CR tells the tale of its tire ratings. After testing them for performance new, staff members keep them and report on their lifetime experience. I think they do a good job, but I’m no expert.
Tires come with NHTSA ratings, one of them an expected-mileage number. I used to get a flyer from a local tire store that advertised incredibly cheap tires ($17!). I looked up the ratings and the expected-mileage numbers were really low, some as low as a fifth of the highest-rated tires. I thought of them as rip-offs. Now that I drive 100 miles annually and know tires don’t last forever, even unused, I can see how they would be useful to some - provided that the low lifetime didn’t also mean that they’re flimsy.
Some will, some won’t. I’m all for buying quality tires, but I also am a big fan of doing business with local businesses instead of online retailers. If you buy tires from your local tire shop and have a flat, there’s a much greater chance of your local shop helping you get back on the road than there is of Tire Rack helping you.
I buy tires at Costco. They usually sell two or three brands, and they are very good about standing behind their warranties. Even keep the record of your purchase on their computer files so if you come in 2 years later with an issue they can tell you exactly when you bought the tires. I figure if they are willing to support the warranty like that they must try to sell tires that give them the least trouble over time.
+1 to wentwest’s comments.
And, it should be remembered that the mounting and balancing fee at Costco includes free rotations and re-balancing for the life of the tire. Additionally, they include a Road Hazard Warranty, and if the tire isn’t repairable, then you get a replacement tire–gratis.
Right now, my treads are down to 4/32s, so I definitely will get new tires before the winter. I am just waiting for their next Michelin sale, when they rebate $70 on a set of 4. Right now, they could beat the price of any of the local shops on the Michelins that I want, but… Why not wait a month or two for an additional $70 reduction?
… and then there is also the 2% rebate that I will get by using my Costco Visa card for that purchase…
I’m not a huge fan of Consumer Reports, but for more objective things like braking distance, noise, etc they can be a good source.
I would also take the Tire Rack reviews with a grain of salt - the big thing to remember with those reviews is the vast majority of people are comparing their brand new tires with their old, worn out tires. If the new tires don’t perform significantly better than something’s wrong!
If the OP is not in a must buy immediately situation, I would recommend researching your tire size on the various tire manufacturer’s websites. For example, for my car there are 5 or 6 different Goodyear tires and 4 or 5 different Michelin tires that will fit. You can compare several tires (usually 3) side-by-side for each brand and get a sense of the price, expected mileage and conditional focus (quietness, wet traction, snow traction, expected tread life, etc.). Also, you may be able to contact someone via the website to recommend 1 or 2 tires for your particular car, then compare just those recommendations against each other. Personally, I’ve always been a fan of Goodyear, but any major brand should be fine. Firestone had quality control issues about 10 years ago, but I would assume they’ve got those fixed by now. Bottom line, the point has already been made above, but selecting tires bases solely on price is a bad idea. Tires are a significant part of your suspension system (generally speaking, the smaller the aspect ratio - 40 series vs. 60 series), the harder the ride is going to be and the more likely you are to have wheel and/or tire damage from pot holes, not to mention the safety aspect; after all, your tires are “where the rubber meets the road.”
If all you’re wanting is a generic all-season tire, pretty much all the major brands are the same. Even less-well known brands like Cooper and General make good tires. Where brand starts mattering is when you are talking about specialty tires. For example, both Goodyear and B.F. Goodrich make a 35" mud-terrain tire, but they have different strengths that make them best suited for different kinds of terrain. But just a generic all-season tire? Pfft. Choose ones that have the best ratings stamped on the sidewall for traction / wear and run with it. Those ratings are a pretty close approximation of reality in my experience.
The most important thing for any tire is to keep it inflated. On my cars with generic all-season tires, I generally inflated them to the pressure on the sidewall, not the pressure on the door panel (which is set to improve ride and comfort, not improve tire life). I usually had no problem making it to the “warranty limit” by doing so. By contrast, low tire pressure makes tires wear quickly. I had a set of mud-terrains that rode very harshly on pavement, and out of desperation I reduced the pressure to 25psi. Well, okay, that made them ride well, but they also started wearing very quickly. Lesson learned – I bumped the pressure back up to 32psi and they are wearing (and riding) like iron again. Oh well. (I say “oh well” because those big mud-terrain tires are close to $600 apiece, you want them to last!).
Yeah, that’s not a good thing as the car manufacturer knows what size tires it specified and specified the pressure accordingly, but the tire manufacturer had no idea what vehicle the tires were going on, so what they put on the sidewall is a MAXIMUM, not a recommendation. If you want to use more pressure because you think it isn’t enough for good tire life, still reference the pressure on the vehicle tire placard.- not the sidewall max! Different tire manufacturers will specify different max pressures for essentially the same tire!
Remember that there are special lines of tires made for places like Wal-Mart, etc. A Goodyear from Wal-Mart may be cheaper but odds are it will not be the same model or have the same desirable traits as one from a tire store. You will ONLY find that model at Wal-Mart.
I once bought a used car and it had a pair of Douglas tires on it. I didn’t think much of them as they had plenty of tread and looked OK. I didn’t realize this was like a Wal-Mart special brand and the cheapest of the cheap at that. One about came apart on the highway on me once. I ended up pulling into a gas station a few miles down the road to make sure the spare was fully aired up and all. A guy asked what happened so I showed him the bad tire in the trunk with the belt and tread starting to come apart. He was like “That is one of those Douglas from Wal-Mart. They all do that.” Since I had another one on the car I was concerned. I put another good tire mounted on a rim on once I got home. Then I began to notice a shake from the car. The other Douglas was going out of round so the belt was failing. I got all new tires at that point.
Don’t trust cheap tires. I don’t see how ones that bad are legal for the road.
Michelins are always good but you pay. AS for reviews, look for the one with the most good reviews. As indicated, you always have someone you can’t please.
Elgreen99 also says they air the tires to the number on the sidewall of the tire . And calls Cooper a lesser known brand. Maybe Elgreen should not be giving tire advice.
I think Cooper makes some of the best truck tires on the market. They ride as good as Michelin and last about as long at a cost of 30-40 percent less. Michelin is the only other truck tire I buy instead of Cooper.
Had mixed reviews with their car tires though. Sticking with Michelin for our cars.
All Michelin truck tires I ever bought were LT. But the biggest truck I put them on was my 05 4runner. Road great and lasted almost 70k miles. But they are very very expensive.
I went a-shopping. I found Sceptors @walmart.com (https://sceptortire.com/ tells me they sell exclusively through the Mart of Wal). I can buy a 195/75R14 for $43.29 ! The cheapest price I could find for a new tire anywhere. I can’t find a review anywhere. What’s likeliest to be cheap about these tires? nhtsa.gov has a rating for only 1 Sceptor, not that one, but, perhaps, the same. It’s not a terrible rating
Tire Brand: Sceptor
Tire Line Construction Size Traction Rating Temp Rating Wear Rating
TS60 (S RATED) Radial 225/60R16 A B 420