Tire Brands: Good, Bad, Wretched

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirebran.jsp

These are mostly/many brands I'm not expereinced with.

I'm thinking currently of Fuzion and Continental as the least
expensive, but ya gets what ya pays for, I suppose, tho not always.

Are there any sleepers in this list? (Low price/fine quality =
sleeper)

Terrifically bad pun intended: Some pricey brands imho are overly
inflated.

I won't mention one tho, hintt, it starts with "M" and speaks with
ghostly appearing French accent

Any body who has had a particularly good or particularly bad tire
brand on his/her beloved hyundai heap deluxe, please clue moi, or
forever have a slow leak that nobody can fix

 

Where are you from, that this list contains tires you are not familiar with?

Stay away from the Fuzion for sure. Continental is ok on SOME of their
tires. Some like the ContiExtreme, some the ContiProContact.

Take a look at the general Altimax HP if you want a decent inexpensive
tire. It has a good warranty, wears well and looks pretty good.
I highly recommend you look up Consumer Reports tire ranking.

Incidentally, most Michelin's are very good tires, and typically rank
high in all tire tests. Not alway the best, but USUALLY very good, and
not alway expensive. Of course it depends on the model.

Clay



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Too much risk in using cheap tires, IMO. What types of driving do you do?
Miles? speeds?

 

I just looked at Pep Boys weekend ad:

FUTURA

DEFINITY

HANKOOK

Definty has the cheap price

Any of ye had any good or bad experience with DEFINITY ?

General driving, highways and streets about equal

The 2004 350L (sorry that's not exactly correct) is fairly big for a
hyundai, wife likes her car, wondering why they stopped producing it,
she actually traded in a sonnata for it plus alot of shekels,

An alignent at pep boys is $70, so i'd save a bit on the cheaper
tires, spending the savings for alignnent

If I perceive the Definity tire isn't good, then back to square one

Know any good or bad about "Falkin (sp?)" brand?

 

If you need a tire desperately, buy a used tire as a temporary. SAVE
some more money and buy a GOOD tire. Don't buy a cheap tire so you can
do an alignment. You need BOTH an alignment and a good tire!
I bought a car with Futuras on it and would not buy them again.

All companies make CHEAP tires and they are cheap for a reason. Spend
some more time a tirerack and read read read.

If you insist on buying a cheap tire, buy the most expensive TOURING
hankook you can afford.
I still don't recommend it. As I said earlier, check out the General
Altimax HP.

Clay



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Falken and Kumho are rated highly by the folks on the Elantra Club
board. I recently put a set of Kumho Solus KH16s on my Elantra and I
like them much better than the stock Michelins. Traction is
substantially better on both wet and dry pavement and they're much
quieter. Cornering grip is much improved as well.

 

That's the kind of report I was hoping for.

FALKEN is now for me.

They're apparently not premium priced everywhere, so ....they're
hopefully that sleeper.

(Are they from Malaysia, Korea, China, Philippines, or where? It
doesn't matter, while I'm curious)

I do often have a choice here in the huge Atlanta market-- the tire
dealer is apparently approx 30 miles, and since gas is only
3.95...damneit.

 

How did you get Falken out of that report?

Falken makes junk too, so does Kumho.

The SPECIFIC tire he mentioned is a very good tire. It may not be for
you though.

What do you want from the tire?

Did you look at the General I mentioned?

Clay

 

I'll look for the specific model number of the Falken, and request
comments on it. I'm now unhappily betting you're probably on target,
because its "around" only $65

I did read a flame against General, and that's why I did not mention
your suggestion. I'll try to see if the complainer specified which
model he was peed abot.

Trivia: I vaguely recall General (perhaps) was the sponsor of the NFL
on radio in the 1950s and/or 60s. The announcer was...Harry Wismer.

 

Go to Tirerack.com and read the reviews of the General I mentioned. They
are not bad, and the tire is not ridicuously high.

The problem you are going to run into is that what you want from the
tire is not the same as me. Michelins typically wear very well, and are
quiet, but I wouldn't want to drive very quickly around a corner in
them. They also tend to be pricey.
Continental has some very good tires, but not necessarily cheap. They
also make a lot of junk, that may or may not be cheap.

I personally think that price is NOT indicative of the quality of a tire
across brands. If you price 2 GoodYear tires, the more expensive will
tend to be a better tire, but that doesn't make it better than the Kuhmo
which costs less.

Clay

 

see this, and please comment

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/se....do?r=GAAINT&cs=205&rd=16&ar=60&v=008502|2004

 

I see i'm not the only bitcher about michellins

 

Go to www.discounttire.com and read the user feedback and ratings for the
brand. You have several Discount Tire dealers in the Atlanta area. They're
GREAT people to work with. IIRC, free road hazard replacement, free lifetime
balancing and rotation, free tire patching etc.

I bought my tires from them in Michigan and have been able to get service
from them in most areas in the country. They're prominent in the mid-West,
South West, South East and West Coast.

 

Incidently, discount tire will match tirerack and others internet prices.

Clay

 

I am a member of Consumer Reports 'talking tires' board. This group answers
all areas of questions on tires, and occasionally chats with the CR techs
who are actually testing the tires whose ratings appear every Fall in their
magazine. Here are some summaries, based on some of the subjects raised in
this board.

++CR does have by far the most thorough tire tests out there, including
testing of treadwear and traction on snow and ice. Their results are
usually worth looking at, as are Tire Rack's.

But the way CR tests tires means that they only test one subset of tires a
year, and it is usually at least 4-5 years before that subset is re-tested.
As a result, many of the tires listed in their test results are now
discontinued, and some fairly new and exciting tires (the General Altimax
being but one of many examples) will now go months and even years before
test results are released on them. As an example, results on 'H' and
'V'-rated performance all-season tires that they tested were released just
over 18 months ago. But already, over half of the 'H'-rated tires have
either been discontinued or supplanted by a better tire from that brand.
There are already (at least) about a dozen tires in the major national
brands that should and would be in those test results. But it will be
almost 2 1/2 years before that sub-set and all their new tires have the
latest test results released again.

++Amongst dealers who sell the tires (whose priorities may be different than
ours, but who can't be ignored because they do sell them), the 'Toyo' brand
has been at the top of their satisfaction list for eight consecutive years,
an impressive achievement. Toyo has a VERY solid new tire for your car, the
Versado LX, and is about to introduce a new tire for trucks and SUV's soon.
Sadly, Toyo is not sold through any national chain, and (like General in
some places) can be hard to locate a retailer.

By the way, the Continental brand has finished dead last in that same survey
for more than a couple of years now. That should also get your attention.

++Consumer Reports has tested the Falken Ziex ZE-512 more than once, and has
placed it at or near the top of its rankings each time. The 512 though is
also being discontinued nationally, and will soon be sold only through the
afore-mentioned Discount Tire. In its place is the new Falken Ziex ZE-912.
It also looks to be very impressive at a good price. Our tire board was FAR
less impressed with the 512 than the CR engineers were, but the 912 has
seemed better so far. The 912 is also sold at Sears Auto.

++One of our rules is to never make generalizations on any one tire brand.
Be it Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear, Sumitomo, Cooper, B F Goodrich or
whomever, all of them sell tires that would be considered between good and
excellent and some that would be considered far less so. It is no different
than going to a tire store, and basing your whole feeling about that chain
on the one tire you bought there, especially if it was a cheap dud.

But I know that is what many people do A typical quote follows: "I ain't
buyin' tires no more from 'such-and-such place.' That one set was crap."
When what really happened was they made a poor (and usually cheap) choice.
Had they chosen a better tire, they would be raving about both the brand and
the store.

++Another rule jives with what has been said here: NEVER, EVER buy
second-rate crap for tires. Sadly, in these days of ultra-high gas prices,
I expect many more people to be running on onsafe tires for way too long,
and then when they do get different ones, buy that second-rate garbage,
simply because there isn't as much money left to buy tires.

All car owners must realize that you have to figure tires into the cost of
ownership of a car, just like oil changes, wiper blades, etc. The tire is
one of the most important safety features on a car, since that is where the
car you drive and the road you drive on actually meet. Scrimping on that is
no different than trying to scrimp on anything else. Maybe you can do it,
but there is a price.

++I apologize for any people that may work for car dealers on this board,
but on our CR board, at least in the year 2008, many of the worst
experiences on tires come from people who buy them from these car dealers.
It seems that far too many new car dealers are appallingly ignorant
concerning tires, be it brand or whatever. Way too many of them have no
idea what they are really selling. The CR board almost unanimously
recommends that you find a specialized tire dealer, either one in your
community, like a Firestone Complete Auto Care or similar, or something
on-line, but with knowledgeable people working with you. BTW, a place like
Tire Rack does impress us with their tire experts. That is one case where
you maybe do some research on-line, then talk to them on the phone before
you make a selection.

Sorry for the length, but tires are an important subject to me.

 

excellent post!

 

My 2005 Accent came with tires by Kumho, When I traded it in two weeks ago
it had 35,000 miles on it and three of the original tires had been replaced.
No more Kumho for me. My Wife's car (2000 Mercury Grand Marquis) Came new
with a handling package and speed rated Goodyear's At 30,000 they ALL had
to be replaced, We replaced them with the M tires that you don't like and
they were still on the car 82,000 miles later when we got rid of the car. I
should mention that my wife drives like low flying aircraft, she is hard on
tires and cars in general. For me, I buy my tires at Wal-Mart or Sam's club,
Their road hazard warranty is unbeatable. One other thing, I am from the
city where Pep Boys originated, I would not let them even check my oil, let
alone align my car. I'll pay a few bucks more and let a competent front end
shop do the alignment. Just my opinion.

Jack Cassidy

 

while this is interesting information. What kuhmos were they, and what
goodyears? That's very important.
Michelin makes pretty expensive junk too.

Clay

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On the 2000 Grand Marquis they were Goodyear Eagles and the speed rating was
either S or T, I don't remember. On The 2005 Accent The Kumho's were
whatever came with the car, standard 13" wheels, and were expensive
considering the small size. Ironically, The new ride, a 2008 Suzuki Ferenza
also has Kumho tires but 15" wheels. I hope they do better than the ones on
the Accent, I had to replace the first one on that car at less than 2000
miles.
I realize that this is all antidotal and has nothing to do with service
other people get out of other brands.

Jack Cassidy

 

Even if it is anecdotal, knowing the reason you replaced the tire at 2000
miles would be helpful. There is a huge difference if the tread separated
or you ran over a spike strip in a police chase.