Back in February we paid to get new tires on the car. One of them has been leaky for the last couple of months, something I've continually been putting in the "I'll deal with it later" pile as topping up the air once a week was easier and cheaper than dealing with it.
Now the damn tire is flat. The roadside repair guy said that the tire was soft and decayed. I'm 75% sure that a new tire is not supposed to do that so soon.
Now I'm wondering if the mechanic put on old tires or if I've been an idiot by not getting the tie fixed in time and the frequent deflation/inflation cycles has ruined the thing.
Edit: Fucking hell! The code on the tire says it's from 2007! What the fuck? The damn car went through inspection and everything with that antique on.
You should be able to tell from the tread how new the tires are. If you just got them in February I would not expect a significant amount of tread wear from new. (Give or take based on your mileage, local road conditions, care, and climate.) A professional will easily be able to eyeball this for you. If there is significant tread wear, they are "balding", or the wear bars are showing through the tread, yes you got fucked.
A new tire should not be "leaky", but yes, driving on underinflated tires causes stress and wear on them in a way that optimal inflation does not. Six months seems fast, but again it depends on what we're calling "underinflated" (i.e. 25psi or 5psi).
If I was you, I'd gather as much context from the roadside mechanic as possible, try to remember how often you've reinflated and by how much, and then take that to the shop that sold you the tire and try to get them to repair it for free. It could just have a bad valve stem that only revealed itself through continuous driving.
But yeah, in the future, it's simpler just to report a leak immediately, it could be a simple fix and save future damage.
Idk how car savvy you are but beware them explaining shit in the most complicated way possible to try to upsell you. If they want you to understand they will, if they want you not to understand, they will. Being somewhat knowledgeable myself I can tell when they're intentionally talking over my head, it's like if instead of saying "taking a piss" you said "I filled up on a dihydrogen monoxide cylinder and now I have to give the system a flush." But don't be a dick either lol, it's a fucking dance with these guys to get them to not rip you off sometimes. Not always tho
It turns out the tires are as far from being new as humanly possible. These death traps dates back to 2007 when George Bush was president and slavery was legal in Mauretania.
Old tires sitting in a warehouse or on a car sitting in a scrap yard or a retread?