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I would avoid the OEM tires that came with my new car: Firestone Affinity Touring. They are noisy, has lousy handling and now all 4 tires mysteriously leak air at over 35,000 miles.
I was horrified when I noticed them at first and should've demanded the dealer swap them for another brand. Oh well, I'll never make that mistake again.
I've also had lousy experience with Kumho tires. None of them lasted longer than 20,000 miles and they're prone to blowouts for some reason.
Will NOT own anymore Michelin or Goodyear tires for the same reason. They are a high carbon tire and as such, they ride great and handle great on day one. Then they slowly turn into bricks with no ride and no handling. They last a long time though but they are grossly over priced for the performance you get.
All brands make both high performing and budget tires. You have to research the individual tire over at TireRack. I've had some good Kuhmos, excellent Continentals, bad Coopers, good Coopers, good Pirellis, bad Pirellis, excellent Firestones, and on my current new car some horrid Hankooks.
For some reason OEMs tend to choose poor performing but expensive tires.
i love my michelin, but lately i been buying coopers because of money. i mean coopers are good tire. on my 4wd i just got some general grabbers, zero miles so far
I have only had trouble with one tire brand, Firestone. I had a twin tire failure in the Arizona desert. I was driving on the interstate when the car started to shimmy, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw tire material bouncing all over the highway. I replaced the tire with the full size spare and 50 miles further down the highway the another tire did the same thing. Both tires had the whole side wall completely gone.
I will never own a firestone tire again. I ordered a new car and the salesman said it comes with Firestone tires. I told him that I would buy the car but not with those tires. He special ordered Goodyear tires and I was happy.
There are a couple brands I steer clear of, and those are Dunlop and Hankook.
Otherwise, I've found at least 1 good model of tire from most other manufacturers. Firestone for example, makes the Destination ST, which is a VERY well reviewed sport SUV/truck tire that performs better than many tires costing twice as much. Pirelli I've had high performance tires and all seasons that have performed well, as well as one model (can't remember off hand) that was so horribly noisy at speed I replaced them even though they had at least 10-15k miles left in them.
Goodyear, same thing, have had good models and bad.
The only manufacturer I've never had a bad model from has been Michelin. All the tires I've ever purchased have been outstanding, but pricey.
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