Chinese Tires

[bisontuba]

Hankook tires are actually quite good. Personally, I like all season Dunlap or Tiger Paw tires myself....
Mark

[Dan Schultz]

I don't buy cheap tires for the same reason I don't buy cheap tubas. Of course... in today's 'World Market' it's difficult to know the exact origin of anything! The best bang for the buck I've found is the Michelin 'serenity' series. Good price, good mileage, and good/quiet ride.

[tofu]

I buy a lot of tires - 12+ vehicles - and personally tires are one thing I will not skimp on. With some products if they go bad it's no big deal, but when you have your life or more importantly your loved ones lives on the line I refuse to take the chance to save a few bucks. Tires are vitally important to braking, steering, handling and vehicle dynamics. I buy mainly Michelin tires. They have 10 production sites in the USA - listed below - so chances are your tires will come from one of their USA facilities. I bought new tires for my show car trailer hauling SUV last year and I think they came out of the Fort Wayne facility. Chinese tires are really a mixed bag - some have had severe defects - I think you take your chances. With a bad tuba you just have a bad tuba - with a bad tire you could have a blow out or worse a rollover with a big old SUV.

I buy all my tires from these guys: http://www.tirerack.com/content/tirerac ... epage.html
The prices are extremely reasonable. They drop ship the tires to the installer of your choice. I have had them arrive in two days at the installer from ordering them online. They also have agreements with several professional garages in your area who have agreed to set prices which again are very reasonable. There are reviews from end users of the installers as well. If you want they will drop ship them directly to the installer who will then notify you and set up an appointment time to install them. Because of the huge volume of tires they sell you will get extremely fresh tires - which is very important to tire life. Many times tires bought from your local guy may have been sitting around for a couple years.

They are located in South Bend, IN and if that is local to you or you want a reason to visit Notre Dame or the Studebaker Museum you can go there and have them install them and even take a spin on their test track. Their site also has both expert and user reviews of the tires you are interested in. The cost of shipping for me has usually been less than the sales tax I save. Right now I noticed that Michelin has a $75 rebate going on.

BTW, what Bloke saves on gas you probably save on car insurance as a big old SUV is a lot cheaper to insure than a small compact. Also a heck of lot easier to get into, more room to haul stuff, you can see over vehicles ahead of you and people will get the heck out of your way - as you don't care if you get a dent from their fancy BMW!

I have no financial interest in TireRack - I'm just a real happy repeat customer.

Michelin US production facilities

ARDMORE
Tires for cars, utility vehicles, 4x4, SUVs

ASHEBORO
Truck tires

COLUMBIA-LEXINGTON
Tires for cars, utility vehicles, 4x4, SUVs / Earthmover tires

COVINGTON
Truck tires

DOTHAN
Tires for cars, utility vehicles, 4x4, SUVs

FORT WAYNE
Tires for cars, utility vehicles, 4x4, SUVs

LOUISVILLE
Synthetic rubber

NORWOOD
Aircraft tires

SOUTH CAROLINA
Tires for cars, utility vehicles, 4x4, SUVs / Metal cables / Earthmover tires

TUSCALOOSA
Tires for cars, utility vehicles, 4x4, SUVs

[gwwilk]

Thanks, tofu, for that very informative post. I also use Tire Rack and have the tires drop-shipped to my local installer (the Honda dealer). Michelin tires give me by far the best wear along with the quietest ride. No longer will I try to save a few bucks by installing noisy-running, much shorter lived off-brands. (I also have no financial interest in either the Tire Rack or Michelin.)

[tofu]

I always bought Bridgestone or Michelin until I blew 6 Michelins on our first motorhome - two of them brand new. And, yes, they were properly inflated for weight.

I'd be very surprised to have 6 tires with defects like that -especially from Michelin. What you may have had was a bad install. There is a huge variation in the quality of installs and the equipment used and the ability of the installers. Larger tires are especially prone to bad installs. Obviously not knowing the details of your particular situation - but rims also go bad - from age, use and of course no part of the country is immune to large potholes. The same is true of alignments and the equipment used / installer competency/knowledge. A very large percentage of the alignments done are bad.

[tofu]

'
"Insurance companies' policies" and "what one might expect" are sometimes not congruent, but - with liability insurance only, I'd guess that stats might show that a subcompact cars in collisions do less damage to others' vehicles.

Hit a glued together BMW and you would be amazed at how much damage/cost even a small compact will do. Just look at some of the less than 5 mph bumper test the feds do and the resulting cost of the damage. Some of the brands suffer such expensive damage that your jaw drops at the amount.

[Three Valves]

Yokohamas have never let me down.

[Dan Schultz]

Maybe WESSEX can clone some tires for you.

[arpthark]

Maybe WESSEX can clone some tires for you.

I'm waiting for the 6/4 copy...

[tofu]

Maybe WESSEX can clone some tires for you.

I'm waiting for the 6/4 copy...

Gonna need a bigger tree to use one of those for the kids tire swing!

[MaryAnn]

I just did 6000 miles on four cheap Chinese tires on my travel trailer. Not one even lost air, which astonished me. Total cost was $245. Highway speeds, rough roads, I was worried. What I did do when I bought them was demand that the manufacture date was within the last calendar year so I didn't get old ones to start with.

[pgym]

I'd be very surprised to have 6 tires with defects like that -especially from Michelin.

Given that Michelin has had three "voluntarily" recalls involving over 2 million Michelin-branded tires since 2010 light truck tires since 2012 (and that doesn't include Michelin-branded passenger tires, or any of its Goodrich- and Uniroyal-branded tires), it doesn't surprise me in the least.

[tofu]

I'd be very surprised to have 6 tires with defects like that -especially from Michelin.

Given that Michelin has had three "voluntarily" recalls involving over 2 million Michelin-branded tires since 2010 light truck tires since 2012 (and that doesn't include Michelin-branded passenger tires, or any of its Goodrich- and Uniroyal-branded tires), it doesn't surprise me in the least.

The key word being voluntary. The Chinese tire companies fight tire recalls tooth and nail. Some resort to simply declaring bankruptcy and then they just become a new tire company leaving the owners of their bad tires out of luck. Some of those Michelin recalls were volume OEM tires and the auto companies want the cheapest base tire they can get with a brand name that a customer will recognize. Some of those defects were for things like bad labels or an outer skin blister. Some though were for serious stuff like tread separation and certainly not to be dismissed lightly, but Michelin has always had a reputation for being very good at recalls. With the volume of tires they manufacture yearly around the globe I don't think their recall numbers are out of line at all.

And yes - to get six defective tires would surprise me, but nothing is impossible. RV owners however, are notorious for claiming to have bad tires. The two big problems are from prolonged sun damage during storage outside and flat spotting.

Ideally, a vehicle would be inside heated storage and be placed on blocks to remove all weight from the tires when in storage (and privately owned RVs spend most of their time in storage).

[MartyNeilan]

When my wife got her motorcycle about two years ago, the previous owner had put on "new" tires as a selling point. The rear wheel had quite a wobble to it when I followed her. We had one of the best guys in town "true" the rear wheel, but he showed us that the inexpensive Chinese tire (rhymes with Plinko) was so far out of spec the wheel looked zig-zag even when the rim itself was perfect. She put on a set of Dunlops and her rear wheel tracks straight and vibration free.

[pgym]

I'd be very surprised to have 6 tires with defects like that -especially from Michelin.

Given that Michelin has had three "voluntarily" recalls involving over 2 million Michelin-branded tires since 2010 light truck tires since 2012 (and that doesn't include Michelin-branded passenger tires, or any of its Goodrich- and Uniroyal-branded tires), it doesn't surprise me in the least.

The key word being voluntary.

Bullschmit. Those recalls were "voluntary" in the same way that registering for the draft is "voluntary."

The ONLY reasons companies EVER "voluntarily" recall a product is to avoid civil penalties and to forestall further class action claims. PERIOD.

And if you think Michelin doesn't fight tooth-and-nail to limit the models included in a recall, like every other company does, you're smoking some pretty strong stuff.

[tofu]

Bullschmit. Those recalls were "voluntary" in the same way that registering for the draft is "voluntary."

The ONLY reasons companies EVER "voluntarily" recall a product is to avoid civil penalties and to forestall further class action claims. PERIOD.

And if you think Michelin doesn't fight tooth-and-nail to limit the models included in a recall, like every other company does, you're smoking some pretty strong stuff.