Cooper Tires Awful! Most recalled 2013-2018

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Y'all remember my story about Yokahama tire quality? I was friends with a QC guy at Yokohama in Salem, VA. I don't remember the specifics as it was over 15 years ago. However, he told me when he inspected the tires after they had just come out of the mold or off line with the computer formula thingamajig, if the tires scored so high they would be wrapped and set aside to be transferred on a container to Japan. Japan would only accept the highest quality tires. The rest of the tires would stay in US. Not saying the tires that stayed in the USA were inferior. They may have been perfectly fine. It's just interesting that
Japan only wanted the highest quality.
 
Originally Posted By: Gebo
Y'all remember my story about Yokahama tire quality? I was friends with a QC guy at Yokohama in Salem, VA. I don't remember the specifics as it was over 15 years ago. However, he told me when he inspected the tires after they had just come out of the mold or off line with the computer formula thingamajig, if the tires scored so high they would be wrapped and set aside to be transferred on a container to Japan. Japan would only accept the highest quality tires. The rest of the tires would stay in US. Not saying the tires that stayed in the USA were inferior. They may have been perfectly fine. It's just interesting that
Japan only wanted the highest quality.


Having spent many years in QA, there is a part of this story that set off alarm bells.

For example, some Japanese car manufacturers are particularly sensitive to lettering and if there is the slightest flaw, they will reject whole the shipment. This proved to be a very annoying aspect when I was working in QA - to the point where the company I worked for had a second and third inspection for tires being sent to Japanese car manufacturers - even those assembly plants in the US!

So it might not mean anything if a tire is rejected for use in one place or for one car manufacturer.
 
Originally Posted By: oil_film_movies
Like many, I've tried to see which tire company makes quality. Safety, hassle, you know.

https://recallinfo.ustires.org/TireRecallSearch/ListRecalls/60
has the list of tire recalls for the last 5 years.
Cooper tires (aka Cooper, Mastercraft, Avon, Cornell, Futura, Roadmaster, Vanderbilt, Starfire sub-brand names) make the list way too many times.
Continental makes the list a little too often, and I have a bad personal experience with them a few years ago, in a Continental class action lawsuit, so I know they are capable of messing up big-time.

Other tire brands are on the list, but I wouldn't say its too many times for the rest.
Just Cooper & Continental are on my "do not buy" list right now.
Rule: Any car company that starts with a "C" is banned.

I wonder why Kumho, Hankook, and some of the other brands you might think would show up are not there?

I just got a set of Kumho Ecsta 4X II tires for cheap, made in Korea and they seem to be of decent quality.


So, Continental doesn't make the list enough = bad. Kumho doesn't make the list very much = good. I'm confused.
 
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
…...Having spent many years in QA, there is a part of this story that set off alarm bells.

For example, some Japanese car manufacturers are particularly sensitive to lettering and if there is the slightest flaw, they will reject whole the shipment. This proved to be a very annoying aspect when I was working in QA - to the point where the company I worked for had a second and third inspection for tires being sent to Japanese car manufacturers - even those assembly plants in the US!

So it might not mean anything if a tire is rejected for use in one place or for one car manufacturer.

I appreciate you relating as Paul Harvey used to say, "the rest of the story". And having it backed by first hand experience.

Yeah, some insignificant lettering anomaly not affecting the overall tire quality puts it in perspective imo.
 
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
Originally Posted By: Gebo
Y'all remember my story about Yokahama tire quality? I was friends with a QC guy at Yokohama in Salem, VA. I don't remember the specifics as it was over 15 years ago. However, he told me when he inspected the tires after they had just come out of the mold or off line with the computer formula thingamajig, if the tires scored so high they would be wrapped and set aside to be transferred on a container to Japan. Japan would only accept the highest quality tires. The rest of the tires would stay in US. Not saying the tires that stayed in the USA were inferior. They may have been perfectly fine. It's just interesting that Japan only wanted the highest quality.
Having spent many years in QA, there is a part of this story that set off alarm bells.For example, some Japanese car manufacturers are particularly sensitive to lettering and if there is the slightest flaw, they will reject whole the shipment. This proved to be a very annoying aspect when I was working in QA - to the point where the company I worked for had a second and third inspection for tires being sent to Japanese car manufacturers - even those assembly plants in the US! So it might not mean anything if a tire is rejected for use in one place or for one car manufacturer.


Thanks. Interesting inside stories. If it weren't for this forum, no way we would ever find this stuff out.
I have a similar story: --- I fellow I worked with in the early 90's formerly worked for Goodyear. He told me Sears (like the Japanese as Gebo-CapriRacer say) would be very picky about quality in Goodyear tires they bought. (At that time, Sears was THE place to go.) Actual Goodyear retailers would get the "factory seconds"; not bad tires, but off-spec just slightly. Sears would inspect the tires for roundness, balance, cosmetic issues, any imperfections that their customers might notice or cause returns. Goodyear-branded shops would get the shaft!

About Sears, the old Guardsman and RoadHandler might have been Coopers back 20 or more years ago, from what I've heard. I think I remember Michelin and others making some for them as well.
These days: Sears Diehard tires: Kumho; Sears RoadHandler tires: Hankook

Of course, these days Walmart kicks everybody's tail on price with a good selection and maybe, just maybe, decent installation.
 
Cooper is the only I have owned which was recalled. They have always cracked badly for me as well. I stay clear of them now.
 
Originally Posted By: Lubener
Cooper is the only I have owned which was recalled. They have always cracked badly for me as well. I stay clear of them now.
The only experience I ever had with Cooper tires was negative as well. With enough people having bad experiences with them, and the pile of numerous Cooper recalls, I think Cooper has a corporate culture that doesn't emphasize quality and design enough. Something is wrong.

That's not to say most Cooper tires won't do just fine if you buy them. Its just that you'd be taking a greater chance of a problem with Cooper.
My own experience was a while back, about 15 years ago on a used car I bought, but I remember it because the tires seemed oddly crusty. I mean, the rubber surface seemed too inflexible, and I thought maybe they were just old tires there, not sure. Chemical tire rubber formulations and heat processes need to be precise to get the rubber right.
 
IDK, but the new Cooper Evolution 205/65-15H tires that cost me $198 I just put on my 2002 Camry are as good as it gets for that car. Well planted, and silent. Perfect. The lowest Road Force balanced tires I've seen.
 
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Originally Posted By: oil_film_movies
……. I have a similar story: --- I fellow I worked with in the early 90's formerly worked for Goodyear. He told me Sears (like the Japanese as Gebo-CapriRacer say) would be very picky about quality in Goodyear tires they bought. (At that time, Sears was THE place to go.) Actual Goodyear retailers would get the "factory seconds"; not bad tires, but off-spec just slightly. Sears would inspect the tires for roundness, balance, cosmetic issues, any imperfections that their customers might notice or cause returns. Goodyear-branded shops would get the shaft!



My recollections are a bit different.

There was a point in time where Sears was the world's largest retailer. They specialized in appliances, tools, and common automotive replacement parts, such batteries and tires. If you were a manufacturer of such things, you had to do business with them - and they knew it. So they put in place pretty stringent quality standards - some overly so.

Some folks have speculated that this resulted in excessive cost for the manufacturers, so what Sears paid gradually rose over time, and made the corner tire shop (appliance store, car parts shop, etc) more attractive to consumers.

But the tires supplied to the corner tire shop were of a more realistic quality level. So while Sears (and others) may have received higher quality tires, the quality level was unnecessary and costly.

The net effect was that Sears priced themselves out of the market - and for some odd reason, never tuned into this fact and made appropriate changes. That and the change in consumer buying habits (away from Malls) has done them in.
 
As a tow truck driver, I’ve been on lots of calls for blowouts. Now, I think about it, I’ve seen most blowouts on Toyo and Hankook, but I don’t exactly keep a good record of that.
 
Originally Posted By: KE7JFF
As a tow truck driver, I’ve been on lots of calls for blowouts. Now, I think about it, I’ve seen most blowouts on Toyo and Hankook, but I don’t exactly keep a good record of that.


Being in the PNW, and the prevalence of Les Schwab tire stores there, and the fact that they mostly sell Toyo and to a lesser extent Hankook, might be a large contributing factor to that observation.

The fact is that most people neglect their cars, which includes the tires. The result is tire failures. If a large percentage of the population is running on one brand of tire, than that's what you're going to see.
 
Just replaced a pair of Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring tires on my 2011 Odyssey. Lasted me around 23K miles but one of them had a puncture that was beyond repair and replaced with Pirelli Scorpion Verde A/S Plus.

I have good experience with Cooper tires during last 2 summers and monsoon in NorCal but they were wearing off quickly and I could see cracks. These were the first set of Coopers I ever tried I really don't have any complaint about them.
 
The OEM tires that came on my focus were Cooper RS3-A which impressed me in all driving conditions, including light snow. I've [unfortunately] seen more issues with continentals and michelins (probably because they cane stock at the BMW dealer that I worked with.)
 
Cooper tires store brands Cornell, Futura are Pep Boys store brands, yes? I have not seen these advertised in other shops. Please correct me if I am wrong.
 
Originally Posted By: wdn
Cooper tires store brands Cornell, Futura are Pep Boys store brands, yes? I have not seen these advertised in other shops. Please correct me if I am wrong.


You are correct. Cornell, Futura, and Definity are Pep Boys store brands
thumbsup2.gif
 
For some reason I have been bombarded with Cooper Tire commercials on TV lately...the "wheels on the bus" song with the words changed to "the wheels on the ground go round and round..." keeps replaying in my head.

The tire/tyre brand I most associate with failures is Vogue Tyre. I worked in a Cadillac dealership for awhile 2004-2008 and Vogues had an unpleasant tendency to delaminate and come apart. I seem to recall that Goodyear used to make them, and some of their older tires/tyres had a sidewall that looked AWFULLY similar to Goodyear's old G-Metric/T-Metric design from the 1980s with the old Tiempo tread design. I believe they are made in China now in a contract facility.
 
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Thread revival:
Just bought 2 sets of Coopers for our SUVs (Discoverer AT3 WS and Discoverer SRX).
Also had Coopers on 2 of our prior sedans.

Never had a problem with any of the tires. Just make sure you read the reviews and do your research. Rebates and incentives also help with the decision making.
 
Originally Posted by ZebRuaj
Thread revival:
Just bought 2 sets of Coopers for our SUVs (Discoverer AT3 WS and Discoverer SRX).
Also had Coopers on 2 of our prior sedans.

Never had a problem with any of the tires. Just make sure you read the reviews and do your research. Rebates and incentives also help with the decision making.


Coopers may not necessarily be bad 100% of the time. The evidence is there to be skeptical of whatever they're doing, with so many recalls of them recently.

I did however kind of violate my own "no Continental tires" rule (high-ish recalls). I just bought General (Continental-owned) G-MAX AS-05 tires recently because of a rebate and also they scored high in Tire Rack tests, for a decent price. It's really playing the odds. Buying Cooper tires you might have a, say, 5% chance of tire failure, while buying other tires might be more like a 1% chance. Either way, you can get good tires, as much as they want to control Quality at their factories and in their engineering.
 
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