What retailers or brands etc have been so bad that you would never use them again?
For me it would be: Firestone tires. Maco auto paint Sams Wholesale tires
Bought a new Buick. 3 of 4 Firestone radials blew out at highway speeds.
Maco Paint shop: They paint over rust and dirt. They wanted to charge $850 to paint just the hood of a car. No rust or dents. They then offered to paint the whole car for the same price. They said they would use there best paint on the hood but their budget pain for the whole car.
Sams: I bought 60,000 mile radial tires. The tread was worn out at
20,000 miles. They refused any refund or adjustment because the tire was worn out. Duh if a 60,000 mile tire wears out in 20,000 miles, THAT IS THE DAMN PROBLEM MORON.
Really? Seriously? Were they properly inflated? I put 100,000 miles on Firestone Wilderness "Blowup Tires" without any troubles. I replaced them because they were dry-rotted, not worn out.
You get what you pay for. This is why any other body shop will probably quote you $4,000 to do it right.
You get what you pay for. Everyone forgets that Sams is just Wal-Mart in a business suit. Wal-Mart leads the race to the bottom. Anything you buy at Sam's has the brand name but little else- those tires have so many corners cut on them to meet Sam's "pricing requirements" there is no way you could compare them to a tire you'd buy at a real tire shop.
Some Firestones from certain factories were made wrong, with glue that was older than its rated shelf life.
But the fact is that he did pay and was told that they'd use high quality paint.
I don't see why people go to franchises for service, like transmission repair or auto painting, because a national chain can't be any better or cheaper than an independent shop, and if anything, the chain shops tend to be more expensive because they have to pay so much to the franchiser, an amount equal to 1/3 of their profits.
OTOH I've heard of people getting good paint jobs from Earl Scheibe if they bring the car in already prepped, included the masking. But independent shops will probably charge no more because something like
80-90% of the cost of a paint job is in the prep work.
So why is Tire Rack so cheap for American, German, and Japanese brand tires? And if you get what you pay for, how do you explain the awful quality of Jaguars and Rolls-Royces? If anything, "you get what you pay for" is only a best-case scenario.
I put 4.5 years working at Firestone; So far none of the Firestone/Bridgestone tires I have put on my vehicles have failed. Even tho I have moved on, All my cars will have firestone/bridgestone tires on them. From experiance and what I seen in the shop, Not that I get a discount anymore!
Some years ago wife and I had nearly identical cars (one model year apart). Mine was 48,000 miles old and needed tires and I decided to try Firestone. I insisted on the best traction they could supply for the car, paid a good buck for them.
I'm glad I saved the old Goodyears. The brand new, A-traction Firestones didn't grip the ground half as well as the 48,000 mile old tires. I mixed sets so that each car had two old Goodyears on the front (FWD cars) and two new Firestones on the back.
If you actually had Goodyears that were better than square rocks on the rims, you're doing better than I have. Goodyear is right at the top of my "never again" list. I used to run Firestone 721s on one of my cars (in the 80s, after they got the original problems with the 721 sorted out) and never had a problem. Not GREAT tires, but certainly acceptable. But things change over time... I have NO idea how good/bad Firestone is right now. I've been sticking with BFGoodrich lately.
1975 Datsun 280Z, I was on a budget so I installed Grand Prix Radials - turned out to be private labeled Firestone 500's - horrible tires, recalled
1978 Ford Fairmont, came with Firestone 721 Radial -horrible tires, replaced at 10,000 miles they were so bad
1981 Audi Coupe - came with Firestones - horrible tires, one developed a sidewall bulge and was replaced under warranty (after waiting three weeks for the replacement), every other tire on the car ended up with a puncture. Replaced the tires at 15,000 miles with Michelins, never had another puncture
1983 Mazda 626 - at the first tire change, I installed Bridgestone (I know not really Firestones) - road like they were made out of steel, but I didn't keep the car, so I can't comment further except I hated the tires
1992 F150 - Came with Firestones, horrible tires, would not stay balanced, picked up nails like crazy, finally replaced all four before 15,000 miles with Michelins. Michelins were still on the truck when I sold it this year with 100,000 miles.
1999 Ford Ranger - came with Firestone tires, horrible tires, two of four "split" in the middle of the tread pattern. The other two were replaced by Ford for free (thank god).
2003 Saturn Vue - delivered with Bridgestone tires -actually pretty decent tires, I'd buy them again.
My rule is - if the name on the tires is Firestone, I am buying something else. In over 35 years of driving, I have never owned a decent set of tires manufactured by Firestone. I've had good and bad tires from other manufacturer's (Bridgestone, Goodyear, Michelin, BF Goodrich, General, etc), but as far as delivering consistently horrible tires, Firestone stands alone.
There is something missing from this story. Three new tires just don't blow out shortly aftrer purchase.
Now why would you think you were getting a good deal for $850.00 Dumber than a box of rocks.....
Again, there is a lot missing from this story. I've known people who could wear tires out in 10,000 miles, mostly from abuse. Sams club is no better or worse than any other discount retailer.
Naw, the problem lies with the moron in charge of the decision to buy.
The ONLY Tire I saw a repeated failure on was the steeltex- And always on the left rear of towing vehicles. Firestones stance was load/vs. pressure- I just wouldn't own them (they are now renamed) I have Goodyear's on my Toyota Camry-Noisy tires, But so far wear as well as the Firestone/ Bridgestone on all the other Family cars.
My and dads truck Bridgestone Revo's My Suzuki Car Bridgestone Potenza G009 (currently has a nail, first one) My ZX-11 Motorcycle Bridgestone battleaxes Moms Car Lemans Champions (from the auto dealer) Mom's old car recently sold Firestone BT70's (1 flat) Brothers Car Lemans HR (from the auto dealer) Brothers old car recently sold Firestone something's - (1 flat) My utility trailer: set 2 of used firestone tires-- I never buy new for it, dryrots out before I wear them out.
Of the tires, 2 had to be replaced due to damage during the flat; but I base my opinion on what I didn't see while working there.
Don't you mean the infamous 500 story? Many Firestone 500 tires were made improperly so that water became trapped between the steel cords and rubber that coated them, which eventually lead to formation of corrosive ammonia and then tread separation. The 721 was the successor to the 500 and was meant to be free of its problems.
I've had really good luck with Goodyears. Currently I'm running the Assurance TripleTred tires, and they are positively the best tires I've ever driven on. Before that I had a few sets of Regatta and Regatta II, which were good but not as good as the TripleTreds. (Various cars; I don't need new tires every few months. :-) The last set of Regattas that I traded for Regatta IIs came off at 65,000 miles, 15,000 past the warranty, and they still had significant tread on them, though they were starting to get a little less grabby than I like by then.
That's a problem given the way the tire industry consolidates. Brands that were once separate then tend to combine their design/ manufacturing. The Dunlop Tire brand is currently a partnership between Sumitomo Tire and Goodyear. The BF Goodrich tire brand was acquired by Michelin almost 20 years ago. Many of the BFG tires I see now are made in lower-cost manufacturing countries like Indonesia. Bridgestone and Firestone have pretty much merged their operations such that some of the higher end Firestone Tires are designed and manufactured in Bridgestone plants in Japan.
I'm wondering what the deal is bringing up the 721. That was 25 years ago, and I'm pretty sure that almost no tire from those days could compare to what we have today in terms of technology, performance, and quality control.
That's a problem given the way the tire industry consolidates. Brands that were once separate then tend to combine their design/ manufacturing. The Dunlop Tire brand is currently a partnership between Sumitomo Tire and Goodyear. The BF Goodrich tire brand was acquired by Michelin almost 20 years ago. Many of the BFG tires I see now are made in lower-cost manufacturing countries like Indonesia. Bridgestone and Firestone have pretty much merged their operations such that some of the higher end Firestone Tires are designed and manufactured in Bridgestone plants in Japan.
I'm wondering what the deal is bringing up the 721. That was 25 years ago, and I'm pretty sure that almost no tire from those days could compare to what we have today in terms of technology, performance, and quality control.
That's a problem given the way the tire industry consolidates. Brands that were once separate then tend to combine their design/ manufacturing. The Dunlop Tire brand is currently a partnership between Sumitomo Tire and Goodyear. The BF Goodrich tire brand was acquired by Michelin almost 20 years ago. Many of the BFG tires I see now are made in lower-cost manufacturing countries like Indonesia. Bridgestone and Firestone have pretty much merged their operations such that some of the higher end Firestone Tires are designed and manufactured in Bridgestone plants in Japan.
I'm wondering what the deal is bringing up the 721. That was 25 years ago, and I'm pretty sure that almost no tire from those days could compare to what we have today in terms of technology, performance, and quality control.
That's a problem given the way the tire industry consolidates. Brands that were once separate then tend to combine their design/ manufacturing. The Dunlop Tire brand is currently a partnership between Sumitomo Tire and Goodyear. The BF Goodrich tire brand was acquired by Michelin almost 20 years ago. Many of the BFG tires I see now are made in lower-cost manufacturing countries like Indonesia. Bridgestone and Firestone have pretty much merged their operations such that some of the higher end Firestone Tires are designed and manufactured in Bridgestone plants in Japan.
I'm wondering what the deal is bringing up the 721. That was 25 years ago, and I'm pretty sure that almost no tire from those days could compare to what we have today in terms of technology, performance, and quality control.
Apologies for all the repeat posts. Google Groups seemed to be stuck and kept on retrying three times before I got a positive acknowledgement. It apparently went through three times but still gave me an error message.
That's a problem given the way the tire industry consolidates. Brands that were once separate then tend to combine their design/ manufacturing. The Dunlop Tire brand is currently a partnership between Sumitomo Tire and Goodyear. The BF Goodrich tire brand was acquired by Michelin almost 20 years ago. Many of the BFG tires I see now are made in lower-cost manufacturing countries like Indonesia. Bridgestone and Firestone have pretty much merged their operations such that some of the higher end Firestone Tires are designed and manufactured in Bridgestone plants in Japan.
I'm wondering what the deal is bringing up the 721. That was 25 years ago, and I'm pretty sure that almost no tire from those days could compare to what we have today in terms of technology, performance, and quality control.
I've had a set of Integrities on my RWD Chrysler for 50K miles with one problem...tread separation! The Goodyear dealer was shocked to see it, and although the tire was out of warranty date-wise, adjusted the tire anyway and promptly called the Goodyear zone office to report the failure. No one there, or at Goodyear, had seen separation (à la Firestone 721s of yore) ever on Integrity tires, and so they bent the rules on the warranty. Other than that, there was some initial balancing problems for the first 15K on all four...once the "broke in," they've been excellent, and local dealer service has been the same. The balancing wasn't a cost factor for me, since all Goodyear dealers offer the free rotation/balance maintenance deal on their tires. One thing I have learned dealing with Goodyear...stay WAY away from company owned Gemini stores...hard sell, like Sears, on everything from ATF "service deals" to brake jobs to shocks. Stick with indie dealers who CAN honor the national warranty. If the dealer's not an authorized Goodyear dealer, they WILL not honor the warranty...caveat emptor there.
Firestones don't exist anymore...they're now Bridgestones, which I had many, many problems with over the years. BFG doesn't even exist anymore, nor does Dunlop.
My favorite ripoff retailer du jour: Kragen's/Schuck's/Whatever's. A Jack Neihoff 12V coil....$39.99????? They've got to be kidding! I went to my local indie store and got a Standard for the same application...$7.95. Standard and Neihoff are the same outfit's stuff, but Standard's the "premium" brand.
Friends don't let friends shop at chain auto parts stores....OR Wally-Fart. Don't get me started on THOSE hillbilly 'tards....
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