For the 19th consecutive year, Tire Review asked North American tire dealers to rate the performance of the tire brands – consumer and commercial (medium truck) – they carry and sell.

Certainly tire dealers and tire brands go hand-in-hand. Dealers depend on the “value” of the brands they sell, and the tire companies depend on dealers to carry their brand, marketing and technology messages to the consuming public. Those brands have to deliver the quality, innovation, fill rate, marketability, profitability and now fuel efficiency that tire dealers need to be successful, reach customers, build a reputation and grow a business.

Click here to see the 2011 Brand Study

Tire Review’s annual Tire Brand Study is not a scientific research project; it only measures dealers’ opinions and perceptions about the brands they offer. This study examines both major (including associate) and private brands separately so that each group can be fairly and directly compared with each other.

Dealers were not permitted to comment on brands they did not carry, and consumers and end-users were not polled. No tires were physically tested. The results only reflect the expressed opinions and perceptions of independent tire dealers.

Babcox Research analyzed dealer responses from some 1,750 completed telephone surveys. Every effort was made to obtain a fair sampling of responses and ensure the number of responses gathered was consistent with accepted industry brand marketshare figures. Limits were placed on the number of dealers interviewed per geographic region, thereby restricting the impact of certain brands with strong distribution in one region or another.

A total of 1,298 specific brand mentions were collected for the Consumer Tire segment of the study, and another 451 specific mentions were obtained for the Commercial Tire segment.

The results published here do not include all brands mentioned. To be presented in the final results shown here, a consumer tire brand had to have at least 40 mentions and a commercial brand needed at least 15 mentions. A number of other brands – those not listed here – were mentioned by dealers, but received an insufficient number of mentions.

Dealers were asked to rate each brand of tires they carry on a 1 to 10 scale – 10 being highest – on a series of categories. An aggregate overall score for each brand was calculated, averaging the results from each category. Last year’s category winners are indicated with an asterisk.

Tire Review’s Brand Study results are available by contacting Bob Roberts, research manager, at 330-670-1234 ext. 252 or broberts@babcox.com.

Click on a link below to download a copy of that year's Brand Study:

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