I had to replace 4 – 20″ Goodyear RSAs on my wife’s Infiniti FX last winter……tires lasted only 19000 miles in local mild, soccer mom driving….total cost $1150.00 including balancing, mounting and tax!!!

I have some insight to the tire industry, and thought I’d share a few of the drivers behind the costs – all the major manufacturers have been raising prices the past few years, due in large part to:

- North American manufacturing (high legacy & union costs, etc)
- Tires are petroleum products – so you’ve got the double-whammy of oil that actually goes into the product on top of now-increased distribution costs
- Natural rubber spot prices are volatile at best; volatile and high at worst.

Add to that the higher rim diameter/lower profile product that are populare nowadays, which are more difficult to make, but of course typically command higher margins – and you’ve got a large part of the reason behind the increased prices.

Of course, there are ways to “beat” the game – manufacturers often take advantage of molding the exact same constructed tire into different final products or brands – so, you might pay $150 for a top-of-the-line Michelin, where the same tire (construction-wise) is sold under a different (cheaper) brand name with a slightly different tread pattern, for $75-$100 or so. Specifically, at least for now, Goodyear makes “Goodyear, Dunlop, Kelly, Lee, Hallmark, Monarch and Star brands, as well as several private-brand tire lines” (http://www.goodyear.com/media/pr/pr_2000/22149ti.html). You can bet that when possible, for example, they will just take the same “green” (built, un-molded) tire, and mold it into Goodyear and Monarch brands, or something similar. Of course, it’s not always possible – but it goes on plenty.

True, some tires made even by the same manufacturer are bona-fidely cheaper, but that’s reflected in their characteristics – if you compare the base characteristics – particularly UTQG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTQG) – you can reasonably compare apples-to-apples, even if it’s a premium-to-cheaper comparison.

For any given manufacturer, even if they’re not the same “un-molded” tire, they pretty much all come from the same factory(s) anyway – with the same quality assurance, the same machine, and the same personnel – so if you find out which “off-brands” the manufacturer makes, you can reasonably safely bet that a tire with the same size, speed rating, UTQG, etc, is likely of the same quality, even if sold under different brand names.

And, as noted earlier, they MAY even be the EXACT same tire “under the hood”, just molded differently with diffent sidewall markings & tread patterns – If all the other base characteristics (size, etc) are the same, and if you compare the DOT codes (more on that below) on the sidewall, and find that they’re made at the same manufacturing location – ESPECIALLY if they were made within the same DOT week – good odds that they’re the exact same tire “under the hood”, but were just pressed into two different tread patterns, brands, etc.

“U.S. DOT Tire Identification Number
This begins with the letters “DOT” and indicates that the tire meets all federal standards. The next two numbers or letters are the plant code where it was manufactured, and the last four numbers represent the week and year the tire was built. For example, the numbers 3197 means the 31st week of 1997. The other numbers are marketing codes used at the manufacturer’s discretion. This information is used to contact consumers if a tire defect requires a recall.”
- http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/TireSafety/ridesonit/brochure.html#dotcode

Anyway. Probably more than you ever wanted to know about tires, but hopefully it’s of some use.

What’s the solution? Drive less, of course. (This from a gal who drove about 200 miles this weekend in a rental car.)

It has saved me in the past. GO Michelin. Good luck.

My uncle used to own a tire shop and he told my dad that the tires at places like Wal Mart are of a cheaper quality (hence the cheaper price) than the tires you get at a tire store. My dad thought he was full of it but he later found this to be true.

Due to some reasons I may bring up another time, the next set will not come from Sams.

Ok, I’m done rambling.