With regards to Firestone tires, are they generall good other then the SUV mishaps?

there high performance tires have always been excelent and tend to last longer than others. However, their sister company Bridgestone is even better :)

Eric

I haven't driven on any terribly good Firestones.... frankly I'm beginning to doubt that there are really good Firestones. I know the stockers on 2000 Civic LX's were ATROCIOUS, and I've not been impressed with any of their truck tires either. They must have ONE good tire.:)

Considering that they keep expanding their recall I would be a little sus about buying their products. Having said that, they are still poplular tires. Check out the Upgrade Garage here for many ideas.

The only Firestone tires I'd consider are the SZ50 and the SZ50EP. And those are great tires, unlike the rest of the Firestone lineup. The SZ50EP's have the highest customer ratings for high performance tires at the Tire Rack.

Jeez... Ford tells people to put an incorrect amount of air into explorer tires, and suddenly, everyone is against firestone. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Cacophony
Jeez... Ford tells people to put an incorrect amount of air into explorer tires, and suddenly, everyone is against firestone. :rolleyes:

Don't you love it? Guess who puts more advertising money into every form of media out there? Guess who gets spared a knife to the back when they do something wrong.

Get off Firestone's case. Ford asked for a tire, they delivered. Then Ford decided to drop the air pressure to improve the ride quality.

Some automakers adjust suspension settings to improve the ride... others jeopardize lives by dropping the tire pressure.

I know the stockers on 2000 Civic LX's were ATROCIOUS

The problem with the 2000+ Civics aren't the tires, it's the design of the suspension and steering system.

I just think Firestone tires suck in general. The Explorer incident was a crock of shyte. Car And Driver recreated the blowouts with a proffesional driver at 30 40 50 60 70 and 80 mph. When the driver safely stopped the vehicle after the blowouts the tried the test at 80 mph again but with no hands on the steering wheel. The driver feathered the brake and brought the POS explorer to a hault.

RoadRash, oh I know the suspension is God-awful... but those Firestones are NOT helping anything. I replaced just the front two Firestones with two cheap Toyos and the ride improved dramatically.

The deal with tires is that you can not predict what a given tire model and size will be like given the performance/safety of another tire model by the same manufacturer. OEM and other high-volume tires are made completely differently than shorter run and performance tires. The speed rating alone is a pretty good indicator of how the tire will hold up structurally. I have no qualms about Firestone's performance tires. Neither do the CART teams.

I did happen to own a '93 Ford Explorer, though. I thought the superficial features of the car were very nice, but I thought the suspension was a death trap. I sincerely felt that if I had to make a panic avoidance maneuver the car would trip on the outside front tire and roll. Very unstable feeling.

--scott

I agree with RidinLow, the SZ50 and SZ50EP are awesome tires. I had the SZ50s on my Mustang and fell in love with them, leading to my purchase of the newer (better) SZ50EPs for the Subaru. I've got around 25,000 miles or so on them and they still have some tread left before they'll hit the wear bars. That's pretty damn amazing for an ultra high performance street tire that has the grip that these tires do. I really think the SZ50 set the precedent for other mid-priced, excellent-wet-and-dry tires such as the RE730 and the AVS Sport. I'll almost certainly be going with SZ50EPs again when I replace the Subaru's tires.

Pat Olsen
'97 Legacy 2.5GT sedan

I agree that the explorer and the people driving it have a lot to do with it. The vehicle is not stable in severe braking and if someone panics with a flat it could lead to problems. I also really liked the stock tires. when they were recalled, she had put about 70k miles on the tires and they STILL had tread left for more driving!!! We changed them anyways and sent in the paperwork, only to find out that the receipt was not complete. Someone (maybe my wife) tore off the bottom half and now we can't get back the $500 for the 5 new tires. Sam's club can't reprint the receipt... So, that's my story. Seemed like amazing tires and a bad suv... She likes it though and is a better than average driver who doesn't freeze in a fishtail so I think we're safe.