could be bad tie-rods. He also suggested Spencer have the car checked out because the problem could be dangerous. Conversation soon switched to the benefits of various different tire brands. Everett spoke of the very satisfying service he had received at the local tire shop named “Right Tire” Spencer asked what brands they carried - to which Everett mentioned Jetson, Michelin, and a brand or two which Spencer had never really heard. Dave mentioned that Goodyear, Uniroyal, and other major producers made a number of tires that carried different brand names, but one could not be sure of the quality levels of these tires. He then mentioned that the “Uniroyal Steeler” A steel belted radial tire had been independently tested and was rated as having the top tread ware in the industry. Bob, who had been relatively quiet until then, got quite animated. He spoke of getting more than 55000 miles on a set of Uniroyal tires and having also owned Goodyear and Michelin tires (although they never achieved more than 40,000 miles. Bob also said that he too would soon be looking for tires and was interested in getting the Uniroyal all-whether-type. Dave responded that although the all-whether design was somewhat better in snow conditions than a regular radial tire it was not as good as a radial snow tire. Further more, when compared to a regular radial tire, the all-whether tire did not wear as long and its tread design caused higher road friction, which therefore made it less gas economical. He was convinced that the Uniroyal Steeler was the best choice, but because it was February, it was not a good time to be buying tires. When asked why, he said that promotions for winter tires had been over for sometime and attractive sales with low prices would start again in the Spring. Spencer left the lunch convinced that if at all possible, he should wait until Spring, and at that time buy Uniroyal Steelers.
Two more weeks went by before Kathy mentioned that she really did not feel safe driving the Malibu, specially when the children were in it. She told Spencer that they actually were not sure why the steering wheel had a

shimmy and the car could have a dangerous problem. Spencer agreed that he again should have someone look the car over and three days later he drove it into a Midas Shop which offered alignment services, brakes, and shocks as well as mufflers. Ten minutes later, the manager brought Spencer over to his car which was up on a lift. The manager said that Spencer had two bad front tires, and the rear ones would soon need replacement. It was easy to see the steel belts showing through the front tires. The manager said further that the car must have been drastically out of alignment for sometime. He pointed out that the car also seemed to need new shocks and because of the front tyres the car was not safe to drive.
Spencer then was sure that he needed to act right away. He found three Uniroyal Dealers listed in the Yellow Pages and upon calling them he found their price quotes for the proper size Steelers to be identical - $ 76/- per tyre including air valves, mountings, and high-speed balancing. He noticed that this was not much more than a sale price he had recently seen for some Goodyear tires. On the following Friday, Spencer took the Malibu to work, left the office a little early, and arrived at the closest Uniroyal dealer at 4 pm sharp. He tried to reconfirm the price, and was quoted $ 335.60 inclusive of all taxes. This was quite a shocker, but did not appear to have much choices. He was about to say yes, when the clerk spoke up and said that Uniroyal also made Tiger Paw Plus - which was an all-whether radial and buying this would only raise the price to $ 357.80 including all taxes. Given that it had superior traction and that it was rated to last 5000 miles more than Steele, the clerk thought it was a better buy.
Acting knowledgeable, Spencer said that he found this hard to believe, because all-whether tyres tended to wear out faster than regular radials. Furthermore, their higher traction would also lead to lower fuel economy. The young clerk responded by saying that Tiger Paw Plus had a new European tread design, firmer rubber than previous all=whether radials, and a heavier sidewall construction which allowed it to carry higher-than-normal air pressure. All these factors combined to give longer tread-wear and more fuel efficiency than other all- whether models, even those made by Uniroyal. The clerk called over a man who looked like the shop manager and asked him to compare the Steeler to the Tiger Paw Plus. The manager provided the same information as the clerk had indicated. He also showed Spencer a brochure on the Tiger Paw Plus that mentioned higher tread-wear and increased fuel efficiency. The manager then indicated that an independent testing laboratory had verified these conclusions. Spencer asked for a minute “to think things over”. He considered that the additional price of the Tiger Paw Plus was not much and that they would probably give the Malibu better traction in the snow. Since he was not pleased with how the car performed in the snow, this seemed like a good advantage. He also reasoned that if the tires were kept fully inflated, they probably would not be much worse than Steelers in terms of fuel efficiency.
Spencer bought the Tiger Paw Plus tires and found the ride back home to be smooth and pleasing experience. The wheel shimmy was completely gone, and the car handled very well. But it seemed the tires made more noise than the old tires. He mentioned this to Kathy his wife, when they were driving together in the Malibu the next day, and wondered if this may not lead to less than anticipated fuel efficiency from these new tires. But Kathy maintained that the noise from the new tires was not disturbing at all., the extra snow traction would be good, the tires should last a long time, and now that they had purchased the tires there was nothing that could be done about fuel efficiency anyways ! She said he should stop worrying about if he had made the right decision, and enjoy the comfort and safety factor as a result of his having bought the new tires. Spencer felt she had a point. He mentally noted that he would always keep the tires well inflated for better fuel efficiency.
An appointment was made with Midas for the next Wednesday at which time the front end was aligned and four new Superguard shock absorbers were placed on the car. The total cost was $ 135.42. After considering that he had spent nearly $ 500 on the car, Spencer decided to postpone the purchase of that zoom lens he was thinking of for his camera.

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When he returned to pick up the car in late afternoon a very young looking mechanic on duty told him that the front tires were really bad and even his ... View the full answer