I seriously doubt you'd get "old" tires at Costco, especially michelins.

Well, I have nothing to back up this statement...after all it's just an opinion.

I think steering and suspension have improved to the point it may be more noticeable. Also some complaints are probably solved by better maintainance, i.e. 3 or more years with tire "A" wearing to the car installed on and then replacing with tire "B" could highlight other issues not yet found.

More so, 20 or so years ago we relied on word of mouth and print versus the World Wide Web for complaints.

I also disagree that tires are worse, at least for the name brands. I have never bought a defective tire in 30 years. It may seem like it because of, you guessed it, the internet and discussion forums. I've been in forums where a few folks that had problems post repeatedly, giving the impression of a major problem with a certain car, for example. It is also impossible to manufacture anything that is 100% perfect. We would never want to pay the expense.

I am active on several sites like this one, and these discussions usually settle on the common denominator for tires that people have trouble with is that they were manufactured in China.

My wife bought a used car about 9 years ago with brand new Chinese-made tires on it. About 100 miles later one of them disintegrated at 70 mph. Those four tires were immediately replaced with Michelins from Costco, No problems.

We recently bought a set of Michelins for her current car at Costco. Made in USA. In fact, I went down the Costco rack and found that most of the tires were made in USA or Canada, and none were made in China.

There are a couple of interesting issues here:

First is that a tire always has to be mounted on a rim, and that rim always has to be mounted on the vehicle. There are many opportunities for the operator to influence the outcome.

Second is that the vehicle a tire is mounted on has a major influence on a tire's performance. Some vehicles have alignment settings that are prone to wear issues. Some vehicles are highly sensitive to wheel end vibrations.

Third is that many of the car manufacturers are specifying tires with low RR. What gets sacrificed is treadwear and/or traction - both of which are complaints you hear about with OE tires.

Fourth is that on every vehicle, there are 4 opportunities for there to be a problem with a tire. This fact alone would seem to argue that everything else being the same, the perception ought to be that tires perform worse that other vehicle components.

Fifth was alluded to earlier - price. While the price of gasoline is 4 times higher than it was only a few years ago, the price of tires is not. The price of rubber (both natural and synthetic), as well as carbon black and other ingredients, all follow the price of oil. It's quite clear that consumers rarely buy pricy tires - and while they complain quite frequently, they are not willing to pay the price for higher quality.

To compound this issue is that they don't employ rocket scientists at tire shops. These guys don't really understand how tires work, and as a result can't communicate this to the general public. You can see some of this in this web site - folks don't seem to agree on apparently simple issues like where to put new tires (front or rear?).

With this level of confusion and misinformation, it's little wonder that many folks blame tire quality for issues that beyond the tire manufacturer's ability to control.

The replies have been interesting and thoughtul.

Being fully aware of all the variables that go into how well a tire performs, including the mounting and balancing issues, and being aware that the process capabilities in this "heavy" industry make distribution curves as clean as those in, say, the machining industry impossible, I still believe that the tire industry accepts as normal variation levels that would be unacceptable in any other industry I'm familliar with.

I've never visited a tire manufacturing facility. I've worked in (as a Quality Engineer, manager, and Sr. manager) the microwave industry, precious metals plating, aircraft instrumentation and navigation systems, laser rangefinding, and even over-the-road tank truck tanks & pumping systems. I've toured and visited (in various capacities including process consulting) machining facilities, PCB manufacturing facilities, injection molding facilities, casting houses, conformal coatings shops, and just about everything else BUT tire manufacturing. I've implemented statistical process control systems, ISO9001 systems, design for manufacture system, the FDA Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) systems, even NASA 5300.4 quality systems. I've written and performed (DOD) qualification plans, design validation plans (automotive), and more processes and test protocols than you can count. I've done more failure analysis than you can imagine. I've been part of countless design teams.

Yes, I've had bad tires. There is also one brand (BF Goodys) that have always rolled true, smoothly, and worn acceptably. And yup, I've had junky cheapo Chinese tires ("Bluebirds" I think they were called). The vibrating set I referenced in my original post were Continentals. I had probably 150,000 smooth rolling miles on the truck when I put those vibrators on. My smooth ride returned after I replaced them with BF Goodys. It was definitely the tires. Yeah, I maintained the truck obsessively. It was in exceptional condition. Including the chassis.

The post was a query to see if my opinion was common. Apparently, people's experiences have varied widely. A lot of good insight has been offered. I thank you all. Now I must ponder..................

I think you'll find a LOT of American manufacturing quality has suffered greatly. I have a refrigerator (Hotpoint) in my cellar that I just can't part with. I bought it 35 years ago for $25 when I first got married. At the time it was over 40 years old. I've put $0 into it...it just keeps running and running and running. It looks like hell...But as long as there's electricity to the house it still runs. 5 years after we bought it we bought a new bigger modern one and the old Hotpoint was delegated to the cellar. We're now on our 4th refrigerator since then.

My experience has been the opposite. In the 1970s, I had several bad tires. Some suffered tread separation. Others were out of round.

Last year, I got one, out of a set of four Kumho tires, whose tread began to separate at 5,000 miles. It was the first bad one in thirty years. The dealer replaced it for no charge.

The 70's was a tough time for the tire industry. That's when they were switching to Radial tires. This was totally new to tire manufacturers...a lot of trial and error problems along the way. By the 80's they had the process down pretty good.

After some thought, I'll have to agree that the entire industry has problems, because of the issues with off-brand tires sold cheaply at parts stores. They must represent a pretty substantial fraction of all tires sold. I avoid them, and recommend others do the same.

I have a 2007 Honda Odessey, that since the day I bought it has pulled to the left, no matter who drives it or on what road. I took it to the dealer after a month and they said it was in alignment. Took it in for the first service of tire rotation and oil change, still pulled to the left. Took it in for the 2nd service same as the first, said the pulling had stopped, still an issue. I think it is the tires but the dealer won't look past the alignment when you tell them it is pulling. I think it is a tire issue, but can't convince them.

what brand of tires did you buy? i have this little saying " life is too short for cheap tires). cheap tires tend to wander, shake, get poor tire wear and offer less that satifactory handling. i have had great luck with michlen, perelli, yokahama, goodyear, (i forget the model but not the cheat ones). on muscle cars i always use bf goodrich. not only because they were OEM, but the suspension systems seem to be set up for them. for specialty vehicles micky thompsons are great. keep in mind that when you pay under $225 for a set of cheap tires, they will generally last 30 - 40k. conversely $450 for tires will not only get you 2 times the miliage, but it will aleviate the all the annoying side effects of cheap tires. in general i think tires have improved over the last 30 or so years. good luck.

just my $ .02

I've tried just about every make including Michelins. I've never had a problem with BF Goody's, and the Hankooks I have on now have been flawless. The Coopers I had on before these had probably the best cornering and poor weather traction of any tire I've ever owned, but they were road noisy (aggressive tread) and did not wear well. I haven't had the Hankooks in winter weather yet.

The Continentals were unquestionably the worst tires I ever had. The Chinese "Bluebirds" (I think that's what they were called) were junk, but they were dirt cheap so I sort of expected that. They rode acceptably, but the wet weather traction, tracking and cornering were all marginal at best. They were still better than the Continentals. The criteria I use to determine good from bad is tracking, cornering, smoothness, noise, poor weather traction, and (to a lesser extent) wear.

My current Hankooks: smoothness, roadnoise, wet weather traction, and tracking have all been outstanding. And at an excellent price. It's too early to tell about winter traction or longevity. Cornering has been perfectly good, but not as good as the Coopers (I needed to slow down anyway!). If they do okay in winter, I'll buy them again.

Winter traction is mostly a function of tread design. If they're too sketchy in winter I may see of Hankook has a more aggressive design in my size, realizing other compromises may come with the package. Different tire designs come with different strengths and weaknesses.

I still feel that even though tires have improved a great deal in the last 40 years, I've seen more anomolies on new tires than I've ever seen on any other new product. And it still bothers me.

I agree with many on this site- Costco and Michelin are a winning combination. Also, if you want the wheels to go with the winter tires try Tirerack.com. All balanced and ready to put on.

I have had good service from Discount Tire ( www.discounttire.com ) by going to their stores. Both service, and the tires they have sold me over the years has been above average, IMHO.

Going to Firestone stores that I did for a while, made me feel like a 'mark', and they wanted to perform the same service again and again. Going to Discount Tire, they helped me diagnose problems, referred me to a quality place to have my suspension worked on, then put on new tires. They went from replacing every 9 to 15 months, to lasting years.

Since then, even when we moved out of state, I have managed to get tires and service from them. Also, I got the same service no matter which store I went to. I have used at least 5 of their different stores over time.

If all service providers provide the same quality I have experienced, we would all be happier and an entire industry could hold their head high. As it is, going other places, many dealers included, I feel slimy just by darkening their doors.