Are any of these tire brands good?

[Dan Friedrichs]

LOML has a small-ish car that needs new tires in an odd size. I've checked the usual sources (tirerack.com, etc), and there are not many options in all-season tires in this size. I simply can't find a quality all-season in a brand like Michelin, Cooper, Kelly, etc.

Thus, my options are:
Continental
General
Yokohama
Dunlop
Falken
...or a month wait for a backordered Bridgestone

Price is about the same for all of these, and this car is almost exclusively driven in-town. I'm looking for long life and decent performance on light snow.

Is there an opinion on the general quality of any of these brands?

[Chuck Wintle]

depends on the tire model and the car. a small car around town won't need a high performance tire....i have had good luck with general tires on my honda civic. The yokohamas are likely very good.

[Dave Gaul]

That's a tough call Dan. I rely on user reviews quite a bit when it comes to tires, and in an unusual size, that is probably next to impossible! If you don't need special purpose tires, I would contact a small tire dealer/installer, like a ma and pop type place and see what they can offer you...

Other than that, I would think any of those brands would be just fine.

Just had a thought, can you compare those tires in commonly available sizes?

[Jeff Monson]

What size are you looking for Dan?

Of the listed, I'd go with the General

[Dan Friedrichs]

I'm looking for 175/65R15's. I was also leaning towards the General. I've just not heard of many of these brands, and wanted to see if anyone had a, "Oh, God! No!!!" story about any of those brands, in particular.

[Jim Becker]

I'm not familiar with the last one (Falken) but "generally speaking" those are all good brands. It's the specific tire models that matter more. I usually get some guidance by the reviews from people as well as the descriptions on sites like TireRack. (I bought my last set of tires from them and my local Toyota dealer installed them for me)

[Greg Portland]

I also follow Jim's advice about checking Tirerack reviews. In general, Yokohama's are great tires for smaller cars. Continental and Dunlop also tend to get high marks.

[Brian Elfert]

Those are all good quality tire brands. I wouldn't hesitate to use any of them.

There are a great many Chinese tire brands now and most of them have Chinese looking names. I might hesitate to buy one of the Chinese brands. Chinese brands are really starting to get big in the heavy truck market like for semis because tire prices have gotten so high for heavy trucks. It isn't unusual to pay $450 for a single tire and a semi tractor has ten tires.

[Chuck Wintle]

I would avoid any tire made in china regardless of brand...the quality is just not there..and the trend is for more an more companies to outsource production there because of cost.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Thank you all for the advice - I'm glad to hear that these are mostly reputable brands.

I ended up buying a set of Generals for $300 delivered.

[Jim O'Dell]

I'd personally say stay away from the Continental, especially the Contitrac model. Now this is from seeing multiple problems on heavy vehicles, namely Lincoln Navigators. I went through the Firestone/Ford fiasco on a Linc/Merc service drive, and the Firestone tires were never as bad as the Continentals I dealt with!!!! Just my 2 cents. Jim.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

My dad had a set of Continentals on a Buick. Nothing but troubles. Agree on the Generals--good tires.

[Chris Kennedy]

Late in the game, but I will echo -- no on the Continentals. My car came with them and they were supposedly a 30,000 mile tire (okay, so not the greatest), but they didn't make it even 20,000.

Chris

[Dan Friedrichs]

Yeah, it currently has Continentals (the Contritracs, actually, Jim) that are bald in <20k miles - so I guess I was never really considering those, anyways :)

[Phil Thien]

I got Dunlop SP60's for my older Dodge Caravan. They: (1) Get great traction, I read somewhere they have a tread design that Goodyear used to offer, can't remember the name, but it cuts through water and snow GREAT. (2) Wear like iron. (3) Often are available at great promotional prices.

They've also done well in Consumer Reports:
http://www.goodyear.com/cfmx/web/corporate/media/news/story.cfm?a_id=69

[Bill Huber]

You have already got them but I will tell you I am now a Yokohama man.

I have a little S-10 pickup and the tires that came on it were P205/75R-15 for some reason no one carries them around here and you have to order them. I was at Discount Tire and they could get them in 2 days but they told me they had a Yokohama 215/70R-15 in stock and it was less then the stock tires.

The difference is unreal, they stick some much better in the rain and snow and they ware like iron.

I have put them on my son's truck and he has really noticed the difference also.

[Brian Elfert]

I suspect before too many years pass by we won't have any tires made in the USA unless they are very low production specialized tires. They won't all go to China, but they won't be made in the USA. Right now, I know of no radial trailer tire made in the USA. Goodyear Marathons went to China and then came back to the USA. They are back in China probably to stay.

The Maxxis tires I bought for a trailer are made in Thailand. These are the ones a lot of folks recommend. I probably wouldn't buy Maxxis for another vehicle, but the major brands mostly don't do trailer tires.

Some smaller cities have been devestated by the closing of large tire factories. When you only have 25,000 people and 1,500 worked at the tire factory it hurts.

[Bryan Morgan]

I've used Falken tires on a couple cars and haven't had any problems with them. My preference is Goodyear Eagles but they are expensive. My friend was really big in the import car tuner scene (always going around the country to shows and whatnot). One of his sponsors was Hankook (he got tons of free tires for his drifting stuff). From what he tells me, theres only like 3 manufacturers of tires no matter what label is on the outside...

[Dan Hintz]

Too late now, but it's nice to see others suggesting Yokohamas... it was going to be my suggestion. They make a good group of high-performance tires, and while that doesn't necessarily track to their lower-end families, it says something about the company's capabilities in general.

[Myk Rian]

I'm a big fan of the Goodyear Assurance Triple-Tred, no matter what car it is.
Awesome tire.
http://www.tirerack.com/images/tires/goodyear/gy_assurance_triple_ci2_l.jpg

[Jason Roehl]

My only suggestion was going to be to bone up on date coding and check that prior to installation. Tires are generally good for about 5-6 years (yes, you can go much longer and never see a problem, but the catastrophic failure rate is much, much higher), no matter the miles, and there have been some inventory issues that have meant tires past their expiration date get sold and installed as new.

[Lee Koepke]

I have a set of Michelins on my F150 thats over 80,000 miles now .... and I still have decent tread left (although its gettin close!). Now the truck is 10 yrs old and I am not sure if I will keep it for another 80,000 miles, but if I do, I will put the same tires on it.

We didnt think we will be keeping my wifes Jeep much longer, so I went with some relatively inexpensive General tires for her. If they last 40,000 miles, I will be grateful.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I'd personally say stay away from the Continental, especially the Contitrac model. Now this is from seeing multiple problems on heavy vehicles, namely Lincoln Navigators. I went through the Firestone/Ford fiasco on a Linc/Merc service drive, and the Firestone tires were never as bad as the Continentals I dealt with!!!! Just my 2 cents. Jim.

But - and not the equipment speced by OP - for years I ran the Conti Sport Contacts on my BMW - specifically not allowed for snow + ice, and no tread life warranty. But it was like driving a slot car. Downside - good only for the good-weather months, which was fine, because that's how long it took me to wear out a set :eek: :eek:. MAN were they fun to drive.......................