tirerack kuhmo or walmart douglas

Status
Not open for further replies.
I do know for a fact that Sam's Club (obviously related to Walmart in some way) buys tires straight from the manufacturer. The Michelin Cross Terrains I bought a year ago November were shipped straight from Michelin's factory in South Carolina. One of the tires was manufactured the previous week...that's how fresh they were.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
The net effect is that while the mass retailer can offer a better price, the tire being supplied could be of lower quality.


What about tires that are store-specific, like the Viva line (no place other than Walmart sells that) and Michelin's X Radial line (nobody other than warehouse clubs sells that). If the mass retailers get the "seconds", then where to the "firsts" go, for these store-specific lines?

And then my other question would be...if Walmart for example now has a contract with ATD, who also supplies the "local guy" with tires, then it would have to be ATD who separates the "firsts" from the "seconds", and delivers the "good" tires to the "local guy" and the "bad" tires to the mass retailers, right?


Good question. I think it probably varies depending upon the manufacturer and the retailer.

Using the X Radial example, it appears that Michelin engineered their Harmony (and related tires) almost identically. For theory's sake, lets say the Harmony is the model the others are based off. Harmony is sent to the independent retailers. In order to differentiate the product for other mass market retailers, to protect pricing, warranties offered, etc, they made minor cosmetic changes that do not substantially change the engineering - tread pattern variations and of course the name on the sidewall. The result is 3 more "different" tires: X Radial DT, Destiny and WeatherWise II.

The same thing happens with other consumer goods. I shopped for a TV last year, and Costco had a Sony TV almost identical to ones sold elsewhere, with the only difference being a digit in the model number and a black trim strip instead of silver.

But these are examples where there isn't a significant difference. I am sure there are many instances where the products appear to be similar, but that is only on the appearance side. The engineering and/or quality control could be significantly different in order to meet a price point.

Trouble is, the only ones who know with 100% certainty in which of the two camps these products fall are the manufacturer.
 
Originally Posted By: weebl
Using the X Radial example, it appears that Michelin engineered their Harmony (and related tires) almost identically. For theory's sake, lets say the Harmony is the model the others are based off. Harmony is sent to the independent retailers. In order to differentiate the product for other mass market retailers, to protect pricing, warranties offered, etc, they made minor cosmetic changes that do not substantially change the engineering - tread pattern variations and of course the name on the sidewall. The result is 3 more "different" tires: X Radial DT, Destiny and WeatherWise II.


I suspect that's exactly what happened. I've actually owned three different sets of those tires...two sets of the X Radial and one set of the Agility (the WeatherWise II was previously called the Agility...same tire and tread pattern though). In Consumer Reports testing in 2005, they tested the X Radial, Agility, and Harmony (didn't get the Destiny) and the X Radial actually scored the best, although all three scored in the top six. Michelin didn't appear to "degrade" the product for the mass retailer version. But I know that doesn't necessarily represent every case out there.

Michelin has a new tire out, called the Defender. It's actually not "out" yet, but CR has purchased a set for their testing this year. I wonder if it will replace the Harmony, and if so, will they have the same varied retailer-specific models as they do now.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Michelin has a new tire out, called the Defender. It's actually not "out" yet, but CR has purchased a set for their testing this year. I wonder if it will replace the Harmony, and if so, will they have the same varied retailer-specific models as they do now.


Veering a little off-topic now, but I did a search on these, and found something on them on Michelin Media Live for the North American International Auto Show. A cached older version of the page refers to the new tire by name:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&gbv=2&safe=active&q=cache:n_A4uhMlE8AJ:http://s126497.gridserver.com/michelinnaias/content/The-Michelin-Exhibit-NAIAS-2012+new+Michelin+Defender+tire&ct=clnk

The current version does not refer to it by name:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&gbv=2&safe=active&q=cache:n_A4uhMlE8AJ:http://s126497.gridserver.com/michelinnaias/content/The-Michelin-Exhibit-NAIAS-2012+new+Michelin+Defender+tire&ct=clnk

It sounds like the official unveiling will be on January 9, 2012.
 
I'm going to veer a bit of the topic - but not too far.

Some of you may be aware of the JD Power new vehicle surveys. These are surveys of the owners of new vehicles and what kind of problems the owners had.

I am pretty sure, no one here is aware that at the same time, there is a survey of the tires on those vehicles. In some respects, JD Power is a bit unsophisticated as they do not take into account that the vehicle manufacturer sets the tire specs - and that a lot of the initial complaints about tires will be about traction, but not enough time has elapsed to really know how the tires are wearing - a very important property for car owners.

Many of the vehicle manufacturers buy the results of those surveys from JD Power - and it's only a minor amount of money more to the tire portion of the survey. The vehicle manufacturers frequently quiz the tire manufacturers about the results of the surveys.

So let me relate 2 stories:

The tire manufacturer I work for was once asked how we were going to improve the appearance of a tire we supplied - which is what the JD Power survey said was a problem. It was a tiny little thing - the base tire. When we dug a little deeper, it became obvious that the appearance problem was that the tire was too small. So we replied that we were going to fix the problem by supplying the optional tire (larger size) and would be discontinuing the small tire. That didn't go over very well.

The next story is that we once supplied the same tire to 2 different vehicle manufacturers. How this came about is a story in itself - which will be left untold.

When the JD Power survey came out, one tire was rated much higher than the other. We got a huge chuckle out of that!

So I would be very careful drawing inferences about differences on tires as there can be a lot of subject things going on. Even what appear to be objective tests have some portion of subjectivity to them - an example is traction where the surface they test on makes a differrence in the results.
 
Last edited:
Maybe I am the only one but goodyear has consistently been the best tires for me on 1/2 ton pickups. The AT/S and now the silent armors have served me well.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
walmart tires? no thanks. They probably still are chinese and are built to a worse price point than the kumho tires...


Mine was made in Brazil (General Altimax) and France (General Evertrek)
 
Walmart stocks the General Altimax in many sizes, and they generally get great reviews for the pricepoint.

PS - Saying all tires at Walmart are junk, is just plain ignorance, by someone who wants to feel loved on the internet.

Originally Posted By: chevyboy14
So I know i will need tires soon and today I was nicely reminded that in the rain my handbook mileage plus tires suck. Theyre at about 4/32 so they are due soon. I am looking at cheaper tires well because the point of a cheap car is to keep It cheap. I know neither tire is the best around but which way would you guys go. I can get a set of Douglas extra trac 2 for 336 with mount balance and everything. Or I can get a set of kumho solus on tirerack and have them installed for a total of 306 so I'm saving 30 bucks but I have to wait about a week. Which would you guys do? Which tiee is better? I know people who like Douglas tires I've never used both or know anyone who has had kumho. Please any help will be great. Thanks guys
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top