I thought it might be of interest to see what a used drive belt looks like. It might give us a ballpark idea of how our belts wear. Granted it's just one belt, one data point. I am not an expert, but to my eye it looks like it is in good shape. No cracks or visible wear, and the grooves are still deep. This is the OEM belt from the factory.

12 Years old
95,000 mi.
SoCal car

 

My dad always said to bend it to see if there are any cracks. Like that little nick in the bottom right of the picture. Not sure if that is deeper than it appears.

 

This. Bend it the "wrong" way to stretch out the ribbed side to expose cracks. The flat side doesn't usually have much rubber on it, but bending it tighter than usual the "right" way should similarly expose damage there.

 

New belts don't really crack the way they did in the good ol' days -

 

Eh. If you buy a high-end belt. I'm 99% sure you'll get a "good ole days" belt if you go cheap enough.

 

I doubt there are more than a handful of belt manufacturers, and even fewer producers of the raw materials used to make the belts. That high-end belt is almost certainly produced side-by-side with the discount belt and then they're stuck in a different cardboard sleeve at the end of the line.

 

White specs are dirt.

 

. . . . . . . . .

This.