Does anyone like Firestone?

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Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
The Destinations came out after the Wilderness fiasco and I think FS made a real effort to build a quality tire. \


I don't agree with who ended up with blame in the lawsuit. GM vehicles had the same tires and wasn't having issues, between that and knowing a few older guys that worked at the Ranger plant here in Minnesota, even they said it was due to under-inflation. Heck, there were even people with other brand tires on their exploders doing the same thing!

But whatever, Firestone took the hit. I love Firestone and Bridgestone, would NEVER use anything but them. I've had terrible luck with Goodyear, Continental, BFGoodrich... I'm happy where I'm at.

My truck came with Wrangler RT/S's with all 4 treads separating. The cords were all sticking out UNDER the tread, and the tire was technically at half tread.
 
I bought one set of Firestones around 1996 for one of our '86 Civic Wagons.
They were pretty cheap, and they worked fine for the remaining 58K I put on the car.
Nothing wrong with Firestone tires.
Like anything else, when you buy cheap, you get cheap.
Buy the lowest priced tire from any mainstream maker, and you may not be happy with the results.
Buy a slightly higher tier tire, and you'll likely be completely satisfied.
 
Originally Posted By: kb01
I truly wonder if Firestone is doing permanent damage to their brand by signing large OEM contracts and putting dreadful tires on so many new cars. Then again, I feel like Goodyear is doing the exact same thing.

Ford and Firestone went a long way back - the Ford and Firestone families were actually close together - until the Explorer fiasco and a lot of mud slinging between Bill Ford, Jr. and Bridgestone's Japanese brass.

Honda and Toyota are installing Firestone again as OEM - they brought back the Fuel Fighter series for the Civic and most 2010-2011 Toyota Siennas will wear FR710s, Michelin Primacy MXV4 or Bridgestone Turanza EL400 RFTs now...

But the transit agencies here LOVE their Firestones. I see 5 year old City Transport Radial or FS560 bus tires get retreaded and placed on the drive wheels.
 
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Firestone makes some good tires, and some poor -- just like every tire manufacturer. I don't let the "Explorer tire fiasco" scare me -- and I had BOTH an Explorer and Wilderness ATs at that time. I wasn't scared to buy both again. I really liked the Destination ATs I had on my previous Mariner. I wish my current Ford had Firestone instead of GY RSAs.

What's stupid, is UHaul still to this day will not rent a trailer if you intend to tow with ANY Explorer -- including the '11+ models. The current Explorers only have the same name as the 2nd gens. Nothing else is similar. However, they will rent you a trailer if you drive a Mountaineer or Aviator...and they will rent you a trailer if you ride on Firestones on any other vehicle.
 
I had no idea you couldn't rent a U-Haul if you own an Explorer. But indeed:

http://www.egmcartech.com/2011/05/26/report-u-haul-still-wont-rent-trailers-to-ford-explorer-owners/

Quote:
“Every time we go to hire an attorney to defend a lawsuit, as soon as we say ‘Ford Explorer,’ they charge us more money.”


I can't believe a corporate PR person said that!

Another article: The Truth About Cars article about CR trying to rent a U-Haul

Apparently soft-top Jeep Wranglers are verboten as well.
 
I've had good luck with Firestone. I had a set of LH30's on my Civic and would have bought another set had they not quick making them. I'm on my 2nd set of Destination LE's and have been very pleased.
 
The Destination lineup is phenomenal. I have a hard time trying to find a better tire for the money, performance, and mileage that you get out of them.
 
Originally Posted By: kemo
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
The Destinations came out after the Wilderness fiasco and I think FS made a real effort to build a quality tire. \


I don't agree with who ended up with blame in the lawsuit. GM vehicles had the same tires and wasn't having issues, between that and knowing a few older guys that worked at the Ranger plant here in Minnesota, even they said it was due to under-inflation. Heck, there were even people with other brand tires on their exploders doing the same thing!

But whatever, Firestone took the hit. I love Firestone and Bridgestone, would NEVER use anything but them. I've had terrible luck with Goodyear, Continental, BFGoodrich... I'm happy where I'm at.

My truck came with Wrangler RT/S's with all 4 treads separating. The cords were all sticking out UNDER the tread, and the tire was technically at half tread.

Underinflation was part of the problem, but the quality (or lack of) of the tires Ford was getting from Firestone was also part of the problem. They traced the problem tires to a particular plant, and Ford was using Goodyear tires on the Explorer simultaneously with the same pressure spec and they were not failing at nearly the rate that the Wilderness did. Ford wanted cheap tires and a cushy ride...in this case you can't have your cake and eat it too.

That said, I think they hit the mark with the Destination line. It's an excellent tire for the price and is pretty much the only tire I use anymore.
 
Originally Posted By: nthach

Ford and Firestone went a long way back - the Ford and Firestone families were actually close together - until the Explorer fiasco and a lot of mud slinging between Bill Ford, Jr. and Bridgestone's Japanese brass.



Bill Ford Jr's Great Grandfather IS Harvey Firestone.

His Father(William Clay Ford Sr) was Henrys Grandson and his Mother(Martha Firestone) was Harveys Granddaughter.
 
I had some FR710's on my wife's Corolla that were hugely mediocre. They did nothing well. I replaced them with some equally cheap but far superior Falkens about two years later, long before they were worn out. Never again. It was an expensive lesson.
 
Originally Posted By: FusilliJerry82
Originally Posted By: eljefino
FR380 IIRC?


No, FR380 is a current yet still dreadful tire model. I think the original ones were something like Radial 500 or some such.


LOL. I ran FR380's on my '73 Coupe DeVille for over ten years. I wore out two sets of them. They were seriously abused. Driven on dirt roads and at relatively high speeds up to 120mph but usually kept down around 80 to 90 mph on many trips around 600 miles at a time. I did have one lose a tread at 80mph when the first set got to be about 7 years old.

They did the job but recently when the last set wore out I switched to Michelin MS2's and found out what I was missing. It's an entirely different car now. Especially in the snow and on the ice as well as everywhere else for that matter.
 
My sister inlaw has the Primewell brand sold by Firestone on her Taurus and love them. They were Cheap and grip really well she says.
 
The last set of tires I bought were Firstones and there's a high chance that my next come next year will be too. This last set was very good at reducing already loud road noise on my Imp, and I got good use out of the set; they handled just average b/c of a tall profile I chose, but they really stood out in the snow (good in rain too).

They were more or less touring tires; not sure if they were FR380 or FR710 or whatever. This past spring I swapped them over to my temporary car that I later sold; with less than midlife on the tread--I expect them to keep going till about warranty life something like 55k; never got a puncture or flat on those either.
 
Well, the B'stone and F'Stone tires are made in the same plant in Smyrna Tn. They run a whole line of them. I know several upper mgmnt people there and they are crazy about quality control. No corners cut there.

I have a set of Firehawk Wide Oval Runflats on my Corvette. Great Tires at a fraction of the price of the OEM Goodyears. Smooth riding, quiet and the RFT really works.
 
Originally Posted By: motorguy222
Why not support Goodyear or Cooper?

Both companies make good tires.I have Goodyears on the truck now and so far,they have been very good.They did extremely well during the snow we had this past winter.

I have also used Cooper,they were good tires too.


hurcules is a cooper company
 
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I was/am pretty impressed with the Wilderness LE's on my 02 Tahoe. Even the tire shop guys mentioned that the Wilderness and GM trucks are a fine match. I have about 80k on this set (mostly highway) and they are now worn enough to relegate them to summer use as I bought a set of Destination AT's for winter and off-road use.

I even have a decent Firestone shop nearby. First shop to give me a decent alignment and they rotate the tires and handle warranty claims without hassle.

In other words.. they have loyalty credit with me.

They also have a road force ballancer if I need it
smile.gif
 
Probably most major tire manufactures have made some mistakes, but Firestone has bit me the worst!

Bought a pair of Firestone Firehawks.... they were installed and the car shook badly as soon as I got on the highway. I would have immediately gone back, but had appointments....

The next day I tested it a little more, the steering wheel shook violently at speeds above 45 mph, it had been perfect with the old worn out Michelins. I returned to the store, the manager decided..... by looking out the window.... that I needed ball joints, shocks, etc and two more tires, as "the tires all work together". He then went on to say that after we fix up my car, if it still shook, he would look for a tire problem. Not wanting to make an appointment to "fix my car" (which was in very good condition) I left, went home, borrowed my daughters nearly identical car, put the new Firestones on it...... it immediately begin to shake badly at any speed over 40 mph, at 65 mph the hood went into resonance and the noise was like a jackhammer.

I returned to the Firestone store, was again told that I would first have to have my car worked on, even though the tires were now installed on a different car. Returned home, typed up a summary, added a stack of copies and returned to Firestone, gave a copy to all store employees, and all customers, then went out front- it was at a mall - and gave out copies to all that came near. I was threatened with trespass and gave a copy of the letter to mall security, and advised they call their corporate attorneys before arresting me, as I had gotten legal advice before beginning this tact.

Finally, a Firestone store manager came out, took my car and removed the tires and put on two more...... those seemed to actually be round and have good balance and no longer shook the car..... but they were really lousy tires, H rated, horrible in cold rain. Terminal understeer if used on the front, horrible oversteer if put on the rear.....Like the original poster said, these were the king of hydroplaning tires.

Since it took days to resolve, had to troubleshoot and swap rims to a different car in my driveway (in a blizzard) to prove that the tires were bad, make a spectacle of myself and take a chance on arrest.. Not likely to shop at Firestone again!! If I had known how hard it would be to have these new tires "adjusted" I would have just thrown them away, or made boat bumpers out of them.
 
The OE Firestone FR710 (S-rated) tires that came on my Cruze are honestly, not horrible at all, in fact I generally quite like them. I'm planning on putting a review of them up on here shortly actually.
 
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