Worst Tires Ever?

[Loobed]

Worst tires I ever used were Perelli's. They vacuumed on my Porsche and on my motorcycle. I would never buy another Perelli. I also dont like Michelin

Tires I liked the best were the "Uniroyal Nail Gurad's" on my old 73 C-20 truck

the stock Firestones on my new GMC worked great also.

A friend had Geolanders and said they vacuumed.

 

[Seth]

Oem tires are usually cheap. Good for car maker as they get more out of list price. Firestone Affinity tires that came on my previous car had UTQG rating of perhaps 100 (lowest possible).. so they wore out quick.

I dont mind tires wearing out quick because soft rubber has other benefits but these affinities were terrible as they cupped and caused all sorts of issues. But then again, GM in its infinite wisdom released a shim kit for this reason. I am not sure whom to blame.. firestone or GM.

Current vehicle's oem are goodyear eagle ls2 which comes in an odd size 225/55r18. A sweetheart deal as there are a whopping 3 to 4 tire choices in this size and no one carries them in stock.

 

[Panzerman]

I have had the worst luck with Michelins. I bought a New 1990 Mercury Couger and it came with them, wet roads were a nightmare. I ended up taking them off at 20,000 miles simply because I was scared of them. On big trucks same problem with Michelin Steering tires, would skid on wet pavement, would have to really be careful, ended up going with Continentals and were happy with them. Although on big trucks, recapping drive tires is a big practice and Michelins would cap 4 to 5 times and Continentals only 2 or 3 times. The quality isnt lacking in Michelins, I think the rubber is too hard, to get high milelage and it just skids on wet roads, even tried lowering air pressure but it didnt help. BF goodrich and Goodyears reside on my truck and car, wear is decent and traction is excellent.

 

[JustinH]

Most OEM tires are absolute junk.

The OEM Firestones on my saturn were totally worn out at 30k miles.

I replaced with firestone LH60's, with a treadwear rating of 550 I think. Great tire so far.

A guy at my work bought some cheap goodyear tires from walmart, they had a treadwear rating of 220, I was amazed that they make garbage like that.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: Panzerman
BF goodrich and Goodyears reside on my truck and car, wear is decent and traction is excellent.


BFGoodrich are made by Michelin (as are Uniroyal).

The Michelin LX1 was one of two OE tires for the 1990 Cougar LS. The other one was the Firestone FR480. The FR480's were a decent tire. In addition to the OE set, I actually replaced them with a second set.

 

[thr_wedge]

RE92's

Expensive and average to poor traction. Very unimpressive for a "performance" tire.

Replaced with Kumho SPTs which have been great.

 

[pbm]

Originally Posted By: bheinz57
Bridgestone Potenza RE92's suck rocks. A lot of Subaru's came with them. I now have Falken Ziex 512's. Brian


My brothers 93' Legacy came with these (RE92's) and they wore out in about 10K. It turned me off Bridestones.

 

[wander2039]

Not sure if I ever responded but the worse I've had was the Conti's on my current vehicles. Some how I got 63k on the original oem tires on the Escape and they just started getting noisey. The tires on the Ranger started getting noisey around 15k. I haven't replaced them yet but they will be BFG Long trails. I got 75k on the original oem BFG Long Trails on a 00 F150 once, a burn-out I think caused those to go bad. Also got 60-70k on a set of Uniroyals on 98 Escort, oem also. I'm not sure how I keep getting these miles out of tires nobody else I know is able to.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: Loobed

Worst tires I ever used were Perelli's. They vacuumed on my Porsche and on my motorcycle. I would never buy another Perelli.



But Pirelli has probably made 500 different types of tires over the years, so you're saying because one or two particular tires they made were not to your liking you'll never try them again? I'm sure every tire maker out there has had it's share of bad tires, that doesn't mean they can't make a good one. Almost every tire maker has an entry level tire and a high end performance tire, and there is going to be a HUGE difference between the two. So you can't just label an entire company as making nothing but bad tires.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Patman
So you can't just label an entire company as making nothing but bad tires.

Agree completely! I hate when people generalize. If you want to criticize, please be specific. Otherwise, it's quite useless.

 

[Auto-Union]

Every tire co makes good and bad models.

 

[youdontwannaknow]

Goodyear Integrity - They can't hold on to anything for their life. Using this tire in snow/ice/slush is one step away from suicide!
Cant believe they are 'standard' on an Acura.

 

[heyheylbj]

Wow...

My thread has gone to college I'm glad people still have things to vent about.

One of the best things about this thread is seeing the other people who #1 hated their stock FR690's on the Honda Civics, and #2 COMPLETELY disagree with my Falken ZIEX512's.

I bought a second set of falkens and they are going on the same as the last set - working fine for me. Maybe it is the small rim sizes that are better? I'm only on 14" donut steel rims, so it could be that the smaller sizes just work a little better.

My next tire change will probably be different, though. I'm doing some suspension work myself (Adding lower sway bars fr/rr, new aftermarket shocks and eibach pro-kit springs) and I'll probably get 15" rims. Nothing "ricey," but something lighter than my 20lb each stock steel wheels.

With that I will probably get kumho's or something.

Keep the thread alive!

 

[dwcopple]

Originally Posted By: youdontwannaknow
Goodyear Integrity - They can't hold on to anything for their life. Using this tire in snow/ice/slush is one step away from suicide!
Cant believe they are 'standard' on an Acura.


Biggest piles o' $#*& ever made...no two are alike, except that they are JUNK.

 

[dailydriver]

I don't know if i would call them the "worst ever", but my Falken ZE-512s (255/50 16) did NOT live up to my expectations.
Their performance in warm dry or wet weather was actually pretty good (when there was > 5/32nds of tread left). Their turn-in/response was also not bad considering how tall the sidewall is compared to my stock size (245/50 16).
Fuggetabout snow use (but this is NOT what I bought then for, I have separate snow tires/wheels).

My main problem with them is their wear. I fully expected them to last > 12K miles, even driven relatively hard. Not just that, but the wear is severely uneven.
The front outside shoulders are down to the cords/heat discolored. This is with 2* of negative camber, Koni double adjustables w/GC coilovers (650# springs), and a big swaybar. This is JUST street driving, NO autocrosses/open tracking on these!!

 

[westex39]

Bridgestone Turanza EL400-02. These came new on our Toyota Prius. Original tread depth was 10/32". In just 3800 miles they were down to 8/32". They were worn evenly accross the tread. Inflation pressure checked weekly to factory specs. I drive very easy, anticipating stops, and easy take offs with no hard cornering. I think this is Toyota specing out the tires so they can buy them as cheap as possible. These tires are junk.
I just replaced them with Michelin Destiny. What a difference.

 

[EddieB]

Goodyear Integrity- Good fuel economy / no traction / dangerous!

 

[pepper32]

General Grabber AT.

 

[2002 Maxima SE]

Originally Posted By: 74 Laguna
Our worst tires would be Yokohama Avid Touring tires. Might be good for a smaller car but did not hold up on a Town Car. With less than 5,000 miles on them Yokohama said 3 of them had gone bad but refunded money for all four, not what we paid but did rufund some. We put Michelin Symmetrys back on and it rides much better and quieter.


We had these on our 1993 Mercury Sable and they were the best tire I have ridden on. Keep in mind, this was on a 15" rim, but we never had problems in rain or snow. They were loud on fresh asphalt though, but road like a dream.

Worst Tire: The as-mentioned Bridgestone RE92 that came OEM on my 2002 Maxima. When new, the back and front end would kick out when driving through runoff...and I'm not talking about a river either, just a mild run off on a straight road. It was frightening.

Worst Tire: AVON TECH M550 A/S. I replaced the Bridgestone's with these tires. They were great for 10k miles (quiet, good traction, quiet). After 10k they still have good traction but got louder. Now I'm told they are worn out at 25,000 miles.

 

[CapriRacer]

I think I am seeing a pattern.

I have noticed that many complaints about wet traction are on Japanese cars. I am aware that many Japanese companies do traction testing at the same site in Japan - including the company I work for - and guess which tires we've gotten the most wet traction complaints about - you're right - the ones OE on Japanese cars.

I suspect that means that tires suitable for the US market have to be tested on US type pavements.

So thanks for the insight BITOGer's!! I'm going to pass that along. Not that it will do any good - the Japanese can be very frustrating to work with if it isn't their idea.