Tires, Tires, and no tires

Because I drive so much for work, I usually go through tires pretty quickly.  I have went through 3 sets of tires on my car. The first set (OEM) barely lasted a year. Because of that I got some Goodyear Eagle GT (P215/60R16 Vrated) tires. Mostly because they had a 50,000 mile tread life warranty. Well these tires only last about 35,000 miles. So when I went to get them changed, I would get a “discount” on the next set.

Well I went through 2 sets of these in the last 4 years (each set lasted approximately 2 years before they were almost bald.) So I had to get new tires this year and previously I had been getting them at Sears. So two weekends ago I went to sears to say I need some new ones. Well they don’t sell them any more and couldn’t get them in either. So they started showing me the other options. One that they showed me was a Michelin tire. I said ok to it, but then when they went to find them, they could only find 3 tires. So the cashier guy said he would put a reserve on 4 and have 4 ordered so they could be put on the next weekend. Fast forward to last Saturday, I go to get the tires put on, and they couldn’t find them. Come to find out, they could only find 2 of them. So either the guy never ordered them, or some one else took them because they didn’t have my name on them, or  who knows what happened.

Anyways, I was pissed. So they said they had some Hankook tires in stock and they were “rated good”. So I begrudgingly said yes and asked how long it would be, to which they said 2 hours. So I went to the mall food court to get something to eat. While I was eating I started looking at tirerack to try to find the reviews of these tires. Surprise, there is NONE. In addition I found that they Michelin tires they wanted to put on where T rated, not V. So a googleing I go, and find that the tires aren’t really “Hankook” tires, but rather Sears private label Roadhandler that just happens to be made by Hankook.  This made me even more furious as i found that they were just started to be made this year.

So I wander around the mall waiting for Sears to call, they never do. So I walk back towards the store and see my car with what looks like new tires on it. I go in to the Auto part and ask if it is done, and they were like “yeah”. (Nice that they called me to tell me, what was the use of giving them my number if they wouldn’t call?)

So $495 later, I leave and get in the car with these “Hankook” tires that supposedly have a 100,000 mile warranty on them. (I sort of laughed at the cashier when he said that, told him I would be back way before the 100,000 miles.) So I take off to hit the interstate, one thing I did notice was the huge difference in noise. The Goodyears were extremely loud. So loud that I usually had to have the radio on volume level 23. With these new tires, I can actually have the radio at 12 or 13 and it sounds loud to me.

So only time will tell if they last and  how well they handle in the rain and snow.