Dextero DTR1 tires at Walmart ?

[rkpatt]

I didn't realize until now that GT Radial, Primewell and Dextero are all Giti brands. There are lot of them out there.
https://gitiusa.com/giti-brands/. Again, my local walmart store in GA stocks Dextero (vs Douglas that must be special ordered) as the budget brand tire. I wonder if they switched from the Douglas brand because of the premature wear problem mentioned earlier in this thread ?

 

[SwampSurvivor]

OK, but I still trust Goodyear over Giti

I've never been anything but impressed with GT Radial tires.
Goodyears haven't really ever treated me bad except for acting like a bias ply tire for the first few miles

 

[SC Maintenance]

These arguments about where a company is located when they manufacture in America is becoming nonsensical.

I have spent my adult life in manufacturing, most of it specifying, selling, and trouble shooting instrumentation for machines that go all over the world. I can tell you absolutely that quality is cultural. In China if my friend in the plant does his job wrong and I point it out, it is shameful to both him, and me for pointing it out.

In most countries if you don't make quota you get fired. In China, you get fired and maybe no one else will hire you, or your shamed and demoted.

Those cultures can transfer to the plant elsewhere based on the equipment they buy or how they run their facility. It works the other way too. Step into a Japanese or German owned plant in the USA vs a US owned plant here - there run very differently - for better or worse.

Its not that China can't make good stuff, but for various reasons, sometimes cost, sometimes culture, they often choose not to.

 

[CapriRacer]

I have spent my adult life in manufacturing, most of it specifying, selling, and trouble shooting instrumentation for machines that go all over the world. I can tell you absolutely that quality is cultural. In China if my friend in the plant does his job wrong and I point it out, it is shameful to both him, and me for pointing it out.

In most countries if you don't make quota you get fired. In China, you get fired and maybe no one else will hire you, or your shamed and demoted.

Those cultures can transfer to the plant elsewhere based on the equipment they buy or how they run their facility. It works the other way too. Step into a Japanese or German owned plant in the USA vs a US owned plant here - there run very differently - for better or worse.

Its not that China can't make good stuff, but for various reasons, sometimes cost, sometimes culture, they often choose not to.

So one of the things you are saying is that whoever runs the factory can influence the culture within that factory - meaning that even Chinese factories run by - oh, let's say a European manufacturer - can adopt practices not culturally the same as the Chinese culture so their product quality might be different than what should be expected from a purely Chinese run factory.

 

[CKN]

I have spent my adult life in manufacturing, most of it specifying, selling, and trouble shooting instrumentation for machines that go all over the world. I can tell you absolutely that quality is cultural. In China if my friend in the plant does his job wrong and I point it out, it is shameful to both him, and me for pointing it out.

In most countries if you don't make quota you get fired. In China, you get fired and maybe no one else will hire you, or your shamed and demoted.

Those cultures can transfer to the plant elsewhere based on the equipment they buy or how they run their facility. It works the other way too. Step into a Japanese or German owned plant in the USA vs a US owned plant here - there run very differently - for better or worse.

Its not that China can't make good stuff, but for various reasons, sometimes cost, sometimes culture, they often choose not to.

Chinese culture transferring to a plant in the U.S. with American workers? If you are referring to U.S. workers putting out sub par quality-it's been happening for years....at Ford.

 

[SC Maintenance]

So one of the things you are saying is that whoever runs the factory can influence the culture within that factory - meaning that even Chinese factories run by - oh, let's say a European manufacturer - can adopt practices not culturally the same as the Chinese culture so their product quality might be different than what should be expected from a purely Chinese run factory.

No, because you can't outright own a factory in China, you must partner with the locals / CCP or a joint venture, so its sort of a hybrid. Even Apple - one of the largest companies on earth - uses a contract manufacturer - FoxConn - to make their phones in China.

If your talking about outside of there, and when you say culture you mean manufacturing process - then yes. The quality process and metrics for a Japanese factory in the USA would use very similar if not the same quality process and metrics as one of their factories in Japan - generically speaking.

 

[Stumpy]

I looked at some Douglas tires at Walmart five or six years ago and they were marked "Made in Poland". Had a real bad experience with Douglas tires 15 years ago and swore I never would buy them again. Bought a set for my wife's Maxima and three of the first four were out of round. I turned right around brought them back they put another set on and they were all out of round! The manager "manned up" and sold us a set of Uniroyal s for the same price. Manager said they always had problems with Douglas tires being out of round or being extraordinarily hard to balance. Bought one set of dextero DTR1's for my 2009 Ford focus. They were warrantied for 45,000 miles and I sold it to my in-laws when the tires had 40K on them and they look like they had another 15-25K miles left in them.

 

[Capt W]

I looked at some Douglas tires at Walmart five or six years ago and they were marked "Made in Poland". Had a real bad experience with Douglas tires 15 years ago and swore I never would buy them again. Bought a set for my wife's Maxima and three of the first four were out of round. I turned right around brought them back they put another set on and they were all out of round! The manager "manned up" and sold us a set of Uniroyal s for the same price. Manager said they always had problems with Douglas tires being out of round or being extraordinarily hard to balance. Bought one set of dextero DTR1's for my 2009 Ford focus. They were warrantied for 45,000 miles and I sold it to my in-laws when the tires had 40K on them and they look like they had another 15-25K miles left in them.

Wow! I'm guessing you got a "one-off" lot of Douglases. I've been using them on my beater cars for about 12 years, which has totaled six sets. Every tire was made in either Ohio or North Carolina. For the price point I've always found them to be acceptable, although the useable life has never exceeded 40K miles.

Just this morning I ordered new tires for my 2014 Town & Country. Ended up with the Hankook Kinergy ST (made in USA) for $112.99 each. The Douglas tires for my van are $99.00 each; however, when comparing their UTQGs (680AA Hankook vs. 420AB Douglas), the Hankooks should prove to be a much better value.

That said, I've never had a single problem with Douglas - at the right price!

 

[dumkid]

How are the dexteros holding up for you people who are running them? I'm going to get some dat1 dextero all terrains to replace the 2 remaining ancient michelins on my SUV. I do drive offroad quite a bit, either on gravel or rocks. The michelins are so hard that they crack instead of forming to the stones and they don't look flat at all, even when they only have 10 psi in them. They also don't wear anymore (same tread depth as 6000 miles ago)

I replaced the front tires with some used coopers soon after I got the car.(because one of the michelins shattered during an unfortunate incident with a tree stump buried in sand) and I'll keep one of the michelins as a spare tire, because they still hold air and are generally fine as long as you don't expect them to flex.

 

[jake wells]

I run douglas tires on my car but my size is 14'' and it is hard enough to find.