I bought a S2K from a Honda dealer thru ebay. They stated the wrong tires on the ebay listing and we resolved that by them putting on OE S02 and me paying for the price different between the OE S02 and the new but wrong tires they put on the car.

A few days later, they called me and said the OE S02 are discontinued. I said it is not according to info here, but they insisted that the Honda Warehouse computer said it is discontinued. They recommend putting on S03 tires instead.

So fine, I said, but sent them the technical FAQ and 3 separate emails stating the the rear size of the S03 should be 245/45 and not 225/50. A week later when the car is ready to get on a transport, I asked the sales guy to eyeball the tires just to be sure. Sure enough, they put on the 225/50 S03s!! @#$%@#$ What the @$%@$%, I must have sent them at least 4 emails and they still put the wrong size on.

So, according to the dealer, when they order the tires from Honda Warehouse, the only way for them to order is to input the car year and model, and the computer give them the right parts to order. So, in this case, in Honda's own frigging computers, they are specifying 225/50 for S03s. So, if anyone buy rear replacement from a dealer, they are probably getting the wrong rear size because of this. I know I never buy tires from dealer, but in this case it was part of the deal with the car. I also know people buy from dealers for convenience, or as part of an insurnace claim, etc.

The frustrating thing is, they are still thinking that they and Honda are right and I am making a lot of fuss out of nothing. I even gave them all the tech info, includling showing them the tread widths in all the tires, stagger ratio, etc.

To add insult to injury, I think the TireRack system on the web is doing the same thing. It recommends 225/50 16 for the rear regardless of what tire size / brand / model. The dealer is using this as a 3rd party proof that I am wrong.

So, this is a problem that will affect everyone who don't read the tech info this forum, and naively order tires from dealer, or from TireRack website. This doesn't seem right. Someone need to go correct Honda Warehouse and Tirerack. I will cross post this to the tire forum but thought I might get better response on this forum.

I have seen a couple of email threads here of owners suing the dealer for putting the wrong tires on their car. I would think that the way Honda and their dealers are handling this, there are some liability on their part. The f$@#ing curious thing, is why would Honda call the original SO2 tires 225/50 while the treadwidth is wider than that. That's what caused all this confusion in the first place.

HONDA NEED TO ISSUE A TSB TO THE DEALERS TO CLEAR THIS UP.

 

One more thing to add...

The dealer actually thinks that they have a liability if they do not put the 225/50 on the car - since the Honda computer and manual says that's the right tires and have no mentioning that the OE So2 has special wide tread width.

 

I know the TireRack site will give you the 'wrong' size for any tires other than the OEM. I remember Jim saying it was the computer and no way to correct it. That's what happens when the computers take over.

But I also read a post from someone who went ahead with a different tire in the 225 size and he actually thought it was better. Don't remember the tire brand.

Our S02's are 'just for this car.' I had another car with exclusive tires. Same thing happened, couldn't buy them anymore. Stupid idea IMO.