Anybody know the relative merits of Douglas (Walmart) versus Sentinel (Discount tires) tire brands?
I think Douglas brand is owned by Firestone, not sure who owns Sentinel. Owing to their importance, I tend not to skimp on cheap tires if I can help it
3 Likes
Like everything in life,you get what you pay for. I will never cheap out on tires because your life ride on them.
4 Likes
Sentinel is one of about 15 brands under an arm of Sumitomo Corporation that distributes to places like Discount tire. Don’t know more than that about them.
Don’t know, never owned either of those brands. Walmart’s website has user reviews for the products they sell I think. Maybe you can find some owner feedback there.
I’d be very careful of Walmart though. Even the name brands are not the same as what you would get at a tire store. As I said before, I kinda trust my local tire dealer. Told before but my Riviera was nearing the end of its life but I needed a set of tires for about a year, and white walls besides. The tire store fixed me up with some very cheap no name tires. I have no idea what they were or who made them but they were among the best tires I ever had. Quiet, good traction in snow and rain. I was surprised. So I’d be more inclined to talk to a real tire shop to see what they recommend.
1 Like
I have plenty of experience with Walmart Douglas tires. They are high quality tires that deliver great traction and lasts the same mileage as the advertise. It is a great tire for a great price. Used this brand exclusively for mustang, accord, grand caravan, odyssey, hylander, for over 400k miles.
I would say the look of the tires are ok, not premium. But that can be overlooked or is just personal preference. Go for it, cuz you will be satisfied.
Best price for install, plenty of locations nationwide if you need warranty work, but I never had a Douglas fail me.
I’ve owned a couple of sets of Douglas tires. They are good quality tires and they wore well. I have no complaints with them at all. The first set was on a vehicle that my wife bought. The second set was brand new to replace the ones that came on my wife’s car. I have zero experience with Sentinel tires.
Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I had the wrong name for one brand, it is Sentury. But, I have just about decided to buy the Douglas. It will be the first time for me downscale since as a youngun I used to buy recaps.
ah yes, recaps … 
… lots of recap-days memories, none of them particularly ending well … lol …
Then there’s blems. I graduated from recaps to blems.
My best blem: The tire guy tells me I will like this one.
He asked me if I could see the defect. I looked and looked, and notihng.
Finally he shows me.
3 Es in Steeel.
I would hope any tire sold in the US would meet minimum safety standards and be a functional safe tire. After that comes miles expected, road noise, traction parameters, etc.
Yeah I used to buy recaps for my 59 Pontiac. Firestone always had them for four tires for $100. Then in the winter I’d get two recap snow tires for $50. I actually never had a problem with them. Others of course will argue but I had those wide ovals on the back that were on the car when I bought it. When I was home for Christmas vacation, I put the snow tires on. When I went back to school there was a hill by my apartment that I couldn’t make it up any more. I never had a problem with the worn out wide ovals but less traction on ice with the narrower snow tires. That was in the days when Sioux Falls didn’t do a lot of street maintenance in the winter.
Just to put this in perspective: The DOT standards were written 50 years ago, and even then were barely adequate. Even with updates, nowadays, tires have to perform at a much higher level to be acceptable to the buying public.
So, No! Meeting the minimum standards won’t guarantee a safe tire. Don’t forget, those Firestone tires some 17 years back also met the DOT minimums. Those tires had a design issue that only revealed itself after a couple of years and thousands of miles.