A Florida driver collected her vehicle from a dealership with four new Goodyears fitted, but when she crouched down to look at the tread, she could not find the little rubber whiskers she associates with brand new tires.

She put the question to the internet, and received almost unanimous disagreement, though several of the people answering noticed something else which might present a legitimate danger.

Samantha (@thatmodelsamantha), whose channel documents incidents from her life, filmed the wheels in a one-minute, 44-second video. She names the alleged dealership in the clip and again in her caption: Plaza Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Inverness, Florida.

"They said they gave me brand new tires. All four," Samantha says. "These don't look like brand new tires." She insisted that she hadn't worn them down herself. "Yes, I did drive them off a lot. I did drive home, but that's it. That's all I drove."

She focused on one detail to make her case. "But where are the tire hairs?" she asks. She says she raised it before leaving and was told the tires were made in January, and that she is the only owner they have been fitted to. "But why do these look worn out? These are not brand new tires."

She even went over the dealership's head. "Goodyear, can you respond? Because I asked the dealership before I left and they assured me these are brand new tires," she says. "I know I'm just a girl. I don't know a lot about vehicles. But these don't look like brand new tires to me. They look gently used."

What The Tire People Said

The most-liked reply in the thread sided with the dealership and gave a compelling reason. "They literally still have some mold seams on top of the tread blocks that aren't even worn down yet," wrote reaper_in_az. "Those are new."

The "tire hairs" she is hunting for are the fine rubber strands left on a tire by the moulding process, and several commenters said their absence proves nothing about whether a tire is new. "Tires don't have 'hairs' like a bike tire unless you buy very cheap off brand models," wrote justinreliford87. "That model has always had very little markings when new." Mackenzie.rose39 pointed somewhere else on the tire: "There is still a seam along the sidewall that hasn't even worn smooth yet."

A very small minority read the footage the other way. "They look like take offs," wrote nunya_fookya_business, meaning tires pulled from another vehicle. Fordkrazy floated a middle option, that they had been "returned by someone who didn't like them," with "probably less than 500 miles on them."

The Test That Settles It, And Where It Stops

A steady stream of commenters told her to stop studying the tread and read the sidewall, which is the right advice. Every tire sold in the US carries a Tire Identification Number, and federal regulations set out what the last four digits mean. "The date code, consisting of four numerical symbols, is the final group," the rule reads. "The date code must identify the week and year of manufacture." It supplies a worked example, that "0109 means the tire was manufactured in the first full calendar week of 2009."

The Tire Industry Association translates it for drivers. "The first two numbers reflect the week and the last two indicate the year," it says. "So a tire stamped 2910 was manufactured in the 29th week of 2010."

That is why commenters kept asking her what her date code actually said, rather than taking the January 2026 figure from the counter. Some commenters, though, did point out that it records when a tire was built, not whether anybody has since bolted it to a car and driven it. "Manufacturing date doesn't mean they haven't been mounted previously," wrote edwardbrown1956.

Gallery: Goodyear RangeMax RSD EV Regional Fleet Tires

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The Thing In The Corner Of The Frame

While the thread mostly argued about tread depth, a few viewers were looking at the wheel.

"However girl you're missing a lug nut," wrote fordkrazy. A commenter posting as wiremelter agreed on the ranking: "In my opinion, the missing lug nut is more of an issue." Kamihill89 put it hardest: "With all due respect I would not be worrying about if they are brand new or not. You are missing a lug nut. I'd be contacting the dealer and having them explain why you were able to drive off missing a lug nut."

Wheel fasteners are not a cosmetic detail on a car fresh from a tire fitting. Tire Review tells shops their technicians "should ensure that each lug nut has been torqued to the vehicle manufacturer's specifications when first fitting a wheel," and recommends customers return for a check afterwards, given "the stress put on them by vehicle weight, rotational driving effects, weather and bumps in the road." The trade title adds: "In the worst cases, loose lug nuts mean there's a small risk that the wheel could come off while you're on the road."

Retorquing, meanwhile, is "a quick and free process."

Samantha said she would call the dealership the following day.

Motor1 reached out to Samantha via Instagram direct message, and to Plaza Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram and Goodyear by email, for comment. We'll be sure to update this if any of them respond.