Maxed Out?: Size Race Slows, But Fashion vs. Function Questions Remain for Dealers
For a few years, the tire and wheel industries resembled the Cold War nuclear arms race – every year, someone rolled out a bigger weapon. It started with eye-popping, wheel-well-stretching 20-inch wheels and tires and progressed to the 2004 SEMA Show, where gigantic 28-inchers were every where. A sort of dÉtente has settled in, if
Do You Know Us?: If You Don’t, You May be Alienating Your Most Profitable Customers Forever
If you’re like most tire dealers, you’re probably turning your back on the most profitable customers you’ll ever see. Not intentionally, perhaps, but this unique group of customers – tuners, enthusiasts, restylers, whatever you want to call them – is often left frustrated trying to deal with dealers. So, they leave and find another option.
Advergaming: The Future of High Performance Advertising?
High performance tire and wheel companies certainly know a thing or two about how to reach consumers. Specialty enthusiast magazines are stuffed with ads from these companies, and most have highly interactive Web sites – all designed to reach that red-hot 18-25-year-old market. But a new and highly popular form of brand and product promotion
Tuning In: How a Pennsylvania Dealer Tapped into a Growing Market
You wouldn’t expect the northeast quadrant of Pennsylvania to be a high performance hotbed. Four-wheel drive pickups and SUVs would be more like it. But from Scranton and Wilkes-Barre south to Allentown and Harrisburg, the high performance market did grow, aided by the emerging tuner segment and the proliferation of high-end sports cars. Well-heeled customers
Industry Report
RMA Cuts Support After Court Ruling Hopes for a tire industry checkoff program were dealt a couple of significant ®€“ potentially fatal ®€“ blows in late February after yet another court ruled that a popular checkoff program’s consumer education effort was unconstitutional, and the RMA withdrew support for the proposed program.
Faster and Even More Furious
UHP BUSTS THE SOUND BARRIER Many of you reading this article are probably standing in the middle of the ITE/SEMA Show floor. Or soon will be. Around you are acres and acres of performance tires mounted on bright, shiny wheels. Huge diameters and short sidewalls. Practical performance and radical cosmetics. It’s not just that
Industry Report
With a new three-year labor contract in hand, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. turned its attention to other restructuring issues as it works to right its financial ship. The tiremaker formally announced the closing of its Huntsville, Ala., plant, then laid off about 200 employees from its Tyler, Texas, facility.
Industry Report
Fed Appeals Court Tosses NHTSA RegsThe U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals gave the tire industry a surprise gift Aug. 6 when it sided with three citizens groups and threw out NHTSA’s controversial tire pressure monitoring system regulations.
Industry Report
RMA Asks NHTSA For Internet OptionLooking to increase the number of tires being registered, the RMA has asked NHTSA for formal permission to allow tire buyers to register to tires via tiremaker Web sites. Allowing "additional, easier choices" would enhance NHTSA’s ability to notify owners in the event of a safety problem with their tires.
Industry Report
Still a Long Road Ahead for Troubled TiremakerDespite posting the worst losses in the company’s 105-year history, things began to look up for the financially troubled Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. during a hectic early spring.