I bought a car with this tire on it in 2006. I assumed by the mileage put on it just before I bought the car, which I determined through Car Fax, that they were a couple of years old at the time. They did sit on my winter rat in the garage one summer which could have caused some damage. That said, I've stored cars like this over the summer with my Micheline radials without a problem. This particular tire was in good shape 2 yrs ago when I started using it as a spare.

What I've learned from this experience is that quality counts. One should only look at the name of the tire to determine what caused this issue in the first place.

http://www.astromonkey.net/~vacuumhead/11102010.jpg