Hi there CMS,
Interesting you had a similar experience with the conti's.
Check this out
Tyre horror show for what happened to mine.
I found this out by getting new rims/tyres and got the old tyres taken off the old rims, fitted the new stuff at the same time.
The tyre fitter showed me this damage and explained how close to hospital food I might have been. The splits were inside the tyres and on three wheels.
I sent the photo's to Conti via their web site and got a call that went like this,
"Hello sir, thanks for the photos of your tyres. Very interesting. Looking at them, we believe that they are illegal imports and should only have been supplied to the USA. Who ever you got them from must have imported them outside the usual dealer supplier network. They are not approved for sale or use in Europe and would potentially invalidate your car insurance should you have an accident as they are non Europe spec.
Do you want to collect them to have a look or investigate the damage? I asked helpfully thinking they may be interested in finding out why they failed.
"No its fine sir, just dispose of them in the bin, its ok. You should not have been sold them, they are for the American market"
A discussion rambled on a bit and the reason that they were ok for the states is they have straighter roads, less corners..... Yeah really...
All this is a direct conversation with Conti in the UK remember.
I then contacted the company who sold them to me, with the photos.... There was a bit of a mix up here and a bit of blame attached, where I had not blamed anyone, However...
The tyre supplier went through the letters on the sidewall of the tyre at great length and detail and established the tyre was specified for Europe. They then arranged to collect the tyres and check them out. Remember, Conti wanted me to bin them.....
Since bought from the same wheel /tyre supplier again despite the mix up with them thinking I blame them (which I dont and never did at all, ScoTTy, you read it wrong mate), as they were the only ones to actually do something, Conti could'nt give a toss, the lying dodging scumbags...
I thnk they knew that batch was hopelessly poor and were covering their asses...
What did you do with yours?