You just bought 4 new tires and they probably cost an average of $500 to $1,000 to have them mounted and installed on your car or truck.  For most people that’s a sizeable amount of money.  Then when you go to pay for them the cashier or mechanic recommends the additional road hazard warranty to you with those new tires and wants you to pay an additional $35 per tire.  This coverage is usually not included with the tires and ranges in cost from $20 to over $40 per tire and supposedly covers your tires against problems like nails, slashes and other failures.  The question here is is this added protection or warranty really helpful and worth the additional price?

Well, let’s first look at what road hazard insurance really is.  It is an insurance that covers replacement for listed failures but not at new replacement value as you might think – what it does is it replaces the tread width that you haven’t used.  In other words if you have driven 20,000 miles on a set of 40,000 mile tires you have most likely worn through half of their life and if you had a tire failure (puncture, slash, etc…) the road hazard warranty would reimburse you for half of the replacement cost.  You don’t automatically get new tires and you also have to meet the listed insurance requirements which can vary by policy.  This does not mean that it is bad to have this coverage, but it is always wise to read and fully understand the coverage and its terms.