Defective Tire?

I recently bought a 2001 330ci with the Sport Package. Yesterday my back right tire just blew-up as I was getting on to a highway at about 60mph. To me its looks like a defective (Dunlop) tire - there is a 180 degree slice in the tire that is a perfect line about an inch from the rim. It looks like someone took a knife and just cut into, only the cut is about 20 inches long.

With only 25,000 miles should this be happening? Has anyone else experienced this? Will Dunlop offer anything for a defective tire? Any thoughts, or suggestions?

I've had the same problem from Dunlop 3 times with tires on our military vehicles. Our "tire rep" told us it was in fact a defect and gladly accepted the rest of our Dunlop inventory. These however were OLD tires and had been ordered many years ago. Granted the tires I'm talking about are a totally different league (10x20 and 9x20 radials) the same problem can occur with a smaller tire. He mentioned something about a bubble when the tire is molded causing it to split. At speed this causes the tire to literally rip itself open. Not fun when you are driving a 10,000 lb vehicle at 40 mph on the autobahn.

I'm driving a 2003 330i with 17" Goodyear Eagle 205/50R17s. The SAME EXACT thing just happened to my rear right tire yesterday - with only 7400 miles on the car. I went to a Goodyear dealer today and they told me this was typical damage for a low profile tire. Should I follow up with BMW dealer (I kept the original, mangled tire) - maybe the tire was defective and I just blew $200+ on a new tire?? Thanks!