Tire date codes

This isn't "news" but I'll pass it along as potentially useful information. The condition (and safety) of tires for vehicles deteriorates over time - even if the tire is not used and appears "new." Tires are considered unsafe after about 6-10 years (despite good tread) because of a risk of tread separation or other structural failure.

So when you're buying tires you want to know the manufacture date of the tire, not rely on the saleman telling you it's "new" when it's actually been sitting on a warehouse shelf for 3-4 years. The date of manufacture is printed on each tire, as illustrated above, as the last four digits of a 12 digit DOT (Department of Transportation) code; the last two digits are the year, and the previous two are the week of that year.

I ran across this at the interestingly-named Big Shot Bob in Texas blog. There's more information HERE, and HERE, and of course at Wiki, and a Google search for "tire code" will provide thousands more links.