A neighbor has been dealing with a health challenge for one of his children. At the same time, a visitor driving his spare car hit a piece of metal on a local road and shredded a tire. He went out to meet her and installed the space-saver spare. I offered to handle getting the machine back on the road since he is busy.
I photographed the VIN plate through the windshield and the existing tires. ChatGPT determined that it was a 2018 Toyota Camry and didn’t like the condition of the remaining tires. It told me how to check tread depth with a quarter (finding a coin in our house was a challenge!), determined the correct tire size for the vehicle, and made recommendations:
(The Honda dealer told us to put the Michelin Defender 2s on our Odyssey and we find them to be noisy on Florida highways, which have textured pavement due to the heavy rain that is common here.)
Asked specifically what Tire Rack had to say, the AI responded:
Based on the photos, ChatGPT said that an alignment might be required:
Your current Michelins also show substantial tread wear, especially around the shoulders. I would have their remaining tread depth measured and check for uneven wear before deciding whether an alignment is needed. I can’t tell whether they are unsafe from the pictures alone.
ChatGPT initially recommended some small independent general-purpose car repair shops as the best choices for a tire install, which made no sense (does a small independent shop even have an alignment rack?). Pressed to pick a larger chain that specializes in tires and alignments, it found that Tire Kingdom, which has some highly rated shops in Jupiter, carries Continental and noted that Costco does not sell Continental.
Here’s one bizarre note from this experience: the 235/45 tire size. That’s quite a low profile for a boring family car. ChatGPT agrees that this entails a rougher ride, more likely wheel damage in the event of an impact, higher costs, and more road noise. Toyota did it for looks, according to the AI. A modern Mazda Miata uses the same /45 profile.
Conclusion: ChatGPT is pretty good at shopping for tires. It gets a C for picking a sensible retailer/installer, but an A for figuring out that snow/ice performance isn’t relevant here in South Florida. (The AI kept referring the vehicle as “your car”, having made the reasonable assumption that the person shopping also owned the car.)
Not part of the ChatGPT output…
