Pegging My BS Meter...Again - Tire Review Magazine

Pegging My BS Meter…Again

Our dear friends at American Tire Corp. just keep going and going and going.

Here is a blog post from BigTires.com that came after the recent MINExpo. This is verbatim from the blog and has not been enhanced or edited by me in any way. Though I am setting this off in a different font.

Enjoy!

Okay, I just recently received yet another piece of propaganda Press Release from American Tire Corporation. While I don’t really want to pick on them yet again, they leave me no choice.

This one evidently has not yet been released to the wire services, but is floating around in emails to tire dealers around the nation.

I’m going to let you read it, and then I’ll give you my take on it(full text follows below):

American Tire Corporation Makes Success at MINExpo 2008
American Tire Corporation has signed contracts for 500 million US dollars of giant tires during its presence at MINExpo 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This success is a positive feedback to zero failure history and longer job performance of most sizes of ATC’s giant OTR tire from 29″ up to 63″.
Chino California – Thursday, September 25, 2008 — American Tire Corporation (ATC) is pleased to announce that ATC has made a great success at MINExpo International 2008 held in Las Vegas, Nevada from September 22 to 24, 2008
At this year’s MINExpo, although ATC’s competitors vandalized ATC’s booth #10006 on the Eve of MINExpo, ATC still makes a great success. ATC has signed contracts for more than 500 millions dollars. Some more contracts with similar value are expected to be finalized in October.Meanwhile, the following are notable
All four (4) giant tire manufacturers presented their 63″ tires. Among them, ATC’s 63″ tires are the only tires keeping zero failure history globally. The others are Michelin, Bridgestone and Titan.
Totally three (3) giant tire manufacturers presented their 57″ radial tires. Among them, only ATC displayed 40.00R57 tires which are the most popular in the present OTR tire world. The others are Michelin and Bridgestone.
Sponsored by National Mining Association, MINExpo International is held every four years. This is the first time ATC has attended. With the objective to become the largest and best manufacturer for 63″ and 57″ tires, American Tire Corporation is a US government-supported OTR tire manufacturer with operations in different US states and other countries. ATC has created several “firsts” in the OTR tire industry. For more information, please check its website (link to ATC Website).

Ok, so here’s the deal: First of all, they claim a zero failure history. Zero. Then, they throw off on the other tire companies for having a failure rate higher than zero. Now, my first question when people start throwing out big or small numbers is to ask “Where are they getting this from?” If you want to say this in press release, you should probably show us the data, or provide a link to a place where we can get it.

There is none of that here. The next question would be be ” In what period of time have you had a zero failure record?” 2 weeks? Months? Years? ATC is the new kid on the block. Everybody else has had ample time to fail. Zero failure on their part is a statistical impossibility. ATC’s claim is akin to me saying my car has never broken down, and neglecting to mention that I just bought it yesterday.

Then they say that they have signed 500 Million in contracts. Isn’t it highly coincidental that they will be paying that same amount for their facility in WA? If you’re going to give me a number, give me something that doesn’t say “I got these numbers from our accountant. His name is Santa Claus.”

They go on to make another outrageous claim. Their 57-inch tires are the most popular in the OTR World? That is a shocker to me. Maybe they just live in an alternate reality, where ATC is this amazing tire manufacturer, with this incredible product line of tires that cannot fail and run for 12,000 hours. The rest of us have not yet passed into this glorious dimension.

To top it all off, they claim that their booth was vandalized by their competitors. Really? So this is high school, and someone gave ATC the corporate version of a “swirly”? What qualifies as vandalism? Did somebody leave a Butterfinger wrapper beside their booth? Would somebody please tell people that when they make claims they should bother to tell us exactly what happened?

Look, everybody loves an underdog, especially here in America. However, everybody hates a poser, and that is exactly what ATC comes across as: Someone who acts like they are a big deal, and says they have done or have all these things, and in the end is just so much hot air.

If they want to change their image, and be respected, ATC needs to answer these charges. Until then, they will just be a laughingstock. They are more than welcome to submit actual proof of their claims. Until then, I will go on assuming they are …ummm…misrepresenting their importance.

If you have comments to share, send to me at [email protected].

– Jim Smith

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