Bridgestone Tyre shortage

[garyw]

First we had Michellin and now Bridgestone...

After finding I need a new pair of rear tyres, I've called around to my usual suppliers and some extra ones too.
No Tyres shops currently have the Bridgestones available for the Turbo. 305/30/019.. they are currently on back order for the foreseeable future.

I've sent an email to Bridgestone Tyres to see what the timescale is for the supply, but currently no reply as yet...

However, after ringing the OPC network a few results, one OPC did have them in stock but with no PCGB discount available on tyres they worked out over £100+ more expensive.
Another OPC I called had none but offered to change all tyres to another brand with me paying just for the worn rears, this is an option but I have been very happy with the Bridgestones up to this point..[&:]

Whilst the online guys all quote and say they can deliver, none have come good, also its very hard to make sure you get a N rated tyre..

I'll keep this posted if Bridgestone do ever bother to reply..

garyw

 

[Black80XSA]

Be interesting to see what other make they can get 4 tyres in, given the Conti and Michelin scenarios !


www.mytyres.co.uk listing B'stone N0s at 259 each - stock another matter maybe !

 

[snarf]

Gary,

I've been moaning about this for nearly two months. Fortunately I'm not desperate but it is shameful that tyre companies are so delinquent in their support of the market. I have been liaising with Ian Holland at Bridgestone UK (Ian.HOLLAND@bridgestone.eu) for several weeks now and to be fair he does respond fairly quickly to my emails. Last Friday (14 March 08) he advised: ". . . it appears we are starting to get stock coming through in small quantities." So hopefully we shouldn't have to wait much longer.

 

[Rodney Naghar]

Was at OPC East London on Saturday, where their tyre supplier gave a talk about...erm..tyres....I asked him about the general shortage.
He says one of the reasons for it is due to Conti having serious difficulty meeting the new stringent trye noise limits and so won't be bothering with new 'N' iterations. This cut in supply has meant the other suppliers have been caught short and hence a big backlog of orders.

 

[Black80XSA]

Porsche warranty will be paying for a few more E class hire cars then [][][]

 

[garyw]

I've sent an email to Ian (as per snarf post)
As yet customer services have not yet responded...

The worry is if I leave Bridgestone then I could very well find the same thing happening with another brand in the future...
I also have become confident in the tyres, just a shame the rears wore out.
Sadly my car is no longer in a usable state [] with the rears in the condition they are..

10K out of the set of rears, with not a lot of motorway miles []

garyw

 

[garyw]

David, I looked at mytyres and the others, but again it seems to be a stock issue.. I may call them direct.

garyw

 

[snarf]

ORIGINAL: Black80XSA

Be interesting to see what other make they can get 4 tyres in, given the Conti and Michelin scenarios !
www.mytyres.co.uk listing B'stone N0s at 259 each - stock another matter maybe !

In my extensive search for these tyres, mainly UK but one EU supplier, I found one dealer in Liverpool with one 305mm rear tyre. I'm reasonably certain that stock had all but fully been exhausted, but if my Bridgestone contact is to be believed some relief to the situation is at hand. I have left my contact details with numerous suppliers so I'm expecting the phone to ring soon - ever the optimist.

 

[pwebb]

Gary

The Michelin situation is still difficult, needed Pilot Sports all round (three, yes, three nails/screws embedded in two rears and a front) and Kwik Fit managed to get the rears in a couple of days but the fronts took a fortnight to come through.

Peter

 

[garyw]

Got the bit between my teeth today, after still no response from either of my emails to Bridgestone.

So I called them,
Apparently the person who answers the customer services emails is away on sick leave (aren't they always)
At present they show no signs of delivery to the UK and they genuinely have no idea why !?
The status was at least SIX weeks out...

So if you know where they are, get them whilst you can..[]

The very helpful person was also aware that Michelin are also having difficulties, for what reason they don't know either...[&:]

garyw

 

[snarf]

ORIGINAL: garyw
. . . The very helpful person was also aware that Michelin are also having difficulties, for what reason they don't know either...[&:]
garyw

I'll ask the Michelin man at the region 13 meeting tonight.

Is there anything we can do to shame/force these suppliers into providing better support? Any one have any idea whether we could leverage some help from Porsche to get suppliers to commit to supporting the market as a condition of getting/remaining on the OES list?

 

[944s2]

Try here

http://ssl.delti.com/reifendirekt-en/start.html

 

[snarf]

Dougie,

Thanks for the link - this redirects to Mytyres.co.uk which I think I tried several weeks ago but I'll give them another go.

 

[944s2]

Oh well just wondered if situation was same in Europe

Stranger things etc

 

[garyw]

Being as it is looking like six weeks, I've contacted the OPC I spoke to a while ago, they still do have them available so I'm going later this week to have them fitted..
Okay its quite a bit more money than I wanted to or needed to spend, but at least the car will be usable again..

I tried a few more online guys but none had stock or knew when to expect any..

garyw

 

[snarf]

The Michelin man came under a little bit of pressure re tyre supply at the R13 meeting last night. He conceded that Michelin had misjudged the demand for the 997 ("this is no longer a niche car") and that the problem was recognised at the highest levels in the company. Additional manufacturing capacity is being installed and this should be on-line later this year. Apparently Michelin were the first tyre supplier to be certified for the 997 and still supply more tyres for the 997 than any other producer, hence they also have a greater after-market demand. Although not explicitly stated I came away with the impression that the demand from Porsche for new production is taking almost (if not) all of Michelin's output.

So the problem is not restricted to Bridgestone.

 

[yan]

ORIGINAL: snarf

Although not explicitly stated I came away with the impression that the demand from Porsche for new production is taking almost (if not) all of Michelin's output.

I can just imagine the mountain of tyres piled up at Zuffenhausen for this week's production - and you only want 2 of them. I am beginning to see why Porsche would rather provide a courtesy car than break into their production supply...

Maybe I need to lodge a letter of intent / deposit for a new set of tyres in the knowledge that I'll likely need a new set later on this year.

Best of luck with sourcing a set sooner rather than later.

 

[Boatfiller]

Very interesting Guys
I recently bought 55 plate C4S and within 3 weeks had a slow puncture in nearside rear. When I bought car from OPC @ Sutton Coldfield, I was offered tyre insurance. Quote atrted @ £350 for 2 tyres per year for 2 years, but negotiated this down to £200. The first £250 is covered by insurance, anything over is my cost. Well the car was on Bridgestone's and the insurance says I have to use Kwik Fit. They couldn't find any 305's in stock so said I would have to use a OPC. I live near Silverstone, they couldn't help so went back to Sutton C. They said they would ask their supplier as they should stock these for them, but if not they would inform Porsche who would then replace 3 of the tyres with Michelin's at their cost and I would pay the excess on the 4th.
They managed to find a Bridgestone and it cost £351 so I had to pay £101. It has covered the cost of insurance with 1st tyre, but also i feel assured that OPC are duty bound to source a tyre or find an alternative - hence Porsche pay for 3 - afterall its not our fault that Porsche are soaking up all the supply for the production line. If they didn't offer this, there would be fewer 911's driving around and that would be a bad advert for Porsche!

 

[garyw]

[] The reason Silverstone didn't have any is because thats where I got my pair of rears from in the end.. [] (althought they did have 4 available at the time)

The other OPC I asked was like yourself SC, they offered to supply me with new tyres all round...

But a point you raised will now get me to call the OPC to check out tyre insurance availability...

garyw