We disagree on this. The scare tactic used was unethical to begin with. Our climate here is mild by Arizona standards. The car is garage kept 97% of it's life, the tires never see summer highway use and the pressure is always correct. She never leaves town. She gets out a couple of times a week so they don't flat spot. The tires had at most 15k miles with lots of tread, no I didn't gauge them, and looked like new tires. They probably never see 0.5G. Nobody else ever drives the car anywhere. She's not poor but has to watch her expenses. If there were ever tires that could go another year or two and be perfectly safe in Arizona in this particular usage these would be them. She liked the 55k mile warrantee on the new tires. I thought to myself yeah they'll have 12k on them when you replace them again.
Tire Rack says: "In our experience, when tires are properly stored and cared for, most street tires have a useful life in service of between six to ten years." I can't imagine what would cause these tires to be dangerous and need replacing at the lower time interval.
True no harm was done replacing the tires other than to her bank balance but it was unnecessary. Same with the 2k mile annual oil change, no harm done but certainly not needed. She asked, I said change oil every 2 years, she had it done anyhow. I guess maybe it gave her piece of mind even while complaining of the cost. Maybe next time she asks about car maintenance I'll very politely decline offering my opinion and not muddy the water. She's a dear neighbor.
Them doing a coolant flush, not burping the system and having the temp gauge peg on the way home might be a different story however.