Buying the right tires for your car should be an easy task. However, until you start searching online, you realize there is much more to it than buying four rubber circles. Besides all the varieties, sizes, and treads, there are brands to consider.
Many vehicle manufacturers will have a recommended tire they prefer the car to be kitted with. They have tried and tested them on the given car or truck.
That would be a good guideline to start with. However, if you have a budget and need to look at reasonably priced tires, the two brands you should look at are Goodyear and Firestone.
Goodyear is the oldest tire company in the USA and has been at the forefront of development and technology for the last century. Firestone tires made their name by being the preferred tire for the Model T Ford when it launched. While both are good brands, Goodyear has better quality tires all-around.
Throughout the history of both tire companies, they both experienced extreme success and some very dark moments. Although both were plagued by recalls, manufacturing defects, accidents causing fatalities, and several lawsuits, they remain strong brands in the local and global tire market.
Both manufacturers have excellent brand awareness and a highly recognizable footprint. Spending millions of dollars on advertising, innovative technology, and design, these two companies strive to produce the best quality tires for every budget.
There is the small matter of personal choice, and once you are treated well by a brand and the quality is undeniable, you tend to stick with them. The same goes for tires.
Probably the most significant safety feature after the breaks, choosing the right tires for your vehicle and the season is not to be taken lightly. This article will attempt to determine which are best overall and see how they might compare to help you make the right choice.
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The History Of Goodyear
Every tire started somewhere. The smallest beginnings are usually the ones that leave a lasting impression. Frank Seiberling founded Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in 1898, and he opened the first factory in a town called Akron, Ohio.
They concentrated on manufacturing bicycle tires, horseshoe pads from rubber, horse carriage tires, and notably poker chips for gambling.
When Ford produced the Model T, Goodyear supplied him with racing tires for a time. The first patent for a tubeless tire was granted to Goodyear CEO Mr. Litchfield in 1903.
He proceeded to start planting long-staple cotton to harvest and process. This fiber was used for the reinforcement of the tubeless tires.
The original land in Phoenix turned into both the Goodyear and Litchfield Park towns, respectively. As the decade rolled in, Litchfield allied with a German company to form what was known as the Goodyear – Zeppelin Corporation. Two Zeppelins were built in the USA and continued throughout the war.
Goodyear became a publically traded company in 1927 on the NY Stock Exchange and shortly after pioneered aviation tires called tundra tires for light planes.
Goodyear has steadily built its company after the war and made it through the depression. They never stopped innovating, designing, and improving on their designs. Some were a success, and others, utter failures.
As the oldest tire manufacturing company in the USA, they were at least two to three years ahead of Firestone regarding design, manufacturing, and technology of the day.
Firestone would quickly catch up to Goodyear and try to capture the automotive market. Goodyear is a very successful company today; its estimated worth is around US$ 16.5 billion.
The Science Behind Goodyear
The scientists at Goodyear are innovative and use cutting-edge technology. They apply computing, mathematics, and physics in their quest to make rubber and polymer yield to their bidding.
Goodyear has branched with artificial hearts, industrial adhesives, and food packaging into the biomedical field. If you can trust them with an artificial heart, you should trust them with your vehicle tires.
Goodyear takes the safety of its clients very seriously. Let’s look at what types of technology they apply to their modern-day range of tires;
Goodyear Innovative Technologies in tires:
- Run On Flat – These tires keep you driving for up to 50 miles even after you have a puncture. The top speed with a puncture is 50 mph.
- Active Corner Grip and Active Braking Technology – Allows for better handling in hard cornering and braking situations.
- Smart Wear Technology – Layered style tires that reveal new grooves as the thread starts wearing down, guaranteeing excellent performance until the end of the tire tread.
- Patented 3D-BIS Technology – This technology improves the overall stiffness and stability of the tire. It’s called a 3-D Block Interlocking System.
- Wear Control Technology – This assists you in achieving a much shorter braking distance in wet weather. Reduction in fuel consumption is a bonus.
- Sound Comfort Technology – Nothing is worse than experiencing the sound of tire noise. This technology reduces tire noise significantly. It uses a sound-absorbing foam.
- Silent Armor Technology – This technology provides significant resistance to punctures, gashes, and cuts while on the road or rough terrain.
- Smart Tred Technology– This adds specific tread zones that can adjust to the road conditions you might face.
- Active Grip Technology – This is a high-performance enhancer, allowing for even pressure distribution across the tire surface. This allows for overall better handling.
- Fuel Saving Technology – Using an advanced tread compound and combining it with a lightweight structure, less energy is needed by the car to roll the tire.
Other Noteworthy Innovations
- 2001 – Bio TRED – A corn-based compound was developed for new era tires. This created a greener footprint since it is more environmentally friendly.
- 2012 – BioIsoprene™ concept tire – This was a tire made from renewable biomass. Unveiled in Copenhagen at the 2012 Climate Conference.
- 2012 – Soybean oil research – Adding soybean oil to the tire compound could increase the tread life up to 10%. This would also reduce Goodyear’s petroleum-based oil usage by around 7 million gallons per annum.
- 2014 – Converting rice husk waste – As a great alternative to silica, rice husk ash is now used as bio filler instead of being dumped in landfills.
- 2014 – The SUV tire concept – To reduce fuel usage and CO2 emissions, Goodyear added a large central groove to these tires. It also reduces contact with the road.
- 2014 – Chip in tire technology – Goodyear added a chip in this tire; the aim is to link the tire to the car’s onboard computer and assist in the vehicle’s overall performance.
- 2015 – The electricity-generating concept tire – A conceptual tire that would be able to transform the tire deformation into energy that would essentially supply the battery with electricity.
A Noteworthy Technology
Goodyear has a tire technology called SEAL TECH. This technology is beneficial if you are a single person or a mom that does the mom-taxi routine every day. Safety is always paramount;
What is SealTech?
SealTech technology allows for the automatic sealing of a puncture of up to 5mm in diameter within the tire’s tread area.
What are the benefits?
- Punctures are automatically sealed in the tread area. The size it can close is up to 5mm in diameter even after the object has been dislodged.
- You do not need to stop immediately to do a tire change.
- No performance difference has been reported between SealTech and general Goodyear tires.
- This is a great alternative to have as a spare tire
.
If you get a tire puncture, please take it to your nearest Goodyear tire specialist to have it checked.
Top 5 Goodyear Tires
All Season Tires
Goodyear’s All-Season Tires provide better handling, stability, and grip in icy, wet, and dry conditions. Most notable is the range are;
- Assurance Comfort Drive – Smoothens terrain transition, better grip, and traction control.
- Assurance Weather Ready – Best all-terrain tire. Asymmetric tread patterns that effectively disperse water.
Winter Tires
- Winter Command – Best suitable for sedans, giving better grip in snowy conditions, these tires contain a unique compound that helps with flexibility in cold temperatures.
- Winter Command SUV range – Three different tread patterns give superior grip and withstand freezing temperatures.
All Terrain Tires
- Wrangler MTR with Kevlar – An excellent tire for off-road conditions, reinforced with Kevlar for extra puncture protection.
- Wrangler DuraTrac – Enhanced traction, noise reduction, and rim protection added. This tire gives great extra traction ability.
Sport Performance Tires
- Eagle F1 Supercar 3 – Exceptional grip support and superior handling for performance vehicles.
- Eagle Exhilarate – Advanced breaking support, gripping in corners, and enhanced traction control.
Fuel-Efficient Tires
- Assurance Fuel Max – Allowing you to save up to 2600 mi worth of fuel during the life of the tire.
The History Of Firestone Tires
Harvey Firestone started the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in the year 1900. Firestone set out to supply solid rubber tires to fire wagons from the onset.
Pneumatic tires were made for wagons and other people transporting vehicles. However, since Firestone was not the only company making tires, he moved quickly to start mass production of rubber tires.
As a personal friend of Henry Ford, Firestone saw an excellent opportunity for a partnership. As a result, Firestone became the preferred supplier for Model T Fords.
In 1988 Firestone was bought over by the Japanese company Bridgestone. They are the world’s largest tire and rubber company.
Both Goodyear and Firestone were based in Akron. Ohio and were rivals at best. In addition, Firestone started very small, with only about 12 employees.
Together these two companies were the largest rubber tire suppliers in America for more than 75 years. A Canadian branch of the company was established in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1918. The first Canadian Firestone was produced in 1922.
Firestone expanded their footprint to Liberia, West Africa, in 1926. The company opened a rubber plantation of over 1 million acres.
Firestone opened the first service center in the same year where repairs, exchanges, fittings, and mechanical services were performed.
Firestone continued to expand their footprint. However, in the 1970s, the motor industry, including Ford, suffered significant layoffs, and most plants were closed.
After the war, Firestone was involved in several military contracts and developed several components for them. They continued expanding by acquiring more companies like the Seiberling Rubber Company. Firestone currently turns around $ 209 billion.
The Science Behind Firestone
The high quality of design and innovation that makes tires is evident when you look at Firestone’s history and its current parent company, Bridgestone. However, there are marked differences in quality between tires made in the USA vs. tires made in Japan.
Passenger safety is usually the number one priority for any manufacturing company that produces tires. Let’s look at some of Firestones most technologically advanced innovations;
Firestone Innovative Technologies In Tires:
- 5 Pitch Noise Reduction – A unique thread approach and tread blocks reduce tire noise while driving on this tire.
- Compound Weather Grip HP – A unique carbon blend in this tire has been added to enhance durability, performance in wet weather, and equally outstanding on dry surfaces.
- Multicell Thread – This prevents a car from aquaplaning, dispersing the thin water surface between the tire and the asphalt.
- EPO – These tires use Dual-Layer Tread and EPC to keep the performance of the tire at a high standard even as the tread wears down
- PowerV – This tread design is derived from the original Indy racing tire. It has a recognizable angled V pattern in the tread. This unique tread disperses water out of the tire center, increasing road contact and reducing aquaplaning risk.
- Spiral Wrap Shoulder Strips – These unique strips do not have a seam and encircle the entire tire. These strips are used for reinforcing the tires without adding a stress point that could cause the tire to produce a substandard performance.
- Silica A – Silica is a material used for reinforcement, usually with carbon black.
- H-E-S – This surface area, called Hydro Evacuation Surface, reduces hydroplaning risk.
- O-Bead – O= Bead is not a type of bead but a cable inside the tire’s edge that creates better grip between the rim and tire surface. The technology helps eliminate unwanted gaps and a more rounded assembly.
A Noteworthy Technology
Firestone’s parent company developed a technology they call SUSYM™, and this advanced technology sees polymer combining rubber and resin on a molecular level.
This is an entirely new material that is compiled using both rubber and resin characteristics. The application is not solely for the tire industry but other fields.
What Are The Benefits?
Because tires are the clear contact point between the car and the road surface, it makes sense that tire design and application science advancement needs to be as innovative as possible.
Tires need to become as flexible and shock absorbent as the vehicle and terrain demand.
The synthetic material advances fuel efficiency and resistance to severe cold weather. In addition, it demonstrates a significant character that even surpasses natural rubber.
The SUSYM™ tire design is radical because it comprises a rigid center and sports strands of the flexible compound, making up an entire unit—one of the most innovative techniques and materials currently available.
Designing tires, in the beginning, was not an exact scientific recipe. Instead, various engineers work together and heavily rely on experience and guesswork while designing new products.
Currently, Firestone Uses Computer Optimized Component System or COCS supercomputer to combine the best thread combinations. This system can consider any variables and determine the best outcome utilizing simulations. COCS designed the tires of the future today.
Top 5 Firestone Tires
All Season Tires
- All-Season Passenger – Built for snow, ice, and up to 55 000 miles.
- Champion Fuel Fighter – Built with fuel-saving in mind, great all-round passenger tire for all seasons.
Maximum Traction Tires
- Destination M/T2 – Built tough for the most challenging terrains. They were designed explicitly for SUVs for all types of off-road areas but maintaining peak performance on the road.
- WeatherGrip – A tremendous all-around tire with maximum grip in any condition, designed for sedans, minivans, and CUV’s and a 65000-mile limited warranty.
All Terrain Tires
- Destination A/T2 – Built for off-road and rough terrain. Dependable in the worst off-road conditions and just as reliable on the highway.
Performance Tires
- Firehawk INDY 500 – The ultimate summer sports performance tire inspired by the racing heritage. Better wet grip, water dispersion, and handling ability.
- Firehawk AS – The ultimate in all-season sports performance. This is one tire with all the bells and whistles you will need to get the best performance out of your sports car in every weather condition.
Winter Tires
- Winterforce 2 UV – The winter tire of choice for pickup trucks, SUVs, and CUV’s. This tire gives you ample grip, great flexibility in cold weather, and superior handling, thanks to its innovative tread design.
- Winterforce 2 – This tire is specified for sedans, coupes, and minivans for an excellent winter tire. These tires give you the same technology as the 2UV.
Notable Tire Issues
With every advancement in technology and the drive to mass produce due to the market demand, there is a chance that critical safety features can be overlooked. As a result, both of these companies have suffered several lawsuits against them for alleged negligence.
When a company is forced to recall products due to design flaws, it can cause many “buyer beware” reactions and a loss of confidence. A great deal of damage control needs to be done in such cases. Both of these tire giants have had to face the public, and below are some examples of what happened;
Goodyear
Possibly the worst tire that Goodyear ever let out of the factory was the G159. This tire was notorious for being wrongly recommended for fitment on Motorhomes or RV’s.
It was designed with a lower speed and heavier load capacity, but this was not the case. Made solely for delivery vehicles, somehow, they were being fitted onto passenger vehicles, and the results were devastating.
These tires burst, or the tread would peel off while people were driving, causing loss of control and accidents. Notably, several lawsuits were instituted against Goodyear because these tires could be traced as the cause of the casualties.
These accidents would ultimately result in the untimely deaths of 9 people over two decades. Other reports indicate up to as many as 95 deaths can be attributed to the failure of the G159 tire—a very dark time for Goodyear as a company with millions of dollars in settlement suits.
Firestone
Firestone would enter into one of its most complex and tumultuous seasons at the beginning of the new millennium. A tire range they produced called the AT series would become one of their worst disasters.
There were three variants in this range the P235/75 R15 ATX, the ATX ll, and the P235/75 R15 Wilderness. These were manufactured between 1991 to 1996. Unfortunately, many of these tires came out standard with the Ford Explorer and would become the cause of over 3500 complaints, 500 injuries, and an estimated 119 fatalities.
The tires would cause rollovers with the Explorer, and documented complaints included tread separation and bursting tires. In August of 2000, Firestone recalled 6.5 million tires in the ATX range after investigations launched against them. This cost the company an estimated $1 .67 billion.
Price And Warranty
Overall, Goodyear has more expensive tires with an average of around $110 per tire. Let’s look at some prices, ratings, and their warrantee;
| TIRE | PRICE FROM | RATING | WARRANTEE |
| Goodyear Wrangler® All-Terrain Adventure With Kevlar | $ 147.00 | **** and half stars | 60 000 mi limited |
| Goodyear Eagle® Exhilarate | $ 143.00 | ***** stars | 45 000 mi limited |
| Goodyear Assurance® All-Season | $ 75.00 | **** stars | 65 000 mi limited |
| Goodyear WinterCommand® | $ 87.00 | ***** stars | N/A |
Firestone is known for cheaper tires in the industry, with an average tire of around US 100 a tire. Let’s look at some prices, ratings, and their warrantee;
| TIRE | PRICE FROM | RATING | WARRANTEE |
| Destination LE2 | $ 104.99 | **** stars | 60 000 mi |
| WeatherGrip | $ 113.99 | **** stars | 65 000 mi |
| Firehawk GTA-2 | $ 169.99 | *** stars | 40 000 mi |
| Transforce A/T | $ 179.99 | **** stars | N/A |
Conclusion
Cars have become faster, bigger, smaller, and lighter than ever before through the decades. As a result, the range of vehicles available to the public is astounding.
There are cars for students, small and light on fuel, mom-wagons with space, safety, ease of use, pickup trucks for contractors and farmers, SUVs for the family, and sports cars for the enthusiasts.
Whatever your situation requires, there is a car to suit you. A set of tires on a new vehicle should typically last you around 50 000 miles.
That being said, it will depend on the terrain you drive, the style of driving – if you like speed and have a heavy foot on the gas or breaks, it will be shorter- and the tire quality.
Developing a great tire takes more than just slapping rubber and other materials into a mold, and voila. The speed and performance of a vehicle have specific laws attached to them, translate them into a tread of a tire, and have a scientific formula in the making.
Goodyear’s quality seems to be the more dependable tire brand after looking at ratings, price, technology, and most importantly, the tires.
The safety ratings are better than 20 years ago, and they have made huge improvements overall. In addition, Goodyear presents a better tire all around.
Although Firestone is not a second-rate brand, they are the most average tire. The tires are less expensive, and they have a much wider variety available in the bottom-priced market. As a result, Firestone presents a more average tire all around.