Certainly tire dealers and the brands they represent and offer go hand-in-hand. Dealers depend on the “value” of the brands they sell, and tire companies depend on dealers to carry their branding and marketing message to the consuming public.
For that relationship to thrive, tire brands must deliver the product quality, technical 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.
For the 18th 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. And this year we have added a new category for dealers to consider: a tire brand’s fuel efficiency.
Click here to see this year’s Brand Study.
Tire Review’s annual Tire Brand Study is not a scientific research project; it only measures dealer opinions and perceptions about the brands they regularly stock and sell.
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 conducted this study for Tire Review, analyzing tire dealer responses from some 750 completed telephone surveys. Every effort was made to obtain a fair sampling of responses for each brand. Limits were placed on the number of dealers interviewed per geographic region, restricting the impact of brands with strong distribution in one region or another.
A total of 1,764 specific brand mentions were collected for the Consumer Tire segment of the Study, and another 401 specific brand 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 35 mentions – up from 30 mentions last year – and a commercial brand needed at least 15 mentions. Brands named by tire dealers but receiving an insufficient number of mentions include: Aeolis, Aurora, Cordovan, Dean, Delta, Dynastar, DynaTrak, Federal, Fuzion, Geostar, Geotrak, Gladiator, Goodride, GT Radial, Ling Long, Maxxis, Multi-Mile, Nankang, National, Nitto, Nokian, Ohtsu, Peerless, Power King, Primewell, Remington, Republic, Roadmaster, Runway, Sailun, Sigma, Summit, Turnpike, Wanli and Westlake.
Dealers were asked to rate each brand of tires they carried on a 1 to 10 scale – 10 being highest – in a series of categories. An aggregate overall score for each brand was calculated, averaging the results from each category. The top brands are shown in bold, and 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 by e-mailing Bob at [email protected].