Preferred and Despised Tire Brands (Poll)

[B C]

Car guys are particular about the brands of parts they use on their cars. Some brands have loyal followers based on measurable performance data, from anecdotal evidence, because they were dad and grand-dad's brands, or because they think it has a cool logo or name.

Feel free to share your opinions, experiences, and reasons for loving or hating particular tire brands.

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[B C]

Goodyear tires are the most overpriced overrated pieces of crap. The few sets I have owned weren't particularly good at anything except costing a lot. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kumho, Falken, and General dont make the absolute quietest, longest lasting, best gripping tires, but the price/performance quotient is very favorable with these brands. 

[REKIII]

I agree on your evaluations, but what that really does is bring to light that the reason you are buying tires can dictate your choices more than just about anything else.

Lets use goodyear as an example.  Their value is horrible.  Are they bad tires?  No, but the price you pay for them is not worth what you get, with one exception.  If I were selling a median priced used car, and it needed tires, I'd probably put goodyears on it.  The goodyear brand has name recognition and the new buyer would think I didn't skimp on anything.

Beyond that it really depends on what you are buying them for and how much money you want to spend.  I REALLY like blizzaks, but they are pricey, if I decided I couldn't afford them, I'd have no problem buying a set of Nokian Hakkapeliitta's.....even though I'd never buy Nokians for anything else.

You also have to consider this (the reason for the purchase) when you read reviews.  If a person bought a set of Toyo Opencountry MT's because they thought they would be Quiet, they will give a horrible review, whereas the next guy bought them with no expectation of low volume and they writes a glowing review.  Same tire, completely different results.

Tire selection can be almost as fickle as car selection. 

[Jeff]

I had put some hankook tires on the e38 that are a summer tire I don't remember what model they are but they have been on her car for 4 years now about 35k miles and still look new. They are quiet on the highway and handle well on dry pavement. All around I think they are a great tire aside but they could be a little better in the rain. That tire and water don't seem to mix well add a little cold and good luck. For price and longevity they seem like a great choice I would probably buy the brand again just try a different tire.

On the e36 I have goodride sv308 tires. I bought them from us auto force thinking they where going to be garbage seeing as I payed $35 a tire but they surprised me. They have a summer tread, great on wet pavement, grips to the road very well, there not loud (that I can hear) and as for longevity I'm not really sure. They have about 10k miles on them and I'm not sure how many miles a burnout would add up to. I am happy with the tires an would buy them again even though the price went up on them.

May not be useful here but for truck tires I have come to liking the Capitol HT tires. They are a load range E tire the ride is great they work well in the snow rarely need 4x4 not to noisy and the tread seems to be holding up well. They are 100% better then the firestone HT or the pirelli tires that where on one of the trucks, those where extremely loud. As for handling I'm not really sure how well a 4door 8' bed 1ton is supposed to handle but they seem well. The excursion has a tighter turning radius then the f350 but never tried to push the tires.

[Earl]

How could you not include Federal and Nankang? =P JK

I've been a Hankook fanboy for a while now. They've been really good to me. They haven't dry rotted on the compact yet and they performed great on the coupe last season. 

I had a set of Bridgestone Potenzas on my coupe when I bought it and absolutely hated them. They were really noisey and I didnt see why so many people in the past seemed to enjoy them. 

I had Nexxens many moons ago on my style 5's and they barely wore during that season. They were an awesome tire for how cheap they were. I didn't have any gripes besides them running a hair wider than most tires. 

Now Federal isn't on the list but I did put a set on Sams e30. They're 595 evos. For cheap tires to stretch, they're great. They've barely wore since she got her wheels on and they're quiet. They have a fairly decent amount of grip too. The one thing that sucks though is the flame pattern on the sidewall lol

[B C]

I was limited to 20 choices so I omitted 2 that I assumed wouldnt hit home with anybody. Looks like my spidey-sense is off today

[YoungCR]

I voted for hankook, general and Michelin. I actually just bought my first set of tires ever this past winter being the general altimax attics everybody recommend on here and I love them. REKIII had some great points, I'd probably never buy any other of their other tires. 

Hankook is by far my favorite, no bad experiences. My dad has put them on the family cars and they last forever and don't dry rot as Earl said. I've had a few Michilen tires come with cars too that I've been with similar experiences.

I just voted against Goodyear because it's always been the junk tires that I've aquired with wheels/cars and never hear good things about them either.

[Boris3]

I've had good luck with Toyo RA1 and RR for track, though the latter is a required spec tire. The old RA1 compound (-2011) before they phased them out and then reintroduced them was great. Long wearing and grip all the way to cord.

Hankook Icepike snow tires on the truck have been very good. Rarely need the 4wd.

General Altimax Arctics great snow tires on the 318is. Rest of the year is General Altimax HP. These have been ok given the limited choices for 14s. Wear really well but ride hard.

In the past, good experiences with the old Falken Azenis 215s for autox, track, summer dailies. Dunlop Star Specs for summer daily and autox. Falken Ziex 512s for dailies were good on an 2000 Subaru OBS. Nokian Hakas on the Subaru made it in unstoppable in the snow.

Yokohama es200s were highly recommended in the past, and I had a set on the Miata years back. They wore really well but overrated as far as grip esp compared to the Falkens.

Firestone HTs on the truck, ride ok seem to be wearing well.

[straight6pwr]

Hancook iPikes and General Altimax Artics have been great winter tires

Dunlop Direzza Star Specs were great performance summer tires

everything else I've used has been 'meh' so they didnt earn a positive or negative.

I down voted Sumitomo because I saw the rears on my dad's e36 m3 die in like 8,000miles (with perfectly fine suspension/bushings and 'old man' driving habits)

[KaiserRolls]

Preferred: re71r

Despised: anything with sprayed white lettering

[patsbimmer1]

Typically, the quality of the tire is directly related to the cost of the tire.  I've attended plenty of ride and drive event's, sold and installed enough tires, dealt with enough complaints and sat through enough seminars that I can say that with much confidence. 

For daily use Michelin is usually best tire out there when money isn't a concern.  I have Pilot Super Sports as a 3 season tire right now on my 335i and they are phenomenal.  I've had Michelin's on my wife's 2010 Altima and we had a set on her XC90.  When I switched out the tires on her Volvo we put on Pirelli Scorpion Verde All Seasons.  She loves them and actually thought they were better than her Michelin Primacy's.  My winter tires are Michelin Alpin's and they suck if you are talking only about low traction ability.  For the rest of the time that there's no snow on the ground they ride and handle like a normal all season.  I told our Michelin rep this when they were pushing them and he was not happy with me.  I'd recommend many other winter tires over the Alpin.

I've had coopers before which start out great but don't typically have full depth siping so once they start to wear out they lose a lot of their ability to handle in the wet.  Cooper makes a much nicer truck tire than they do a car tire.  The Discoverer line is pretty good with the AT3 being pretty competitive in it's segment.

I have been a fan of Falken's for a less expensive performance tire.  I had 2 sets of the Ziex 612 and I thought they performed well for their price range.  Kumho is another that makes an OK tire in their price range.  I've had 2 sets of Kumho Ecsta LX platinum's and for an all season they were decent and wore well.  

Goodyear is shit but they tend to be in the top 3 for replacement tires by volume because they come OE on a bunch of vehicles and people walk in to buy a set of tires and are asked what kind of tire they want and they assume the OE wouldn't never lead them astray so they should probably put the OE replacement on.  Wrong.  They score poorly in tests and reviews yet people still buy them.  Garbage.

[m42b32]

I have Continential ExtremeContact DW's on the M3 for summer tires and they are fantastic in the rain/wet, which is important for a DD in my opinion. They are pretty good in the dry as well. I shredded the rears down to maybe 10-20% remaining in about 10k miles though, but that may be due to failing RTAB's. They have gotten progressively louder as they wear. 

 

The General Altimax Arctic are awesome. Great grip in the snow, good road manners when it isn't snowing. They seem to be wearing well too.

 

I had some Dunlop's on my old e36 (don't remember the model) and they were absolutely horrendous in the rain. I could easily spin a 225/45/17 in the rain in 1st with a stock m42...

 

I have no 'swear by this brand' tire manufacturer, I typically buy something that is a good deal and has decent reviews online. I do stay away from the very cheap tire manufacturers though, tires are too important to cheap out on. 

 

[Daggerty]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestone_and_Ford_tire_controversy

 

good read on topic enough.

[gramboda]

I worked in the Les Stumpf Ford Parts Dept. during the tire recall. Man, what a pain. Tons and tons of people got a free set of tires. Some of the manufacturers couldn't keep up.

[gramboda]

Also, like someone said above, I've sold enough tires and sat through enough seminars to know that there are Michelins and then everything else. Everyone has their favorite or most hated brand. I think a lot of it depends on what you were raised on or if you had a perceived negative experience with a particular brand. Personally, I have a bad taste in my mouth for Goodyears but I would probably still buy them if the price was right. And when it's time to replace my Mich PSS on my F82, I will likely go with non-run flats that are close to or are the cheapest. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for Roadrunners from Fleet Farm, but I am kind of over spending a lot on tires. 

[B C]

Its great to get all the knowledge and experience in here, thanks pat and gramboda and other contributors. Goodyear being such a prominent/popular brand its good to know that my personal observations arent way off base. Its a good sanity check if nothing else

And while I have never owned a set of Michelins, I have regarded them as a top tire company based on their use in motorsports, and also the company willing to step up to the plate and engineer a new tire with enough quality/safety/performance to be used on a consumer product like the Veyron.

[patsbimmer1]

13 minutes ago, Snap said:

 

 

And while I have never owned a set of Michelins, I have regarded them as a top tire company based on their use in motorsports, and also the company willing to step up to the plate and engineer a new tire with enough quality/safety/performance to be used on a consumer product like the Veyron.

That right there.  I tend to make purchasing decisions and form opinions of quality based on a companies involvement in motorsports.  Pirelli, Cooper, Michelin, Continental and Falken all have strong support in various motorsport series.  This tells me they are vested in R&D and will typically be on the forefront of technology that will transfer to their consumer products.

[B C]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestone_and_Ford_tire_controversy

 

good read on topic enough.

More evidence of Michelin supremacy here

[gramboda]

Regarding Michelins...I don't quite remember the details from training back in the day, but I believe the way they are physically produced is different from other brands, thus making them better. The construction is actually different. Also, some of the brands they own (don't know which ones) are made in a similar fashion and would be good choices as well.

[B C]

Somewhat related: I visited a Goodyear factory a few years ago. It was pretty neat.

The molds are ~$15k each from what I was told which brings some understanding as to why a poor performing tire continues to be made/sold for many years.

[patsbimmer1]

As far as the molds go, I know that over time they wear.  You can take 4 tires with the same date codes and come up with 4 different tread depths all within a 32nd of what the advertised tread depth is.  I found that really interesting when I found out.

[damnboy037]

I have only put on Goodyear back in 2006 when I got my first m3, lasted me about 12k miles, I thought they were ok. 

I then tried Michelin in 2010 in my 99 & never looked back. 

[Iceddragon]

After doing 8 weeks of research while waiting for winter to end, everything points to Michelin Pilot Super Sports as the benchmark tire. Why get anything else? After the long wait, mine are going on this Monday, pics to come soon.