Thank you for the advice in my last post . Last night in Akita on the way to Aomori, we got onto an expressway and started sliding every few metres. It was incrediblely dangerous, we pulled into a tunnel and called emergency road services and followed their instructions out of the tunnel and into a nearby town. We drove to a nearby tire shop thinking it's our fault for getting 2wd and parked into a shopping centre parking lot for the night waiting for the tire shop to open in the morning for chains.
While we've been here though, we checked the studless tires on the car we rented and they are absolutely worn. With the coin check, theres a lot of space before the numbers start on a 10 yen coin when we put it in the groove. Basically, it's illegal to be on the roads with these worn tires. We didn't know that before, but now we do we don't want to move. We don't want to put anyone else on the road in danger (nor us).
The rental agency is on holiday and their emergency number is a roadside insurance that has no authority to help with our situation.
I'm furious that they endangered lives for the price of new studless tires, and am with a native Japanese speaker to let them know that, but I can't really understand the law on this situation. Or was it our fault for not checking the tire condition? We checked the car but not the tires.
Do we put chains on and ride? Change tires and negotiate later? Stay in this parking lot until spring (a joke, but should we wait until the rental company opens again)?
Any advice is appreciated.
Update: Went to Yellowhat and they said the tired are completely worn and the serial number shows they're from 2015. We put new tires on and will negotiate with the rental company when they open (all branches closed, their emergency number said they can't deal with our situation as we are not broken down or crashed). Thanks for advice and kind words, it was really stressful last night. Will be careful about renting a car in the future.
by badbads
7 comments
If you knew you were going into snowy conditions, then you absolutely should have been checking the tires.
Yes, they shouldn’t have been in such a bad state in the first place – and that’s something you can argue with the company, but you also agreed to take the car without even looking. You should be furious at yourself for that.
I rented a car recently in Okinawa and the tire blew on my way back to drop the car off at the airport. Obviously, I was late bringing the car back and nearly missed my flight. The worst part? Times tried to charge me a late fee, charge me for the tire, and kept trying to drag it out for over an hour. I showed them that all of the tires were in poor condition and it was clearly not my fault. What was my fault was not checking the tires condition properly before driving the car…
Just an FYI for you and anyone else. Tires have wear indicators on them. Winter tires can still look like they have a lot of tread but be worn down. Summer tires will usually be visibly worn down by the time they get to the wear indicators.
If you turn your front tires hard left or right and then look inside the channels running down the middle of the tire you should see little bridges.
Thanks for the post. I’m picking up my rental today, so I’ll be sure to check the tires!
If you absolutely have to drive in this condition, you can buy snow socks. They are legally the same as chains but much easier to deal with… Also cheaper and can resell them quite easily in Japan on mercari.
Call out the rental company’s breakdown truck and get them to bring new tires.
As someone mentioned, the car socks would be the easiest to put on and sell later. Don’t let the car rental company ruin your vacation! 2WD vs. 4WD, of course 4WD is better but Front Wheel Drive 2WD cars can get through mostly anything. Look on YouTube for how to get unstuck if you do happen to. Having a 2×4 (or two) in the trunk helps for grip when the back tires are stuck. Check for the car’s anti slip button too. It should have an image of a car sliding in an S. Should be on by default but check the car manual and make sure it’s on. Good luck!
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