[rustynutz]

expensive is not always the best,I feel like some, not all,of the better know brands are riding on their names these days

I read "Choice" magazine every now and then and last year they reviewed tyres and one of the lessor known brands came up trumps.....

[Just Rick]

Yes I'm seeing more and more GT Radial trucks over here,not really looked into them

[Phil №❶]

It would be nice to know the manufacturing origin of all the brands of tyre. There's brand name, but that's meaningless if it comes from the same factory as a lesser quality tyre.

It's happening in the food industry, where locally branded foods are being replaced with generic brands, sourced from overseas, because there is more profit for the shop in each sale. Even food manufacturers here, (those that are left) do production runs of generic foods, next to their own brand to survive.

Getting back to tyres, how are standards for safety and quality established.

[Dazzler]

Happens with cars too.. They start assembling them in another country (India for example) and the QC goes down hill...

Rick,

I had Michelins on a Fiat in the mid 70's and they were brilliant .. Have Michelin Primacy LC on the new Hybrid, they perform well (hope they last ok) 

[Surferdude]

It would be nice to know the manufacturing origin of all the brands of tyre. There's brand name, but that's meaningless if it comes from the same factory as a lesser quality tyre.

It's happening in the food industry, where locally branded foods are being replaced with generic brands, sourced from overseas, because there is more profit for the shop in each sale. Even food manufacturers here, (those that are left) do production runs of generic foods, next to their own brand to survive.

Getting back to tyres, how are standards for safety and quality established.

You need to look at the side of the tyre these days. The country of manufacture will be on it.
Some manufacturers manage to maintain their quality contol in Asian factories (or South American ones). Others don't.
And as for tyres brought into Australia, there is very little, if any, control of standards. Especially by the government.

[Phil №❶]

So if we forget all other parameters except safety, it is possible to buy a cheap tyre and compromise your safety, or worse still, buy a brand name tyre (whose Overseas factory standards have slipped) and still endanger lives. 

[Doggie 1]

Hey, let's take the idea further and become our own ANCAP / Wheels / Top Gear.
We can get our forum into the headlines by making public statements like we do with Engineers Australia (and for those in the know, I'm now President of the Old Crows as well - no, nothing to do with football  )
Perhaps we can create our own endorsement logo and have products such as air fresherners, polishes and - God forbid, TYRES! - carry the i30 Owners Club tick of approval!

Good luck with getting agreement within the membership.

  We're bound to all agree.
We could even have a tyre named after us. The i30 Liberal. Has a ring to it.
After all, there is a Federal. 

[Surferdude]

So if we forget all other parameters except safety, it is possible to buy a cheap tyre and compromise your safety, or worse still, buy a brand name tyre (whose Overseas factory standards have slipped) and still endanger lives. 

The short answer is yes Phil.

And even worse than that, it is possibble to buy a tyre with the same brand and model as one which might have come on your car OE, but made in an Asian factory, ONLY for use in Asian markets like China or India for instance.
The tyre will often (but not always) have a different tread and maybe a lower load index. Unscrupulous Australian importers buy container loads of them from the country the are intended for and ship them into Australia and sell them as "look how cheap we can sell you these brand name tyres".
The Federal Government doesn't care and has made it clear they have no intention of policing this sort of action.

You'll find most reputable world wide manufacturers these days have a clause in their warranties relating to "Parrallel Imports".

[Phil №❶]

Thanks for your comments Surferdude, but I would ask how can this be? We have ADR's to cover the way a car is manufactured, all government created, and yet after the original tyres wear out there are virtually no safeguards in place. That is scary IMO.

In your past employment, how did you reconcile this with both yourself and customers, if I may ask.

[Surferdude]

Yes. It's scary all right.
If you work for reputable people in the industry you can only explain the situation and leave it up to the customer.
There were several instances I was involved in where consumers were turned away by the manufacturers because they had bought tyres from a questionable source and, when they had a problem, were "referred" by the supplier to the brand name on the tyre.
You'll find that these days, if you go into a Sams Warehouse for instance they'll often have little notices on the shelves explaining about parrallel imports so I'm assuming there has been some sort of ruling made against them in some way.
We had a classic case a few yeras ago, where a Sydney importer was advertising 205/65R15 Goodyears (I think NCT5). They were considerably cheaper than what we could sell them for. In fact they were below factory cost. When I personally got hold of one of these tyres they were made in and Asian country, with a light truck tread pattern and a lower load index, which made them illegal to be fitted to the Falcons they were being sold for and as rough as guts to ride on.

[Surferdude]

As far as reconciling it with myself, I didn't have anything to reconcile. I wasn't doing anything wrong.
I kept one of the tyres in question in my car for months and showed it to as many dealers as possible so they could handle price queries.

[Just Rick]

Rick,

I had Michelins on a Fiat in the mid 70's and they were brilliant .. Have Michelin Primacy LC on the new Hybrid, they perform well (hope they last ok) 

yes will be interesting,the second set of Mitchies I got that I got a bad run out of where produced in India,not sure whether they still contract over there,but after what the Dude has been saying,I'm going searching on my tyres.
the set I have just bought seem to handle better than the last lot,Cyril was suffering from understeer with the old set,got to be careful with these ones as it seems to now have changed to oversteer,scarey when it first happened,hooking into a bent the night I got them I was expecting the car to still understeer,I got a shock

[Phil №❶]

As far as reconciling it with myself, I didn't have anything to reconcile. I wasn't doing anything wrong.
I kept one of the tyres in question in my car for months and showed it to as many dealers as possible so they could handle price queries.

Sorry Surferdude, when I said reconcile with yourself, I meant what did you advise the customer when they come in price oriented. I wasn't suggesting for a moment that you were compromised in any way, I can tell that's not how you operate. Sorry for any misunderstanding. 

[Lakes]

Rusty how are the new Tyre going? i'm not worried about the noise  how do they ride , roll & feel ? i've still got the original Hankook 16" on. but the k's hit 50k & won't be long i'll need some new Tyres

there used to be a TV show when i was a kid, called Cannon Ball with a song at the start that went ... " The hummin' of the Tyre's , the shiftin' of the gears, the rubble of the diesel , is all music to your ear's "

[rustynutz]

Very happy with them, John....

Ride seems to be better, bad potholes don't seem to thump as much and I'm more than happy with the grip, wet or dry.

Oh, and they are definitely quieter at highway speeds....

Certainly happy to recommend...

[rustynutz]

there used to be a TV show when i was a kid, called Cannon Ball with a song at the start that went ... " The hummin' of the Tyre's , the shiftin' of the gears, the rubble of the diesel , is all music to your ear's "

Here you go....

[Paolo5]

there used to be a TV show when i was a kid, called Cannon Ball with a song at the start that went ... " The hummin' of the Tyre's , the shiftin' of the gears, the rubble of the diesel , is all music to your ear's "

I vaguely remember that song....

[Lakes]

The Tyre's sound good Rusty.

hey Paolo5 

[Dazzler]

The Tyre's sound good Rusty.

How do you know that John.. I thought you were deaf :-/

[Paolo5]

hey Paolo5 

Hi Lakes! Had a friend of a friend ring up this evening interested in buying my Moto Guzzi (and maybe my MZ too)....I haven't advertised them....still have your Harley?

Cheers,
Paolo