Hey, Car Talk Community! Question for you: do you have a favorite go-to tire brand?
Our recommendations are here:The 10 Best Tire Brands for 2023 - Car Talk. Let us know what you think!
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Michelin is my favorite too. Never any serious problems. I wish they’d revert to making 13 inchers though, for my older Corolla.
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Michelin does make great tire but at a high price. 2 sets on 2 cars. One set is on my Mustang right now.
I like Khumos and have had 4 sets on various cars. Good tires at good prices and not on your list.
5 sets of Firestones on various cars.
4 sets of Hankooks, all track capable tires. Very good track tires.
4 sets of Goodyears, one set of BFGoodrich tires.
More sets of Yokohamas than I can count. They were the only tire right for my race car.
One set of Coopers. They were crap. Bad experiences with them on rental cars. Noisy crap.
It depends on the car, truck or SUV, really. Notice I don’t have a favorite per se.
A note about Dunlop tires. John Dunlop invented the pneumatic tire for bicycles before cars were invented and later developed them for cars.
I like Dunlop Signature II tires and Sumitomo Ice Edge. Uniroyal Zeta, General, Armstrong, Nokian and Mastercraft Glacier Grip.
I’ve not had a problem with any brand, I research them, it helps: Michelin, Pirelli, Yokohama, Vredestein, Goodyear. I stay away from the no-names.
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I am stuck on Michelin, Had some BF goodrich, they were fine,
Michelin Goodyears Cooper and Tiger Paws I don’t Rember who made them.
Funny, the last time I was happy with a Michelin tire was 1990 or so, I had a set of Michelin XH that rode well. Beyond that, I’ve never been impressed with the 3 sets I’ve had since, either as new OE or replacement tires.
Cooper, Goodyear, or Firestone have been my go to brands for a long time. Just bought a set of Toyos, I like them so far. Smooth quiet ride, we’ll see how they wear.
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Generally speaking I’m not all that picky. Being very “price conscious” I often just “shop” on Tire Rack - I find those middle of the price range tires and read reviews paying special attention to things like wet and snow traction, and wear. (I don’t care what tires look like or if they seem “cool” or whatever - their job is to keep me on the road, and the longer the better). I pick what I want and then call my local shop to see if they can set me up with a set. (I.e. I don’t buy from Tire Rack).
Given that, I’ve often ended up in Kumhos and Hankooks. But I have to say that when I was looking at buying an old, used Prius one of the things that factored in was that it was sitting on a reasonably new set of Michelin Defenders. I bought the car. The tires are great.
Michelin is easily my favorite brand
I have OEM Michelins on my Tesla and I have no complaints. The last two sets of tires we bought were Generals for our previous minivan and Continentals for my Accord. I liked them both a lot. They served us well and at a great price. I bought them after reading a comparison test on Tire Rack. I base my tire choice on comparison tests by professionals and pay attention to price too. If tires rate about the same I’ll choose the lower priced tire. I read user reviews, but pay only slight attention to them. IMO the user reviews compare the new tires to the ones they just replaced, and the old tires are typically at the end of life. They are of course louder, ride poorly, and have worse wet handling than the new tires. Of course the new tires rate well.
I’ve been buying Goodyear weather ready to replace the Michelins on the Acura and generals on th3 Pontiac. Yeah I know oem aren’t all that great but still didn’t find them as good for all weather as the Goodyear. Cost is about the same at $1200 or so.
We’ve had a variety of brands over the years but the Toyo’s we bought for the Grand Voyager worked out well, We had the 15" wheels that were the same width as the 14" base wheels and in 1994 you had to call around to find a particular size instead of shopping online now. Really it’s more about the place we’re buying from.
Mom’s Prius has the costco spec Michelin Defender XT’s and other than noise they’ve been great. Price is a factor but we stick to shops that provide great service afterwards.
Definitely Michelin. More expensive to purchase but cheaper in the long run because they last so long.
No favorite brand. I research based on my driving needs. For me, primary need is wet traction. Often comes up with a coin flip between Michelin and Continental. This time the truck got Michelins, probably will go with Continentals for the Mustang.
If I still lived in the Southwest, where we had rain once a year my criteria would be different.
Over the years, from the days of bias ply tires to radials, I have had many different brands even, as I recall, tires branded as K-Mart, in the 1970s on my CJ 5.
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Michelin for cars. I do also love Michelin truck tires, but I think Cooper truck tires are as good for 30% less.
My truck came with Firestone Destination LEs. I bought 2 more sets for a total of 140,000 miles for the 3 sets. Good ride, good handling, good traction, good wear, good price. I put a set of Khumos on…wish I’d stayed with Firestones! The Khumos just don’t ride quite as well and I didn’t expect that.
The wife’s Saab came with Michelins. They did not work or wear well with that car. Every other car I’ve driven with Michelins rode and handled great.
I know that OEM tires are usually not the best, but the OEM Re-92 Bridgestones that came on my 2001 Outback had such poor winter traction that they were actually hazardous–IMHO–and that led to my first purchase of winter tires. And, when those Bridgestones got down to ~5/32 of tread, I dumped them in favor of BFGs. The BFGs were a bit louder, but they were superior to the Bridgestones in all other respects .
The OEM Continentals that came on my 2011 Outback would not “hold” a balance. Even with road force balancing, the balance wouldn’t hold for more than ~6k miles, which led me to believe that they were out-of-round. Additionally, even when they were properly balanced, certain stretches of expressway with wavy pavement caused a strange vibration in the steering wheel which caused my hands/arms to go numb. Just like with the Bridgestones on my previous car, I dumped the Contis when they got down to 5/32.
When I replaced the Contis with Michelin Defenders, the Outback drove so much better that it was almost unbelieveable.
My current vehicle came from the factory with Bridgestone Alenza RFTs, and they seem to be decent, even if they are wearing fairly quickly. When they are ready for replacement, I plan to get a set of Michelin Cross Climate 2 tires.
YOKOHAMA (period)
Been using them exclusively for 20+ years now.
I did like the BF Goodrich Radial T/A tires for my 3/4 ton truck having several sets but have been using the Geolanders since then on the smaller trucks. For the cars- Avid.
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I have no single favorite among tire brands, but have had good experiences lately with Pirelli and Continental.
I often emphasize correct pressure and category(all season, summer, etc) over brand or model of tire.
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