My wife has a 4 year old Swift that we bought from the local dealer when it was about 10 months old and it has been serviced there ever since. This year, the car failed the MOT test because one rear tyre was illegal, owing to very uneven wear. The rear tyres are scrubbing on the inside edge and it seems this is due to a manufacturing fault that is well known by Suzuki and the dealers (and is reported on this web site in the car by car breakdown as being quite a common problem with early cars of this model). The car has done less than 17000 miles and I find it very difficult to believe that this uneven wear wouldn't have been apparent when it was serviced last year, which the dealer denies. It would be very unlikely that this amount of wear (a difference of 3 mm across the width of the tyre) could have occurred in around 4000 miles. To have rear tyres worn out on a front wheel drive car, before the front tyres, is something I have never experienced. The car is now out of warranty and the best Suzuki are prepared to offer is 50% of the cost of the parts, which would leave us with a bill of about £300.
One thing is for sure, Suzuki have lost any chance of further business with me or my wife. Personally, I feel that any manufacturing defects of this type should be subject to a recall. A similar thing happened to me with the C5 that I once had but, luckily, I found out about it whilst the car was covered by the warranty.
Edited by machika on 24/09/2009 at 22:33
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are you sure its not just a tyre problem
i find plenty of cheap tyres with lots of tread in the middle but the shoulders wear quite quickly to a dangerous state (no not an over inflation issue)
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www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm?md=954
Near bottom highlights wrong welding and uneven tyre wear!!
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Surely this is a clear case of the car having a fault that was present at the time of sale and therefore falls under the Sale of Goods act. The warranty etc is irrelevant.
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quote//////Forums mentioned that jacking the car up using the torsion beam at the rear could cause the wheel alignment to be distorted, but the Swift's has a big yellow sticker on it telling you not to do this.////////unquote
this is quite a common occurence on low slung cars,however to be fair although it shouldnt be done my opinion is that the suspension should be able to cope with this,assuming it is indeed a proper rear beam axle rather than swinging arms
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.>> are you sure its not just a tyre problemi find plenty of cheap tyres with lots of tread in the middle but the shoulders wear quite quickly to a dangerous state (no not an over inflation issue)
Hardly cheap tyres in this instance, as they were original equipment on the car. I think they were Pirelli/Continental.
The dealer suggested that it could be the result of hard driving, which doesn't apply to my wife. Our Xantia, which we had for 12 years, still had the original tyres on the back wheels after 60K miles. She used to drive that also. Even our C5's tyres, which also suffered from uneven wear for a similar reason, easily exceeded 20K on it's rear tyres
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Our Xantia which we had for 12 years still had the original tyres on the back wheels after 60K miles.
Do you mean the tyres were 12 years old? Yikes! They're only supposed to be used for 5-6 years.
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I stated initially that it was the inside edge that was wearing excessively but I now think it was the outside edge.
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