Road hazard insurance on new tires — buy or no buy?

Road hazard insurance

Three weeks ago, I replaced the tires on the Kia Niro. An add-on to consider was road hazard insurance. I chose to buy ($24.99 per tire or $99.96), and I’m glad I did. Here’s the breakdown.

Two days ago I got a little careless in a parking lot and clipped a curb with the right rear tire. It was flat in an instant and, as it was sidewall damage, I knew the tire was ruined.

As a separate issue, the car does not have a spare tire so AAA (another good purchase) came out for the tow.

The tire store was closed, so the car and keys were dropped with them. The car was finished by 9am the next morning (kudos to Mavis) and to the right is final bill.

Parts includes the tire ($182.99) and a new warranty for the new tire ($24.99). The original $24.99 was used to replace the tire, which came off the bill (-$182.99) after the shop fees.

The total bill includes labor ($24.99 (balancing)) and shop fees ($3.50) and sales tax ($3.40) and came to $56.88.

Without the insurance, I would have had to pay for a new tire. That bill would have been $182.99 for the tire plus balancing ($24.99) plus shop fees ($3.50) plus tax ($12.79) or $224.27.

So the total savings ($224.27 – $56.88) was $167.39.

Admittedly taking the original $99.96 spent on the insurance into account, the savings drops to $67.43. But it still feels like buying the road hazard insurance was a good move. After all, what if both tires on the same side had been hit?

Note that the tire would have been prorated had there been significant mileage on it.

I leave it to you to decide if road hazard insurance is right for you…

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