Learn me Kumho tread wear warranty claims

I have a beautiful, wonderful, heavy-as-E36-M3 2003 Dodge Intrepid ES that has, evidently, been great at wearing through its tires. The car is currently rocking a set of Kumho Ecsta LX Platinums (KU27) which have a 60,000 mile warranty and start with 11/32 of tread. After a year and a half and some 15,000 miles, I'm down to the following depths (outside-inside): Front L: 6-6, Front R: 5-6, Rear L: 4-5, Rear R: 3-4.

The wear is even across all tires (no signs of bad suspension) and the car was aligned when the tires were purchased and several times afterwards (I replaced the strut assemblies and aligned same/next day each time). I rotated regularly (warranty requires every 5,000 miles) but have no paperwork and one of the sets (now on the rear) definitely has a bit more wear despite the "schedule" due to road trips. Three of the four tires have patches that don't affect the overall wear.

I have two types of questions: those that involve the claim itself and those that involve what I want.

1. How much of a pain is this claim going to be? The warranty brochure (which I wasn't given by Sears Auto) says I need to present the "original customer copy" of their "Warranty Card" to an authorized dealer, of which there aren't any close by anymore (said Sears went under). While I have my original receipt (with mileage), I don't have rotation mileage written down anywhere (yet... cough). Do I need to go to a retailer?

2. Does Kumho account for winter tire usage? I have a set of Blizzaks for the first time this year which will rack up the mileage on the car. Does anyone know if Kumho will honor the "lack of driving" during this time on their crappy tires?

3. Do I have to buy new tires immediately with the credit? I can avoid the winter tire issue by turning in my current set of rubber now (before I go past 2/32, which I don't think they allow), but I'm not interested in getting another set until spring. I certainly can't afford the new tires anytime soon...

4. Does the credit have to be used on the same car? Given how poor they were on my Intrepid, I'd rather not put Kumhos on it again. If I got a credit, I'd be much more interested in buying summer or R-comp rubber for the Miata and switching the Intrepid to a set of Continental DWS. This would be especially true if I could wait before using the credit.

I'm definitely hoping this works out, since the credit will be something like 70% of the purchase price if they 1) honor it, and 2) don't count winter tire miles. Anyone have any experience on these matters?

In my experience, they will have you buy new tires and prorate the difference based on tread life.

You'll need to wait until the tires are at/below 2/32" of tread before a treadwear warranty claim can be processed.

But to answer your questions:

1. no, it won't be much of a pain since you can demonstrate regular alignments and rotations. If you still have the vehicle intake forms that show the tread depths from each visit, all the better. Best bet is to call the manufacturer to start the claim, then take it to Sears or other Kumho dealer with the claim info so they can take care of the rest.

2. yes, they will account for that if you can demonstrate proof of the use of winter tires (receipts help)

3. yes, you get the credit when the old tires are removed and replaced with new Kumhos

4. yes, see #3

As a service writer/manager for the past 6 or so years, this has been my experience. YMMV