Rebel 1

No i'm not kidding but you must be if you think firestone is a company i would trust. With all the fingerpointing firestone has done over the years blaming all their manufacturing problems on their customers. Check the link from post 24.
When the firestone Explorer tires failed they did exactly the same thing, blaming the consumer. This company has a History of turning out a defective product and why would Anyone believe anything has changed? I would Never be willing to take a chance and put my life at possible risk from firestone. If you like them more power to you but not me.
I will not be replacing our tires with G.Y.'s when our '09 needs tires. Michelin is the tire i will put on it. Love em on our '02.

dtclark

dtclark

Interesting point. But, let us not forget that we Americans do have very short collective memories... Like many other companies (and politicians!), Firestone needs only to wait out the storm before returning to its old ways.

TexasHiwayman

Lucky for us our watchtowers are manned and ready. It's been 30+ years. The time is ripe and we have been lulled by the company's performance prior to the SUV debacle and it's performance since.

How can we trust the direction of rotation arrows on our tires? Can we buy steel suspenders to go with the steel belts?

Mez

You guys are killing me!!

Firestone was bought out by Bridgestone 20 years ago so basically, its just a tire brand in name only. I would bet no Firestone machines, not one person, or design remains from the original Firestone company.

The Wide Ovals for the Corvette are made in Japan. Probably in a Bridgestone factory.

Get over it!

rjwz28

I still can't believe how many people are still putting all-season rubber on their performance cars that was the first (and best) thing I did when I got my Z28 years ago, and I will follow the same trend no matter what performance car I drive. The summer rubber I put on slightly outperformed the all-seasons in any rain and there was no comparison at all in dry conditions. If you are seriously going to leave your house with snow on the ground in a Vette (or any other rear-drive performance car) there should be snow tires underneath. All-seasons are worthless. IMHO.

Like dem Vettes

Ford appeared to be at fault for the Explorer's exploding tires debacle, not Firestone. Ford specified 26 psi for the tire pressure, which left insufficient tire pressure margin until danger level was reached. Ford did a better PR job than did Firestone. It is easy to lose 2 psi in a day if one fills the tires during the highest temperatures of the day. It is conceivable that during the evening the tires will lose 2 psi if the temperature drops twenty degrees. A rule of thumb is that a tire loses or gains pressure at the rate of 1 psi per 10-degree Fahrenheit change in temperature.

I believe that various investigations found that other car manufacturers left more of a margin between the recommended tire pressure and the danger level. Lack of tire maintenance probably contributed, but Ford sacrificed safety for a softer riding vehicle. Why do body-on-frame SUVs need to ride softly?

Firestone was not completely innocent in this matter. It should have insisted that the recommended tire pressure be higher to preclude the legal troubles. 20-20 hindsight is great.

Mez

While tire pressure spec was a factor, the Firestone tires recalled did had a much higher failure rate than other brands.

I seem to remember the reason for the low tire pressure spec was not related to a softer ride but it was related to certain vehicle handling characteristic. I think Ford designed a certain degree of understeer and by having lower tire pressures up front, it was able to achieve it.

Also, the most common tire that failed was the driver's side rear. When the tread started to separate, it pounded the rear fender. The driver's natural reaction was to jerk the wheel to the right thinking something hit that side of the car resulting in a roll over.

The cheap Goodyear tires Ford used to replace my Explorer tires during the recall had poor traction on wet pavement. One day, my daughter spun it during a light drizzle. So I immediately replace them with Michelin All Terrain tires. That solved the problem 100%.

I believe Goodyear sells GM the Corvette tires at cost but makes it up on the replacement market. That is why they are so expensive.

Gearhead Jim

As far as I can tell;
No snow tires available for the C6, not even non-runflats.
We made it through 4" of snow in our 2006 Coupe with just the Goodyear A/S runflats, I was amazed.

rjwz28

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSe...Model=Corvette C6 Coupe&autoModClar=Performance Handling Package

rjwz28

That was the recommended matched set for the C6. 245/40-18s are available in a variety of different models, however, that expensive Pirelli is the only 285/35-19 winter tire available on TireRack.com. I have read on more than one occasion that it is a good idea to run slightly narrower tires in the winter to allow more weight to be distributed on a smaller contact patch and increase the traction. Keeping that in mind, I was able to find the following results:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSe...r=18&x=35&y=13
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSe...r=19&x=18&y=16

Like dem Vettes

The Goodyears that came with my 95 Explorer were awful. I also replaced with Michelins. My Corvette Z51 came with the Goodyears and, as soon as they were nearly bald, I replaced with Michelin PS 2s. What a difference! The ride is smoother and quieter and the handling is at least as good. I don't work for Michelin, but I use Michelin on each vehicle I own. Costco and Tire Rack are very reasonable for Michelin tires and cheaper than going to a Goodyear dealer. I have never been happy with any Goodyear tires that came with new vehicles. On the other hand, I have been very pleased with Michelin tires that came with new vehicles.

Gearhead Jim

Now I've got to figure out why it didn't show up for me...

The Clevite Kid

No more insight on the warranty limitations on the Michelins? Does Luke from Tirerack have any opinion on this ?

Gearhead Jim

Are you perhaps referring to the "Do not Repair" script on the Firestones?

wcrmltd

I see several comments about not buying Firestone because 30 years ago they made a bad tire. That may be correct but I also remember a time that you would never buy anything from Japan because all they built was tin toy cars and they were cheaply built. I also remember Harley having to improve their product or lose to Honda, Yamaha, etc. I know that has changed and so has Firestone. I think Bridgestone had a lot to do with it.

When I bought my 2008 C6 convertible it had Goodyears on and they did not last to a little over 8k miles and during that time you could forget trying to listen to the Ipod because the road noise was terrible let alone the grip.

I went to the Firestone to just see because I had a problem spending $1800 verses $1250 and not know if I would better 8k miles. Night and day on the Firestone from the Goodyear factory install in grip or quietness. The set of Firestone made 21000 miles and was a fraction off the wear bars. At that point I had issues in the rain if it was an older road with groves from traffic beginning to show. Regardless of the rain issue when they get close to the wear bar I am ready for a better ride and sound that you get from new shoes. I could not find a single report on any site, Direct Tire or Tire Rack, where someone went from Firestone to Michelin or from Michelin to Firestone.

Now I have some buddies ( mainly Porsche GT2, 2010 Porsche GT3, 2010 Turbo Porsche, Porsche Cayman, Boxsters, 911 S4, Super Charged Mercedes, you get the picture) that get together 3 or 4 times a year to go to Arkansas, or Hill country of Texas and try to straighten out curves and terrorize the citizens of those states. My Corvette has seen LG’s shop for headers from engine to muffler with Corsa Muffler, Killer Bee intake, and computer change but not a total removal of Torque management from the automatic trans. I could get a little more on the tune but this was my choice. I am putting over 400 torque and hp on the ground at the wheels from their dyno and I enjoy running with those $250,000 machines with a lot less cost. GT’s are strong but the New Turbo with 4 wheel drive is something on curves. I tell you this so you understand how hard we do push on occasions.

I always stay on run flat for two reasons. One with roads in west Texas being miles from towns and the hills of Arkansas being miles from major cities I know I will not find a tire for the Corvette in Bug Tussel Texas or Elm Flat Arkansas. Second I feel that the stronger side wall on the run flat does help tire flex on the side wall since they are stronger. So I will give up a little ride and sound.

Seeing that some tires could see better mileage I wanted to see what the difference was then for the Michelin SP2 ZP and at that point spring for the increase of another $500 to $600 more cost. I have always felt that Michelin made a tire that would for sure wear good but with hard driving how much would that be affected.

1. As far as sound on the road I can see no difference they both are good and quiet considering my car is a convertible.

2. Far as wear I have only put 5000 miles on them of which 3400 was within a 6 day trip from Dallas to upper West Virginia just to spend two days chasing their roads through the mountains. Great trip but 2 days going and 2 days returning I had just as go to the hill country of Texas or Arkansas and can tell no wear by the eye.

I could not tell any difference between the two tires with some fairly aggressive driving. But I think that with the type of driving we do, or did on these runs, we never really push either tire to the point you would on a track. The reason being is that on a track you know what canter the turn is, whether it will climb after the turn or drop, whether you need to set up for a right or a left next, just how much speed you can carry, area in the turn to recover if you miss your set up on entering or leaving the turn, etc. When running roads that you see for the first time you do not know any of this data so you even though you are pushing, and most likely well over the legal speed limit of straight roads let alone a curve, you really are not pushing the tire to the max it can do. So unless you are on a track you do not know the limit of either tire. But if both give you confidence to your driving ability then go for it regardless of the brand. Michelin has a reputation of a good tire and I think I felt better just because of the name but I really never pushed to the point I was out of control and needed to recover. You do not do that when the road moves from pavement to grass so you could not afford to let it drift. Grass has no traction so if you dropped tire in a drift on to that surface you could collect a pine tree or something else that would surely ruin your day.

So it really comes to mental for me and the Michelin has the mental strength but once again I experienced nothing in actual driving to tell me one was better than the other.