I have Goodyear assurance cmftrd 97T 80,000 mile tires on my 98 Pontiac Montana van. They have less than 30,000 miles on them and two of them started leaking air out of the sidewalls which are full of dryrot type cracks. Two tire stores told me they look like defects. I took them back to the store where I bought them and the depth was greater than 3/32 of an inch. I at the time of purchase, bought a free replacement/road hazard certificate that is good for only three years and the tires are now four years old. Because of the tire age they want to prorate these unsafe tires and charge me $65 @ for new ones. Why is it that these 80,000 mile tires are not any good after 30,000 miles and must be replaced. This van is our second car and does not get driven enough to get 80,000 miles in the three years that the replacement certificate is good for.when I bought them I was told these were one of the best at that time and I was sure to get a lot of miles on them. I am very very upset that these tires have proven to me that they are very unsafe because sidewall leaks cannot be repaired and I am not now driving this van because I cannot trust these tires or their safety. Years ago, while traveling 700 miles from home I had a blowout with, a tire that was one of them Firestone 500 tires. At 70 mph my whole family could have been killed as a result of this and to this day I take tire safety very seriously. What can I do about this potentially life threatening situation" I cannot just go out and buy new tires because these are junk. An 80,000 mile tire shot at 30,000 miles does not compute. They replaced one tire and charged me only for a new replacement/road hazard certificate.then I took another tire back to them and they charged me $93 for the tire. Mounting, balance and replace certificate. One free one and one for a fee and I still have two more of these bad tires. I could partially understand the pro ration if they were not defective tires but they are. What next"

- Clio, MI, USA

Since 1973, I've driven a series of 8 cars (about 20-24,000 miles per year) in all kinds of weather, and never hydroplaned until purchasing transsport in 1998. I've hydroplaned 3 times in it, in shallow water, but managed to get control of car and avoid accidents. This car was purchased with the idea of giving it to my daughter as a used car when she turned 16 in 2001. (we had given our son the family Caravan when we bought the transsport.) because of the transsport's tendency to hydrplane, we did not feel it was safe to give an inexperienced driver, so we bought a different used car for her instead. My husband was driving the transsport to beach on Saturday and hydroplaned on a 4-lane highway at bottom of a hill, spinning, going backwards across median, and ending up in far lane facing oncoming traffic. Miraculously, despite labor day weekend traffic, no one hit our car as it crossed 4 lanes of traffic and no one was injured. My sister had problems with my mom's transsport hydroplaning when she drove it on a trip. She was so scared she actually stopped travelling and spent night in hotel before reaching her destination. Could this be a design flaw or a problem with steering or what? both cars had good tires (steel-belted radials), not ones that came on vehicle, and we had just had our car inspected the week before my husband left for the beach. Have you had other reports, or have tests been done re this? the other minivan we had, the Caravan, did not have this problem.

- Salisbury, NC, USA

Have had three flats with the same tire. Concerned since there have been Firestone recalls. (tiresize: P215/70R)( dot number: Tire size: P215/70R )

- Manchester, MO, USA

We replaced our original tires at 37,156 miles with these cooper tires. Our local expert tire store is where we purchased them and they also did the mounting and balance. This was done on 06/22/99. On 09/21/00, we took the van back to our dealer's service department for an oil change and rotation. Upon inspection, the service supervisor advised us not to drive on these tires until replaced, as there was steel cord showing through on 3 of the 4 tires. The wear was on the inside area of the tires, which could not be seen unless up on a hoist. We left the van and had the tires replaced. Unfortunately, we did not have them save the tires. We were upset that these had to be replaced so soon, and that the wear seemed to happen so intensely, so quickly. We have the oil changed on a regular basis and also the rotation, alignment, etc. When we questioned cooper about the tires, their reponse was, "it sounds more like an alignment problem with the vehicle". we then saw on the news where questions were being asked of cooper tires and the way their tires are manufactured. We are lucky that no one was hurt, as these tires obviously could have blown at any time. We have other passengers in our van from time to time, we were very lucky. (tiresize: 2157or15)( dot number: Tire size: 2157or15 )

- Conesville, IA, USA