Many Chinese-made tires have way to go in quality

john mahler

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Q: Your recent column on winter tires was timely since I've just started pricing a new set for my VW New Beetle, after managing to get about nine years' worth of driving out of my old set.

I haven't worked since January, so I've been saving up for the tires, but all the popular name brands that you wrote about are hundreds of dollars a tire ($150 or so).

Yes, I know all about the importance of safety, but just how good are the off-brand tires as compared to the brand name tires you mentioned?

I've found tires by Goodride and Federal ($65 U.S.), all from China. They've been in the tire-making business for years, and I've checked that they have the severe winter mountain symbol on them. How do these tires measure up?

A: The only inexpensive winter tires I'd consider are the Canadian Tire Nordic, made for them by Goodyear, and the Gislaved made by Continental.

A number of tire companies in China produce copycat tires meant to look like name brands. But in the tests I've seen, tires from China do not provide quality even for their very low price point, so I would not recommend them.

The snowflake logo is a self-test by the manufacturer. Any company could put it on their worst product, and produce a million tires before the government would act. All the tires would be sold, and the company could just say, "Oops — sorry!"

That may seem like an extreme example, but it's something that would be possible if a company didn't care about the users of its products.

Email tire questions to John Mahler at thetireguy_1 @ hotmail.com. Please include vehicle's make, model and year, tire brand and size, as well as your name, address and phone number.

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