It's been a few years, but I had a '96 Jeep Cherokee that needed new skins and I thought I would try Goodyear Wranglers on it. Jeeps and Goodyear Wranglers go good together, right? I wanted to buy four tires at a large chain, but they only had three, so I purchased those three and the last tire I got about a week later at another store. The Jeep had no mechanical problems and the tires were rotated on schedule. It's hard to describe the treat on these Goodyear Wranglers, but the knobs on each tire looks somewhat like the state of Texas. Before 20K were put on the tires, one tire and one tire only had rubber separation around each of the knobs. The tire didn't wear funny, the air pressure was the same as the other tires, it just had big cracks around each knob.
When I took it back to the store for inspection, the shop foreman asked if I had purchased the road hazard warranty. I had not and I told him so. I was then informed that Goodyear would do nothing about this problem because of no extra warranty was purchased. I told him that it was a manufacturing problem with the tire, not a problem with anything that hazardly happened while I was driving it. He agreed, but it didn't matter. I asked him if he would feel safe riding in this vehicle with this tire on it. "Oh, heck no. It's a bad tire." A near identical photo of my tire problem was hanging on the wall of the customer waiting room and it specifically said that it was a tire problem. I was told to pound sand.
I realize it could have happened to any brand, but the Goodyear policy was pathetic. I guess I should have went up the ladder and pushed it harder, but I just determined to decide with my pocketbook and tell anybody who will listen what I think about Goodyear tires.
So know you know why I won't ever buy another Goodyear and I'm now avoiding Cooper tires also.
