The brand of tire is discussed a lot here, but it might be helpful if you share your experiences at local tire dealers.
These are are in CT. (USA)
Good ..
Pete's Tire Barn -- (Large New England chain store, most of their business is large trucks) Installed price is less than TireRack delivered price. He tells you what time to come, and tires are already in the bay when you get there. "old skool" guy who is proud of his work and shows you how he can perfectly balance an alloy wheel with only one weight.
Bad..
Sears -- All tires supposed to be on sale, but clerk insists that only the tires listed in flyer are on sale and it was not his job to look up the sale price for other tires.
Town Fair Tire ( CT chain store)-- Clerk insists that you need an alignment before he looks at the car, and installer breaks two wheel studs.
Ugly..
Firestone -- Takes at least 4 hours even if no one else is there, and they keep trying to up-sell other services. Fortunately, I never crashed when they went flat.
Big car companies losing money is not new. In 2001, Ford lost $5.07 billion. Some of that might have been due to their choice of using Firestone tires.
http://www.forbes.com/2001/06/20/tireindex.html
These are are in CT. (USA)
Good ..
Pete's Tire Barn -- (Large New England chain store, most of their business is large trucks) Installed price is less than TireRack delivered price. He tells you what time to come, and tires are already in the bay when you get there. "old skool" guy who is proud of his work and shows you how he can perfectly balance an alloy wheel with only one weight.
Bad..
Sears -- All tires supposed to be on sale, but clerk insists that only the tires listed in flyer are on sale and it was not his job to look up the sale price for other tires.
Town Fair Tire ( CT chain store)-- Clerk insists that you need an alignment before he looks at the car, and installer breaks two wheel studs.
Ugly..
Firestone -- Takes at least 4 hours even if no one else is there, and they keep trying to up-sell other services. Fortunately, I never crashed when they went flat.
Big car companies losing money is not new. In 2001, Ford lost $5.07 billion. Some of that might have been due to their choice of using Firestone tires.
http://www.forbes.com/2001/06/20/tireindex.html