Tire D.O.T. Defined

20th September 2019
What consumers must know
At AOT, what we have prided ourselves on most in over the 25 years, is the safety and value of our tires. What we know is most important to all tire consumers is quality!
Have you heard the saying: Quality is imperative in all products and it is a misconception on the part of the companies to think that value is created because of the quality of their product? Quality is important, but consumers purchase a product not because it has quality, but they will not buy it in the absence of quality.

Think about that full phrase for a moment. Why do you buy the tires you are buying? You will no doubt take two major factors into consideration when buying tires. Its Quality most likely #1, followed by cost. Together that defines VALUE.
AOT tires have taken that equation and mastered the highest VALUE of tires in all our brands. Today’s economy has no doubt created such a massive amount of “educated shoppers”, right? Or are they?

One thing not many consumers are asking themselves, or the retailers when looking for tires is “What is the D.O.T.?”.
Are you reading this saying to yourself, WHAT? The D.O.T., wait, what is A, D.O.T.???
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires a Tire Identification Numbers be a combination of the letters DOT.

Since 2000, ALL tires must list the week and year the tire was produced. You find this by looking for initials DOT. Then that is followed by 4 consecutive numbers. Two digits being used to identify the week, immediately preceding the two digits used to identify the year.

The industry will call this information, a tires DOT. Even though DOT stands for Department of Transportation, ask ANY tire retailer, “What’s the DOT”, and they immediately will know you want the tires production date.

You are spending your hard-earned money on tires. So many retailers will want to unload their “Older” tires first. What good is a high end/name brand tire with a five year or even older DOT, that can’t be confirmed has been in climate-controlled warehouses for the life of it?
In summation, next time you buy a tire, online or in person, make sure you ask, “HEY! What’s its DOT!”

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