Agreed alr2903
I plan to drive this buggy till the wheels fall off. Save for a punctured A/C condenser, front brakes, 1 recall to replace the PCM, it certainly has been a good car. Exhaust, rotors and drums are all original.
In addition to being appointed All Thingus Speedus Queenus ad infinitum, I also study tyres. Back in the day of being a Petroleum Transfer Engineer, the service station I worked at was also an authorized Junkstone, er I mean Firestone dealer.
A couple times each quarter, they'd send in factory reps to train us on all aspects of tyres. How to sell, rotation, what can and cannot be plugged, how to "boot" a hole, how to identify split belts and so on. They even showed us films of tyre design and manufacturing. All in all, they were very good at disseminating product knowledge.
I started a 35 year interest in tyres when, in the early 80's, dad needed to replace his ordinary polyester tyres with radials on a 1971 Olds 98 4 door. IIRC, the OEM size was H78-15 or P225-75r-15 in the metric designation. Don't recall what he paid but they were highly touted at the time.
Well it went downhill quickly. These tyres were, without a doubt, the absolute worst he's ever owned. They never blew apart, but they were notorious for splitting the belts which would result in a large "tumor" of sorts and a thump thump thump as you went down the road. Pull the wheel and you could see the steel belts underneath the tread separation. Needless to say the tyre was junked. When it was all said and done, over a 3 year period, dad ended up replacing the set 3 times, equal to 12 tyre replacements. We even had a visit from a Junkstone rep who swore that the tires were perfectly fine but the car was "too heavy" for them. Hmmmm funny, the load range stamped on the sidewall indicated they were indeed ok.
Well dad had enough after the 12th replacement and he went to Tyre America and bought a set of Patriot brand tyres. This is when I became interested in tyre manufacture. I found out that these were "off brand" tyres made by one of the "Big 4" and because there was no advertising, they could be purchased for a lot less than a brand name tyre. These were not blems or seconds, but first lines. They had the same warranty as the branded stablemate too. I also learned to read date codes to learn the date of manufacture and the plant codes to determine where the tyre was made.
Since I never owned a car worthy of them, I never purchased high line expensive tyres. Never. All of my rides are/were run of the mill basic vehicles, save for the Dakota and its expensive to replace 31x10.5x15 Goodyears.
That being said, my worst tyre was the BF Goodrich Silvertown I had on a 1975 Cordoba (sans the fine Coreeenthean leather). Like the Junkstones, they split treads right and left. I ended up trading that for a Plymouth K-car and I put Kelly Springfields on it. They were good tyres. I used the Goodyear Intrepid on a Dodge Spirit. My company lease cars came with, as you would expect, the cheapest tyre that would hold air and meet EPA MPG specs.
The least durable tyre were the ones that came from the factory on the Corolla, Bridgestone SE200. I got 20K and they were shot. Would NOT pass inspection in this commonwealth. I ditched those and went with Dean, a Cooper house brand, made in a right to work for less state, Mississippi. I ran those Deans until last summer and replaced them with another non union made tyre, the Cooper CS4 touring.
I never run a tyre "all the way down" no matter what the stated mileage is. Tyres will hold air sure, but the traction and grip deteriorates LONG before the warranty expires, even if it is a mileage warranty. I never buy road hazard either. When I get to 4/32 or if the tyre hydroplanes badly on wet roads, off it comes. I have a tyre gauge that measures tread depth in 32 inch intervals. I check the depth each spring and fall and notate that in a log book I keep.
Also, another big joke is "winter performance" tyres. This is akin to "truck" rated motor oil or SUV motor oil or 4 cylinder motor oil. In other words, a gimmick. They very same characteristics that make a tyre perform well in the summer, stiff sidewalls, harder tread compound, are the antithesis of what one needs in a good winter tyre. Besides, who in their right mind, is going to "tear it up" in their ricer or Beemer when there's 6 plus inches of snow on the ground?
Finally, I purchase tyres primarily from US factories. I'd go Europe so long as it is western Europe. These Generals owned by Continental AG, are the first German made tyres I have used on any vehicle. This is also my first experience with directional tread tyres. Based on my research of Continental AG as a company and these tyres in particular, I am confident they will carry the freight come winter.
If we actually get a winter this year.............
