TIRES

Bridgestone has been around as long as I can remember and that's a long time.

I think they are part of Firestone.

Tim,

You are correct: Bridgestone is owned by Firestone. Goodyear owns Kelly and Dunlop and I believe Cooper.

RJ, there is not enough money on the Earth to EVER get me to buy anything Firestone makes! Read up on the fiascos with the 721s, the Firestone 500s and the SUV tires that Ford had problems with just a couple of years ago. Bridgestone, like Dunlop, is an old UK company bought out by the Americans. Last vehicle I had Bridgestones on was a motorcycle in the '70s. My advise on them would be "consider the parent" and avoid them.

I'm not that fond of Goodyear either: my last 2 cars had Goodyears from the factory and they sucked (tread wearout way too soon and tread seperation problems on the set on my Regal).

Michelins are good tires - not cheap but wear like cast iron. I've had good luck with both Yokohama and Toyo tires - excellent tires: as good as the Michelins but a lot less $$ for an equivalent tire.

Regards, Bill Bowen Sacramento, CA.

"Tim" wrote:

Bridgestone is the Japanese company that bought Firestone, then screwed up the tires they made for the Explorer. Nearly put Firestone.out of business and led to the mistaken idea the SUVs were more prone to rollover than other vehicles.

mike hunt

check out tire rack I some people I know have had good luck getting tires from them.

Not Cooper Cooper Tire & Rubber Company is a global company that specializes in the design,

manufacture, marketing and sales of passenger car, light truck, medium truck tires and

subsidiaries that specialize in motorcycle and racing tires, as well as tread rubber and

related equipment for the retread industry. With headquarters in Findlay, Ohio, Cooper

Tire has 60 manufacturing, sales, distribution, technical and design facilities within its

family of companies located around the world. For more information, visit Cooper Tire's

web site at:

Edwin,

I stand corrected - maybe I'll check out Cooper for tires on the Regal. I had one set of their tires back in the 70s on an AMC Matador and there where OK.

Regards, Bill Bowen Sacramento, CA

At the risk of public humiliation - check out Pep Boys tires then. They are manufactured by Cooper and I believe (though I could not prove), they are pretty much just a Cooper tire with a different logo raised on the side wall.

I have had Futuras on different vehicles in the past and have found nothing wrong with them. For me, snow traction is a very big concern given the amount of snow we get each winter. They have performed admirably there. I've even had them on my plow truck. Mileage seems to be well within the range of "normal" (whatever that is). All I can really say about mileage is that I've gotten every bit of the rated mileage and usually more out of a set of Futuras. Wet road traction has always been as good as snow traction as well. I've never found them to break belts like Goodyears do, and they ride quite smoothly and quiet.

All in all I'd put them squarely in the category of a pretty good tire. The price is such that even if my experiences were in the realm of anomaly, and you only got 80% of the performance of a brand name tire, you'd still come out on the winning side of the equation. I've never had a failure with one so I don't even consider the likelihood of a blow out or other catastrophic failure any more than I would with another brand.

Tirerack.com is a good place to get some reviews.

Recently I needed new tires on the Buick, and did a bit of research. The Michelins we had on that car disappointed me. Only got 40,000 miles on them, and they became noisy a good while ago. (I have been a Michelin user for years, and this is the first set that has behaved this way)

On Tire Rack, I found that one type of Michelin that was available here locally was panned badly. Got a four out of ten as far as 'would you buy again'.

All the tires, makes and models, have supporters and opponents. A lot of the positive reviews come from people who only have a couple thousand miles on the tires.

Finally, I bit the bullet and bought Cooper. They feel very good, are a little noisier than new Michelins, have a 70,000 treadlife expectation, and were $15-20 each cheaper than the Michelin.

So far, so good.

In the very distant past, I have bought Firestone (rather poor results), BF Goodrich (ditto), Goodyear (not too bad, except for the Eagles which were crappo), General (like tissue paper), Kelly Springfield (actually under Discount Tire label, these were pretty good.)

I agree. The only tire I'll have on my car, since '78. Not only wear very well, but are very safe.

Correct. I've had Firestones on two new cars, had to change them early due to them not standing up. Terrible tires.

Mike,

Thanks for the info and I will check out Pep Boys (they have a store about 2 miles from my apartment).

Regards, Bill Bowen Sacramento, CA

I'm curious what model Buick you have. I'm looking at very soon having to buy tires for my Buick - a '94 Regal Sedan.

I've already eliminated from consideration Goodyear, Firestone and BF Goodrich from consideration. Based on past experience I'm kinda leaning towards Yokohama and Toyo. You comments about the Michelins on your Buick are enlightening - which series Michelins did you have on your Buick? Some of the Michelins are a bit noisy (like the Pilots I had on the '87 Olds).

Regards, Bill Bowen Sacramento, CA

This car is a 1998 LeSabre, Bill.

Apparently I pitched the paperwork on the old Michelins. They came from a local tire shop rather than a WalMart**. (The Michelins that got such bad reviews were the series that WalMart carries here locally.) I was surprised to find such poor reviews on a Michelin.

The tires I finally went with are Cooper Touring SLE's. Only time will tell.

I looked over some of the tires you mentioned and would have probably given them a try, except that this is a small town and there is a rather limited availability of choice. My wife was going to be on the road, and I just didnt have time to wait.

I'm not a big fan of the Pep Boys tires - a friend runs them on his pickup and while there's nothing objectionable about the ride or handling, the sidewalls are *very* thin - which probably makes for a good ride - and he's had at least one flat caused by having the sidewall cut by debris in a field which IMO probably wouldn't have happened with a tire with a stronger sidewall (although the tire still might have been damaged enough that it should have been replaced, at least he would have been able to drive out of the field and change it at his leisure.)

nate

What you say could be true, but we'd only be speculating. I've certainly had sidewall damage on tires other than Futuras. With even greater certainty, I've had more belt failures with Goodyears than I've ever had with Futuras. I generally find tire discussions to be so very subjective that I limit my own comments to describing my experiences. I realize that's exactly what you're doing as well. I guess in the end when we stack up experiences we might not really be offering any real insight into the original question, but we sure did put some of those stray electrons to use.

For years now I have got tires at Indiana Discount Tire. They have free rotation and balance, and free repairs. The set on my Jimmy are Arizonian. Not the cheapest but far from the most expensive. I have not had a problem with them. Today I noticed a screw in the left rear and took it in. I had them do a rotation. They fixed the rear tire found another screw in the right front and fixed it. Rotated all four and my cost was $0.00.

If my wife was going on the road I would buy the quickest I could find too. LOL

He,he!! Been there too.

In this case, I wanted her to get back, not just leave.

How about some facts, rather than speculation.

How thin is thin? How does it compare with other tire brands? What made the cut in the tire? What would have happened to other brands of tires in the same situation? If you post some of the properties of the sidewall and construction differences, it would help too. Since you stated that it was your opinion, I'd like to know just how you arrived at your decision, such as test data on puncture resistance, sidewall profiles and angle of deflection, etc.