An Indonesian Tire Company Faked Its Safety Grades. The Fine Was Less Than a Camry.

Somewhere in Jakarta, P.T. Elangperdana Tyre Industry has been writing checks to the United States government for $18,750 a month. Sixteen installments, stretched across more than a year, totaling $425,000. Their crime: stamping tires with safety grades the tires didn't earn.^[1]

The UTQG system is the only federally mandated grading standard consumers can use to compare tires: traction, temperature resistance, and treadwear, printed right on the sidewall, theoretically telling you whether the rubber between your family and the asphalt will hold up at highway speed in Georgia August heat. Elangperdana lied about those numbers, NHTSA caught them, and the penalty amounted to roughly $83 per tire affected, payable on a schedule so gentle it could pass for a Peloton subscription.^[1]

While those installments were still clearing, NHTSA ran compliance tests on another Elangperdana product: the Vizzoni Dreamliner A/T, a budget all-terrain tire in size LT265/75R16. The tires failed with sidewall separation, violating FMVSS 139, the federal standard that exists specifically to prevent tires from coming apart while you drive on them.^[2] The resulting recall covered 5,125 tires manufactured over a six-year span from January 2019 through October 2025. Elangperdana's response was remarkable: the company suggested that NHTSA may have improperly stored the test samples, and noted that its own internal testing "has not revealed this issue."^[2]

NHTSA estimates that tire-related crashes kill between 600 and 740 Americans every year and injure roughly 19,000 more.^[3][4] Not from blowouts in action movies, but from sidewall failure during a lane change in stop-and-go traffic, from the slow leak nobody noticed because the TPMS threshold is set at 25% below placard pressure. The grading system designed to help consumers avoid the worst tires can be faked for the cost of a used Honda Fit per month.

NHTSA's maximum civil fine for a tire grading violation is $26,315 per offense, capped at $131.5 million for a related series.^[5] Elangperdana's $425,000 settlement represents 1.6% of that theoretical ceiling. Meanwhile, a researcher at the 2018 NTSB tire symposium demonstrated that FARS data indicates tire-related fatalities have not actually decreased since 1995, despite NHTSA's repeated claims to the contrary; the agency disputed the finding and then continued citing the disputed figures later the same day.^[6]

Consider the full arc: a company falsifies consumer safety data on tires, gets caught, negotiates a payment plan, and while making those payments, the same company's tires physically fail federal testing. No injuries were reported and no consumer complaints were filed, because nobody registered their budget all-terrain tires with the manufacturer, so nobody would have gotten a recall notice anyway.

What you should do: Look up UTQG ratings on your tires at nhtsa.gov/equipment/tires and cross-reference against the recall database using the DOT code stamped on your sidewall. Register every new tire with the manufacturer, or you will never receive a recall notice. Inspect sidewalls monthly for bulging, cracking, or delamination. If you're running LT265/75R16 Vizzoni Dreamliner A/Ts, park outside and stop driving on them immediately.