2001 Chevrolet Corvette. Consumer writes regarding fraudulent practices of wheel distributor the consumer and her husband purchased a set of Firestone tires and wheels as a package deal for a vehicle that was to be used on a race track. The set were mounted and balanced. However, when they arrived at their destination, they discovered one of the new tires were flat. Once the tire was removed from the rim, it was discovered that the bead had been cut. When they arrived at the shop the next morning, it was also discovered the tire had not been balanced either as originally thought.

- Quitman, AR, USA

The tires in question where purchase in July 2007. Approximate mileage since installation 2200. Traveling West on I80/94 in northern Indiana 3 miles this side of Illinois state line. I notice after passing exit 3/cline avenue, that the road way started to sound like a "buck board" road surface. Since I was in the far lane I started to move over to exit onto kennedy ave off ramp and drove into a parking lot and stepped out to see what was going on. I immediately noticed that the "left rear tire" on my Corvette seemed like it was going flat. I saw a service station up the street so I decided to see if I could drive to it and see if anyone might be able to offer us assistance. As it was they couldn't. I looked at the tire again and felt there was enough air in the tire to get us to a dealership or tire store. While waiting for the light to change at the intersection upon exiting the service station we heard a loud "bang". I drove into a parking lot across from the service station and parked the car. It was now around 5:00pm. The young was just getting off work from his job with "berts towing, Inc". the had him tow the vehicle to my local Chevrolet dealership 'bill jacobs" in the joiliet il. The dealership got the car into their body shop and "notice" that the "inside" side wall had separated' which cased the tire to crack the wheel. For he next three weeks the dealership tried to get a replacement wheel, but couldn't find one so we purchased a wheel so I could moved the car the bill at this point was around $950 dollars plus it would cost an additional $1212 for a new wheel from GM for a total around $2150. I contacted Bridgestone/Firestone on September 8th with their claim report no. 842571. Yesterday I received a letter ref. No. 919077 they rejected the claim do to "this tire was operated for an unknown period of time with insufficient air pressure. Was I suppose to stop the vehicle in the middle of the highway and which could cause an accident.

- Shorewood, IL, USA

Bad set of tires. I bought this car new and have been having problems with it making a noise. I am a woman so I thought it was coming from the rearend of the car. I kept taking it in andhaving it checked and the dealers said it wasn't the rear end of the car. Finally they found what was making the noise, the tires have bumps and lumps on them, the tires aren't even round.I have tried since November to get GM to honor the warrenty on the car and replace the tires and have recieved nothing but a run around. They were suppose to let me know something Dec. 21st but I have not heard anything from them. The tires are not safe and were not any good to begin with. You cannot rotate the tires and they are suppose to be rated for top speeds and go for a 100 thousand miles. I am sacred to drive anywhere on the tires and I don't believe I should have to spend 2 thousand dollars to replace the tires when they weren't any good to begin with. I have already paid for tires when I bought the car and they should have been good.I have been tryng to find out what the problem was for a year but they didn't find it until this past Nov. This is when I contacted GM. I don't want to have a wreck because of these tires and I can't afford another car at this time. I love the car but I want some dependable tires on it. I remember the problems with the Firestone tires causing wrecks.these tires are Goodyear run flat tires 18 inch in the rear and 17 in the front. The car is under warrenty, can you help me get the Chevy divison to honor it?

- Crossett, AR, USA