Yeah I just bought four generals from the Goodyear dealer. The Acura though gets the higher cost goodyear weather ready. They also sold me some no name tires when I needed white walls to last a year or so before I junked the car. They have the products and experience to meet my needs. On new cars I’ve had tiger paws, mich. Etc. but the weather ready compare favorably and have been happy with the choice. I don’t like shopping, reading reviews, and comparisons. Once I find a product I like, I just tend to stick with it. If I had problems on the road I’d put on four chespos and replace them as soon as I got home. Now for coffee pots . . . Sorry Nevada.
Many years ago, when I knew that I would be trading-in my car on a new one in a few months, I needed tires so I bought the cheapo house brand tires of a local tire dealer.
I don’t recall any details about their wet traction, but they squealed so much when I was making a turn that people would turn their heads, thinking that a car was going out of control. Even if I turned at an extremely low speed, the noise from those tires was really obnoxious. At least I only had to endure those tires for a few months, and at least I knew that I would never again buy that guy’s house brand tires.
The brand was Falls, but I have no idea who manufactured them. This was back in the '70s, so I’m sure that they were American-made.
Learned some new today about tires. Great posts
One clarification for those in the know. It sounds like the cheapo Walmart tires have different model names. Like Goodyear Viva which I had never heard before.
So my question is: if I want a specific model like Goodyear Eagles are the Walmart tires the same quality as all Eagles or are Walmart’s crappier too.
While it is true that tires sold at Walmart are cost-engineered specifically for Walmart, that does not mean these are horrible tires. All tires sold in this country are required to meet D.O.T. standards, and Walmart tires certainly do. These are low-cost tires for people who need new tires on a tight budget. For what they cost, I would assume most customers are satisfied with them.
With regard to your question about “Goodyear Eagle” tires, I would assume those are cost-engineered for Walmart as well.
Of course they meet DOT standards but those were set in the 70s. Tire quality has vastly improved. I wouldn’t buy 70s tech tires today. Tires back then weren’t really good.
Re: the Eagles does anyone know for sure?
Do what I did, find identical Eagle tires on Walmart and on, say, Tirerack, and compare the UTOQ ratings. For the Michenlin Defender 2 they’re identical, which tells me the tires are identical for all practical purposes.
Just for grins and giggles and yes I found them. I searched on Walmart.com for tires for my 2024 Mini. Cooper S Convertible.
I can’t believe the effing tire brands Walmart shows me. Waterfall? Lexani? Accelera? Fullway? Zeetex? Arisun? Those were the first six tires they showed me!
I’m a car guy. Never heard of these. Most of them have UTQGs of about 300. So they won’t even save money as while they are about 1/2 the price they’re also half the life. Dumb.
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Even Continental and Pirelli?
That’s what I’m thinking. The “name” models are the same. The unknown names are not.
Michelin Pilot Sports were the same UTQG. So were the Pirelli Cinturatos. So were the GY Eagles.
Guessing they’re the same just the yazoo brands are not.
My advice I’ve always given when non car people ask me where to go for tires I say Costco. They don’t sell crap tires. Maybe not the Vredesteins but if they need to ask me they don’t need Vredesteins. They would already know.
Contis and Pirellis were the same UTQG.
Unless Walmart is committing fraud (which I doubt) they’re the same tires.
When you checked, did you check to see if they were shipped and sold by Walmart ?
A lot of the sold Tires on Walmart.com don’t come from Walmart.
They were for all the ones I noticed above except the Pirellis were sold and shipped by Tire Bros.
We lived on the main drag that was 30 mph and a 90 degree turn. My neighbor had a new 58 Buick after the 58 Chevy was crashed. At any rate every time he would go around that curve, the tires would squeal like crazy. Enough for us kids to talk about it. Don’t know the brand but would have been original equipment. Dought they were Firestone since that was usually ford.
On the Walmart issue, if you google, you’ll get a lot of comments on balancing issues, bulges etc. not that google is all that reliable, but a few shops interspersed with customers.
Not everyone buys tires expecting them to last 50,000 miles. Sometimes the car won’t make it another 20,000 so why spend money on premium tires?
But yes, some people don’t see the big picture. I once had a guy come in for an alignment, the car pulled one way. Alignment angles were all dead center when we were done but the car still pulled. Crossed the front tires and car pulled the other way. He had 3 different brands of tires, with tread depth ranging from 9/32” to 3/32”.
He told me he was an Uber driver and went through tires quickly, so just bought the cheapest ones he could find, one at a time as he needed them.
^More common scenario than most^
I can see the interstate from where I live, and I’m willing to bet that at least 7/10 cars at least, driving by, fit ase’s description of what comes into the shop.
It’s amazing how much of a difference having different brands of tire, even if they are correct size, category (summer, touring, all season, etc), correct pressures, can make on how the car drives and handles.
And face it, one tire at a time is all the ‘90 Percent’, can rub two dimes together to afford.
Next best case: buying in pairs, but within the same 12 month period. That’s a little better.
The best I can do, as a tire-use optimizer, is recommend that all pressures be equal, in all four tires, or, on each axle in cases where pressures are different per axle.
Ok, even more for me to comment on:
When comparing tires, be very careful about the EXACT name. There’s a difference between a FireEagle Passion XT and a FireEagle Passion XH.
And even when the names are exactly the same, there are ways that the same tire can be sorted into different quality levels - meaning that WalMart might be getting a lower “quality”, even though everything visible is the same.
Which brings me to the meaning of “Quality”. One meaning of quality is how well the tire performs - wear, traction, etc. That’s part of what the UTQG rating system addresses.
Another way the word “Quality” is used is about defects. In tires, we are talking about appearance - slight molding imperfections, that sort of thing. Needless to say, no tire manufacturer is going to allow a tire with a defect that could cause a structural failure past their warehouse doors. So this means defects that are strictly appearance issues.
A third way “Quality” is used has to do with balance, uniformity. It’s possible to grade the same exact tire into different parts of the warehouse using internal codes - and shipping different “Quality” to different retailers.
In other words, there’s a lot of things that can not be determined about the “Quality” of tires - and some of those things will not be visible to the consumer. If you want me to expand on how that can be done, just say so. Warning: It’s going to be complicated and lengthy.
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Would you consider tires with identical names and UTQG ratings the same, for practical purposes? Aside from appearance how might they differ?
I know at least years ago, as it was explained to us in a meeting by the Bridgestone higher ups, the little colored circles (little dots) the ones the vehicle manufactures got (OEM, not dealers), had a solid circle on them, the ones going out to the company owned stores and places under contract for a specific tire, got the 1/2 circle and IIRC the outlined circles went to the rest or maybe the Walmart’s etc.. The ONLY difference was how they balanced out, the truest tires went to the OEM (not dealers), the next ones that required a tad bit more weights went out to the company stores etc etc…
I remember when we all got ticked off when Costco was getting the new (at the time) Ecopia EP422’s, due to contracts, they went to Costco 1st, if any left over they were sent out to the stores… lol
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Back in the 70s, a family friend had a tire shop for a few years. Seemed to have sieberling tires back then. But he always pushed what he called blems at a discount price. Said there was nothing wrong with them, just appearance.
BTW, I have seen this in the past more then a few times, check to see if the brand new Michelin tire to see if the tread has been shaved down any to true them up from the factory, it will only be part way around the tire, if so then check the tread depth at the lowest point, that will be worn out before the rest of the tire…
Don’t know if this is still done or not, but it will be obvious looking at the tread…