I have a 2012 Abarth purchased in July of 2012. I took it in to Fiat for the initial oil change and tire rotation and my husband has done the last 2 oil changes himself because the nearest dealership is over an hour away. We have been busy so we hadn't rotated the tires in the last approx 12,000 miles which I know is BAD. Regardless, when I took it in (24,500 miles on odometer) to Big O Tires, they wouldn't rotate them due to balding ONLY ON BOTH REAR TIRES. Took it to Discount Tire for a second opinion, they said not only bald spots, but cupping ONLY ON BOTH REAR TIRES. The front tires look completely normal. When I call the dealer where we live now, they say they haven't heard of this issue and will need to take a look. I don't want to go in there and have them tell me a load of garbage because I'm female, I wanna sound like I have an idea about what's causing it. I don't drive my car hard and I'm the daily driver, my husband occasionally drives it, but only to work and a handful of times. Never been wrecked or even bumped but I'm noticing things going wrong already like the rear seat doesn't like to re-latch after I put it down or the sport trim along the bottom of the door (part of outside of car) coming unglued. I do take very good care of this vehicle, I even wash and wax it! So other than the mistake of letting a rotation go too long, I've done this before in my other vehicles (Acura TL) with NO ISSUES. Sorry for the long post, but I'm trying to be thorough so maybe someone could explain to me ideas of what it could be. Anyone have a clue why the rear tires would be cupping and the front look completely normal?

I was always told that cupping was indicative of a suspension issue but there's plenty of knowledgeable folk here who will chime in.

Common rear tire problem on modern frontwheel drive cars.
Doesn't mean there's something wrong with the suspension.
It's called sawtooth profile, or cupped tires.
Several solutions: change to another brand tire, change tire pressure, rotate wheels regularly....
Some car models have it, others don't, some tirebrands are more prone to cupping than others...etc.etc.

Also wondering how often tyre pressures were checked...

It even occurs with the factory specs tyre pressure....
As a rule, I raise the pressure a little above high load/ highway pressure in all my fwd cars all the time...

Peter Pick-Up said:

It even occurs with the factory specs tyre pressure....
As a rule, I raise the pressure a little above high load/ highway pressure in all my fwd cars all the time...

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Good Idea, I always put my pressures a bit higher than normal and so far normal wear on all my tires with rotation about every 7 k miles. My last set lasted me about 38k miles with fairly normal wear. Still had like 4 mm left in them but the surface was being very smooth so I changed them.

Thank you everyone for the very helpful input! I did notice that tire pressures were all 35 instead of 38 front and 32 rear as it indicates on driver's side door panel. I did replace the pirelli tires with a continental DWS which is a r50 instead of r45. I am going to be sure to rotate the recommended 5,000 miles so I can possible avoid this issue in the future. I became concerned of the problem in the first place due to the other posts I had saw online with others having similar issues. All I can do is hope with careful watch and proper maintenance it will all work out for the best. Thank you again each and everyone of you who posted! I'll come back on here and post again with results after about 12-15,000 miles, we'll see what happens right?

I have a 2013 Sport, just turned over 30000 miles. Had oil changes done by Fiat dealer and Dobbs. Fiat dealer did not mention problem with tires or need of rotation. Requested rotation from Dobbs at 30080 miles and was informed the rear tires are cupped. Dobbs said it's because the rear end is too light. Shocks are not leaking.

From reading the threads I need to increase tire pressure, rotate religiously and find a harder rubber tire - right?

Herbie 2013 said:

I have a 2013 Sport, just turned over 30000 miles. Had oil changes done by Fiat dealer and Dobbs. Fiat dealer did not mention problem with tires or need of rotation. Requested rotation from Dobbs at 30080 miles and was informed the rear tires are cupped. Dobbs said it's because the rear end is too light. Shocks are not leaking.

From reading the threads I need to increase tire pressure, rotate religiously and find a harder rubber tire - right?

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what tires were you running that became cupped? would be helpful to others to know. I run 36 psi front 34 psi rear and have had no issues. I rotate my tires every 8-10k miles.