Ukraine Range said:
TriGem2k said:
Everyone has their oppinions on tires and here is mine.
Your tires are the only part of your car that touches the road/ground....You sure thats the area that you want to cut cost on?
I personally have always only stuck to the major brands... Michelin, Conti, Bridgestone, Pirelli, Dunlop... All of which make OEM tires for some high end cars... Porsche, Land Rover, Mercedes Benz, BMW...
When was the last time you saw one of those cars come with Nitto or Hankook tires? You spent $65k+ on a car how bad is 1k-1.5k per year or two really going to hurt your pocket book? I understand cutting cost with DIY projects and stuff like that but cutting costs on materials when it comes to Tires / Brakes... NO THANK YOU!
The only reason you don't see cars in America with Yoko's, Toyo's or Hankook is that those tire manufacturers just aren't big enough to compete with the major players, yet I find it ironic that they produce tires that are equally as capable. Also, Joe American wouldn't really like it if his new American Chevy Silverado came with Toyo Open Country's (a GREAT tire, better than BFG's) right??
What your stating doesn't make sense to me... You say they can't be major players because they are smaller companies correct? Wouldn't that mean that they spend less cash per tire testing their tires? Do they really spend the cash in development? Do they run these tires hundreds of millions of miles in the most extreme situations? Do they take them to extreme cold climates and extreme hot climates and see what happens after running them for hundreds of miles? Major companies such as Michelin don't test one tire, the test EVERY size of that particular tire as well. Ever notice that sometimes there is a size missing in their line up? You're telling me that a smaller company suddenly came up with the resources to develop that tire size and then spent time testing it?
I can can sleep at night knowing that when my car was built (whether it be the porsche or rover) and it was sent to the ends of the earth for testing that it had a specific tire/brand tested with it. Porsches even has companies stamp the letter "N" plus a version number on tires and sizes they approve.
I'll pay the extra buck for the "major" brand.
I'm not knocking those who don't or those who have a different opinion, I just rather be safe than sorry.