Tyres

[groovyc]

Buying tyres here has always been an uninformative process without much choice...

This time I need a couple of 215/45 R17s. They've got Bridgestone for B4300 at the local Autoboy...

(no catalog. will never see them till they order them down)

They've also got the Malaysian Astar 300 for B3000 for which they have stocks. Has anyone used Astar? wondering if they're worth the price.

[ballbreaker]

Go with a top tire brand you know because in the end you will pay for the money you save today.

[richard_smith237]

Check the dates...

Sometimes on high end tires the stock is old and they have been stored poorly.

I had a Friend who went through his tires in months, when he went back to the same tyre shop for replacements he noticed that the import date on the tyres was something in the region of 7-8 years...

[groovyc]

Check the dates...

Sometimes on high end tires the stock is old and they have been stored poorly.

I had a Friend who went through his tires in months, when he went back to the same tyre shop for replacements he noticed that the import date on the tyres was something in the region of 7-8 years...

Yeah, I am worried about that as the present tyres have that problem.

(They deliberately put them on the wrong side so that a soft spot bulging out would go in the inner side and thus hidden from the unsuspecting previous owner of the car! pretty dangerous)

How would you actually know (for sure) the date of manufacture/import of a tyre? btw, bridgestone is made in thailand it seems.

[groovyc]

How would you actually know (for sure) the date of manufacture/import of a tyre?

found the answer myself. last 4 digits of the tyre identification code: week and yr of manufacture.

eg. 2305 means 23rd week of 2005 (applies to tyres manufactured after 2000)

[kamalabob2]

When I was shopping for Tires for a Toyota SUV and for a Yamaha Motorbike I checked out some of the major brands web sites in Thailand. I e-mailed to several and they all sent replies with answers to my questions. Several sent direct phone numbers if I had additional questions. It was my experience that auto/truck tires were sold by different divisions of the larger tire companies.

Bridgestone, Maxxis, Dunlop, Goodyear, Firestone, and Michelin sells MANY lines / series of tires for popular sizes. I'll go out on a limb and say all of those brands are manufactured in Thailand.

Prices for the EXACT same model of Tire did vary depending upon the shop in Buriram Province. In the end I special ordered some Michelin Latitude for the Toyota and they arrived three days later. I had a local small town Independent repair shop order the specific model of Michelin Motorbike tires and they came in five days. In both cases the shops were on a list of "authorized' shops sent by the head offices in Bangkok.

I attempted to look up some information at www.tirerack.com but both Bridgestone and Michelin made it clear that Tires are "Country or Region Specific". A tire MODEL or Series could ahve the same name, but it MIGHT not be the same product in Thailand as the USA.

The Independent Tire dealer with the large MAXXIS sign in Buriram had the lowest prices on the Michelin Tires I wanted, Tyres Plus and Cockpit were more expensive. The tires came with a written warranty, free rotations, etc.. Even the free flashlight as seen in the full page advertisements in the Thai language newspapers.

Tire ads for the chain Tire stores crack me up here. They do not emphasis a discount in the price to buy tires, they push "free" credit. They sure only list the smaller size tires in the advertisements.

While I like doing business and have gotten excellent service from our local Toyota dealer, he made it clear that he charged a lot more for Tires since he did not stock tires, he only went to a local tire dealer to buy tires and added his margin.

www.consumerreports.org has some good free information on how to decode tire labeling.

[initiala4]

I would go for a branded name rather than a no name one. Tires = stopping power = your life!

[BSJ]

Hi initiala4, your right, it could be your life! Even new just made cheap tyres are not a patch on any quality brand tyres. I had a set of Kumho tires which were about 2 years old. The summer before last. One blew out on the freeway. I stuck it in the boot and kept on driving. A couple of weeks later I was up country, just pasted a big truck and 50 metres in front when another one blew at 125kph! Left side. So when I stopped and got out the tyre was gone for all money and the rim damaged. Called a tow to the nearest town and the Bridgestone guy was open so I got 4 new tyres and a rim. No discount on the purchase plus the tow saw me $250 extra out of pocket.

And just for a second in front of that truck I had a butt hole tightening moment!

Never again will I skimp on tyres. It's just not worth the risk.

[mgjackson69]

I would go for a branded name rather than a no name one. Tires = stopping power = your life!

And when that cheap tire decides to disintegrate and damage some bodywork in the process...

[culicine]

I got some Michelin Pilot Preceda pp2, 30000 kms ago and they still have plenty of tread and are not noisy. Still very grippy as well. My abs would activate too musch under hard braking with my old tyres. Avery good tyre, but weren't cheap. You get what you pay for!