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  #16  
Old 08-29-2009, 08:45 AM
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Location: Blue Point, NY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by t walgamuth View Post
All other tires are made by Morons?
Actually, all other tires are made by some pretty smart people. They make a tire that is not round and they market it at a price that's lower than Michelin.

It's the morons who fall for this trick.

Talk to an independent tire dealer...........ask him what happens if a customer purchases Firestone and wants it installed on a European vehicle with stiff suspension. He'll tell you that they'll try to discourage the customer...........because they really don't want the tires back.

There is also the variable of the customer. Some customers are not sensitive to feel the out of round condition and, if the shake is minor, they don't return them. Therefore, a lesser brand can be successful.

Additionally, the out of round condition is not present on all tires..........I'm quite sure that some Firestones are perfectly round............and some folks will be perfectly happy with them. But, the general consensus is that the quality control is not there.

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  #17  
Old 08-29-2009, 09:08 AM
t walgamuth's Avatar
dieselarchitect
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Lafayette Indiana
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Well, yes, out of round is a common problem. There are also grip issues and some brigestones I had were wonderful at first but began to hum after about ten or fifteen thousand miles.

I cannot stand out of round tires or wheels.

My old seventies and eighties suburbans came with steel wheels that were often out of round. It was so bad that after a while when I bought a "new" one I would simply discard the steel wheels and buy some aluminum wheels.
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  #18  
Old 08-29-2009, 10:17 AM
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[QUOTE=Brian Carlton;2281359]Actually, all other tires are made by some pretty smart people. They make a tire that is not round and they market it at a price that's lower than Michelin.

QUOTE]

I am trying to figure out if you are attempting to be a wise a$$??? LOL
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  #19  
Old 08-29-2009, 11:06 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by t walgamuth View Post
some brigestones I had were wonderful at first but began to hum after about ten or fifteen thousand miles.
I had similar experiences with Bridgestones. Thet were good at first, but after a while they developed some funny wear patterns which first showed up as hum. It seemed to me as If the rubber got harder as they got older.

I replaced the Bridgestones with Michelin Harmonys. Wonderful tires. Both Mercedes are going to make 80K on the Michelins soon, with zero tire issues.
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  #20  
Old 08-29-2009, 03:24 PM
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I have tiger paws on my wagon. They were pretty much brand new when I bought the car a couple of years ago. Not terrible tires, but I wouldn't say they're great either. Looking forward to replacing them soon with Michelin's mxv4 or exalto A/S...on 15 inch wheels.
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  #21  
Old 08-30-2009, 08:03 PM
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One of my biggest gripes with tires (besides lumpy out-of-round ones) is that there's apparently no way to be assured of consistency with tire sizes between different manufacturers.
I drove a '67 Sunbeam Alpine for many years, with Pirelli P44 175/70R13 tires. The Pirellis were wonderfull on that car, but after many years they needed to be replaced and Pirelli no longer made those 13-inch tires. So I got a set of same-size Dunlops, which turned out to be tall, skinny pieces of crap.

More recently, last June I bought an '82 240D and the car came with a set of bundt-rims, shod with 205/70R14 Firestones. Those things rode OK but they looked as big as truck-tires and cornered like marshmallows! So I got out my spare set of 14 bundts carrying a set of old 205/70R14 Michelin MXV4s. Should be the same size, right?
The Michelin's effective tread was about an inch wider than the Firestones, while the Firestones were over an inch larger diameter than the Michelins!
Admittedly, three of my old Michelins were bald, but the Firestones weren't new either, and I compared those to my one old Michelin that had a fair amout of tread left.
Thanks to one of the Forum members mentioning the Sam's-Club $70-off deal, I went there today and got a new set of 195/70R14 Michelin Xs. Don't need 205s on a 240D (I think the car came originally with 175s) and Sam's didn't have 205/70R14s Michelins anyway.

Incidentally, My '84 300TD came with a set of 195/70R14 Goodyears. At least those appear to be correct, size-wise, but they're lumpy and they vibrate! So a possible candidate for another set of Michelins. Sale runs to the end of September.

Happy Motoring, Mark
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  #22  
Old 08-30-2009, 10:43 PM
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The section width is what is on the sidewall (on the designed-width rim), not the tread width. Just one more way that manufacturers can get the less-informed buyers.

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