'Nother tire thread

[95mushroom]

I was reading/posting my review of my Goodyear Integrity tires at tirerack.com. Read one of the post stating that he talked to someone at Lexus that tire manufacturer's always sell the best tires (highest in quality control) to auto manufacturer's and the cheapest to discount stores. Got a probably from Goodyear. Just wondering what everyone here thought of that?

I'm starting to believe it too. Read some of the reviews if you got some time.
www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Integrity&partnum=36SR6INTFO&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes

Most of the people who purchased these tires as replacements left poor reviews. Also every post I came across from Florida has had terrible reviews. Myself included (not up yet). I can't remember how many times I've had to save the car from swapping ending and nailing a concrete barrier. At 25,000 miles, the tires are almost down to the wear-bars. I will be contacting Goodyear shortly about a replacement set (don't worry, my hopes aren't high though).

I know Big Dan (Letitroll98) has these tires and his aren't this bad and "are wearing like iron." In the reviews it such a hit or miss thing. People have gotten 70,000 miles out of these tires, how at only 25k have I and others worn these to *******?

[stevensolds]

Driving style. If your like me and like to carve through corners and occasionally peel out, they wont last 70k. You have to drive like a school bus for that to happen. I would get rid of the integritys though, even for safety reasons. My old eagle GT's would squeal furiously on every turn i took..LOL. And they were really loud too. The T/As just carve and stick to the road if your going at a safe enough speed that the car can handle around the corner.

[Wacko]

The variability in satisfaction might be related to the relative quality of individual tires. Sounds feasible that the discount shops get the lower quality, 2nds if you will. My wife's cousin, a new car salesman, claims new cars are often OEM'd with softer versions of tires so that they test drive quieter and handle better (but wear quicker) than the replacement tires you can buy.

Point being, perhaps not all tires are alike within a specific brand and model.

[Aurora40]

I always would have guessed the OEM tires would be the worst. Typically the car companies squeeze on their suppliers big time. I can only imagine the pittance GM pays for tires. I wouldn't be surprised if OEM tires were constructed or handled differently than replacement tires, though.

I'd think it could cut both ways as far as which should be better. You have a nice OEM tire, then you'll want it as a replacement. But you only get OEM tires once, you get replacement ones for the rest of time. If you get a set of replacement tires that aren't good, you probably won't ever buy those again. I dunno.

I wonder how much control they have over where the replacement tires go, though. I mean, they probably go to some warehouses first before going out to individual stores. It might be hard to keep track of which are the lower end of the quality spectrum vs the higher end. How would you know which to send to high-cost stores vs discount stores? That would also require validating each tire made in order to rate it in terms of lower or higher end quality.

I certainly think there can be variation, but I don't know if that's where it stems from. One thing to remember is that the same tire in different sizes might very well be made at different plants (in different countries). That's why when you inquire into the origins of a tire, you need to give them the size as well as the model of tire.

[luvmybravada]

Get rid of the integritys. They are horrible. Just replaced my integritys with BG Goodrich Traction TA from Tirerack and couldn't be happier! They are great performers.

(Wish I could have put them on a set of Chrome wheels.)

[stevensolds]

Hehe yeah what really drew me to those tires first was the way they looked. It isnt overly aggressive, but the treads look decently mean, not boring like touring tires generally are. They're pretty expensive but its well worth it.

[LM]

Another vote for the BF Goodrich Traction T/A's.

I've used them for a year and a half on my old Aurora and now my 01 and they are fantastic.

[95mushroom]

It's not totally style as others there have premature wear that "baby" theirs but I do hammer it often.

My mileage per year has dropped, be about 7k this year, so my next set will be a max summer performance tire. In the meantime with the rain frequent here, my drifting skills has become quite good. Tap the brakes for corner entry, let the tail slid out for a fraction of a second, countersteer and power through. Often the people behind me are no where to be seen after the turn lol.

[95rora]

As 40 said, I have always thought the oem tires were the worst, particularly on american vehicles. The goodyears that they used to put on gm's were terrible, my dad's old gmc they lasted 32000 miles. All the goodyears we've had in the past, crap but not nearly as bad as oem. Especially now that gm went to installing firestones on their light trucks. We've bought the last several set of tires from Multi-Mile. They make the wild country series and would buy them for the Rora but they dont have any in that size nor H rated. Oh well, guess ill just have to get some traction TA's.

[Letitroll98]

I think A40 is pointed in the right direction that I'd refine a bit. The fact that we have reported variability on a wide scale in reference to mileage is the key. It's not that they validate the QC and QA and send the "good ones" here or there, (which as noted would be way too expensive) it's that it's a cheap tire with very poor QC and QA parameters that allow a wide variability of compound ratios. They're made at the most cost efficient locations, usually offshore, and who knows what factors drive the inconsistency. But it's likely different plants for different sizes, different purchase lots of raw materials poorly QC'd, mix batches run on old equipment stressed beyond capacities, reductions in QA to increase the bottom line, etc, etc. Lots of reasons to reduce quality to improve either production capacity, profit, or both.

Looking at the similarities between the reviews also gives some insight. Universally poor wet traction. Universally mediocre dry traction. Soft sidewalls giving a smooth ride and poor transient handling. A very quiet tire. Not too bad in accumulated snow, awful on ice or slush. Low price. Equals typical Goodyear mass market trash. For the same price you can get a much nicer tire from Kumho and other foreign brands, just like cars.

I'm still going with Falcon Ziex ZE 512, Yokohama AVID V4s, Goodrich Traction TA's, or Kumho ASX, in that order.

[luvmybravada]

Why the Falcons? Are they that good? Are they more than the TA's?

[Letitroll98]

luvmybravada said:

Why the Falcons? Are they that good? Are they more than the TA's?

Falcon is Sumitomo's ultra high performance tire line and the Zeix ZE 512 was rated number one by the latest Consumer Reports tire test of performance all weather tires. Now I don't hold with everything CU rates by a long shot, but it's an indication of quality, better than being the worst rated one I suppose. They also get very good reviews elsewhere. They are quite a bit cheaper the the T/A's, Sears has 'em on sale this week for $76 each. BTW, most Falcons are very high end tuner type tires that don't come in sizes even close to our fitment. The ZE 512's are the mildest variant in the line, you have to get Sumitomo's for other selections.

[GlennS87]

I have the Kumho ASX's and I am very happy with them. I have driven them in all conditions and I feel they are superior to the oem Michelins that came with the car. The only area where I doubt they will compare favorably is durability. I got almost 60k miles on them before I recently changed them.

[wutsit4]

I have driven through a variety of the Goodyear Eagle tires. Nice Ride, Good on dry pavement, comfortable ride, relatively short wear life. Done the Michelin MXV4. Extremely long wear life. More usable in bad weather. Similar in pricing to the Goodyear. I gave in and bought Yokahama V4s due to their low price, and the near retirement status of my car. The big surprise is that I am most impressed with their performance and the way that they are wearing so far. I would definately buy these again. While my racing days are behind me, these tires offer responsive handling and good braking.
Keith