Cooper Tire Leaves Skid Marks
The Wall Street Journal [sub] reports that Cooper Tires is (once again) in big trouble. Sales are down, costs are up, and the recalls just keep on coming. There's no way Cooper can continue as an independent tire company. The market is saturated with well-funded, technology-rich competitors with big brand names and major automaker OEM contracts. Cooper is a throwback from the golden era of US tire makers as the budget-priced, small-dealer-supported alternative to major brands. Other than Goodyear, all the rest of the US tire companies went bust and/or sold out to the Japanese and Europeans. Most tires today are sold in big chain stores, be they Wal-Mart or America's Tire… and Cooper isn't there. Kumho and Hankook of Korea have swooped in to take the bargain tire business while the likes of Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Pirelli, Dunlop (Sumitomo), Yokohama and Continental fight it out for market and mind share. Look for Cooper's joint ventures in China to turn around and swallow the company and the Cooper name to become another old American brand slapped on a Chinese product, like a Westinghouse toaster.
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I work at a repair facility and find that we have excellent luck with Cooper tires and Cooper brands. We do a lot of Deltas and have very few issues with them, which our distributor is always happy to take care of. A local construction company will only put the Hercules Terra Tracs on their vehicles and my husband, a mechanic for over a decade, likes to ride with Mastercraft Coursers. While I also have had good luck with Bridgestones, I have been left extemely disappointed by Goodyears and Continentals. We actually had a third party inspector hired by after market vehicle warranty company that had done automotive tech work on the European race circuit tell us that Continentals were a terrible tire. He gave us accounts and technical jargon that has made us think twice about pushing them. We had some experience that coroborated his knowledge (and he was EXTREMELY knowledgeable about all things automotive!)You stick with what you know, and what is recommended to you. I give my customers the best information I can, using customer reviews, my experience, and my distributors knowledge and let the customers decide from there. I also encourage them to do their own research.
O yea those other companies are all high and mighty. I don't think there is a 100% dependable tire built in the world, so I guess I'll have to walk and get hit by one of them cars with Goodyears when the tread seperates from the tire. --$12 million against Michelin tire tread separation. --A product liability lawsuit has been filed against Goodyear, claiming that defective tires were responsible for a fatal auto accident, where the tire tread separated --Bruce K. has pursued personal injury litigation against major domestic and foreign corporations on behalf of clients injured by defective products, including cases against Bridgestone, Firestone, Cooper Tire, Uniroyal, Goodyear, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mitsubishi, Michelin, BF Goodrich, Kelly-Springfield, General Tire, Denman Tire, Pirelli-Armstrong, Kumho, The Budd Company, Hayes Wheels and other manufacturers.
I purchased 4 Cooper Discoverer HT 265/70R16 at Tire Kingdom for my 2003 Ford F150 on June 10, 2010 The mileage on my truck was 121,850. I now have 150,881 miles and have less then 2/32nds left on my tires all of them, even wear on all of them. I took in my truck yesterday to Tire Kingdom Store #283 Greenville SC and they said that they could only compensate me for one tire. What does a 60,000 mile warranty mean when you only get less then 30,000 miles on the tires??? Then I send an email to Cooper and they tell me that only the dealer can fix this problem... Went to Discount Tire and bought Michelin Tires and know that they will stand behind them!
I bought a set of Cooper Trendsetter tires in an emergency situation. One tire gave me problems from day one with an intermittant leak. After about a year I discovered a microscopic pinhole in a seam of the tire. It was sent back to Cooper, by the dealer,where they proclaimed it as damage incurred after the tire was sold. Very poor customer relations. No more Cooper for me.