23 July 2016
Doha - The Qatar Standards and Specifications Authority has extended the warranty on tyres from six months to one year.

Dr Mohammed bin Saif Al Kuwari, Assistant Undersecretary for Standards and Specifications at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, said during Taraheeb programme on Al Rayan Channel that the decision is aimed at improving the quality of tyres and giving consumers enough time to discover any manufacturing defects or storage problems as a six-month warranty is not enough.

"The decision was taken after we studied cases referred to us, and we discovered that six-month warranty is not enough for consumers to discover defects," he added.

Al Kuwari said the warranty also applies when travelling abroad as long as it is proved that a defect is a manufacturing defect.

He said customers must check important specifications on tyres such as temperature category which should be A or B which can withstand high temperatures of up to 80 degrees Celsius. The tyre must carry a minimum speed code of S which is 180kmph. The customer must ask for and keep the warranty certificate.

"Tyres imported from the US and Europe or any cold country which don't meet GCC standards should not be used here because "the maximum asphalt temperature in cold countries is 35 degrees Celsius and 76 degrees or more in hot countries.

"So we cannot allow such tyres to be used here as they can explode any time," Al Kuwari told The Peninsula.

He said drifting in summer is not allowed, specially in July and August, due to the high asphalt temperature.

He advised people driving to neighbouring countries or within Qatar to stop every two to three hours and said that since manufacturing defects are difficult to discover,  people must check tyres they want to buy ensure they have no cracks.

© The Peninsula 2016