Jim's Blog Archives - Page 2 of 17 - Tire Review Magazine
ATD Almost There, But Chinese Tiremakers Face New Problem

As Maxwell Smart would have said, “Missed it by that much.” Fourteen places. That’s how close American Tire Distributors was to making the Fortune 500 list. The tire distribution giant logged in at 514 on the annual list, not quite on the big board, but well ahead of the days when it couldn’t even hit

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A Fair Warning to Customers, A Shrinking Market and A Plant Closure

Not necessarily a tire story, but…. We’ve all heard of the “bump and rob” where Driver A hits the rear bumper of the vehicle in front of them to get Driver B to pull over, at which point Driver A robs Driver B and gets away. There’s a new variation, which popped up recently in

The Return of Abraham Part V: Back Taxes and the Never Started Remodel

You have to hand it to the good people of Billings, they certainly know a pig wearing lipstick when they see one. Just like the good people of Tacoma and Ephrata, Wash., before them, the residents of Montana’s largest city have gained some real first-hand experience with the ever-shifting Abraham Hengyucius. You’ll recall that Mr.

How Does a Goodyear Online Tire Sale Stack Up?

While media everywhere were distracted by Goodyear’s move to “next generation” silica, most paid no attention to the official launch of its online tire sales scheme. Chicagoland was chosen for the rollout, which rolled out May 5. So with a worthy Zip code in hand, we set off to see how the system worked….and, more

Selleck: Performance Standards, Mandatory Registration are Musts

At the recent Clemson University Tire Industry Conference (at which I was a guest speaker), Pete Selleck, chairman and CEO of Michelin North America was the keynoter. In his 20-minute talk, Selleck touched on a few key issues both he and MNA feel strongly about. On still-pending tire fuel efficiency ratings and labeling: “The consumer

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Of Mice, Men and Where the ChemChina-Pirelli Deal Will Take Us

Ren Jianxin, the 57-year-old chairman, referred to the $7.7 billion acquisition of Pirelli SpA, as “revolutionary” for ChemChina, almost as though it was the mouse that had swallowed the elephant. In fact, Ren’s ChemChina, which he created 30 years ago on a $1,600 government loan, is six times Pirelli’s size, certainly the elephant in most

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How Cuba, North Korea and Rosekind Can Impact on the Tire World

Never thought I’d see the day that I could travel to Cuba, or that North Korea – a country that can’t even keep the lights on at night – would actually cause knees to buckle. Welcome to a whole new world. So what does Cuba and North Korea have to do with tires and the

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U.S.-Canada Tire Price Gap Closing, Legislation Still Pending

CBC News reported recently that some Canadian tire retailers have been dropping tire prices, effectively closing the gap on U.S. retailers and helping keep Canadian tire buyers home. The Canada-U.S. tire price gap, long a headache for Canadian retailers thanks to a lack of legislative support by their government, has tightened in recent months, and

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Exploring and Explaining the Pieces of a Truly Weird Tire Day

The day after what was truly the most bizarre day for the American tire industry that I can recall, things got even weirder. Oh, before I forget, Welcome to National Tire Safety Awareness Month!!!!! Your White House thanks you for your cooperation. Anyway, by now you have read that the National Transportation Safety Board held

Sorting Through the Rubble of the Apollo-Cooper Break-up

Dec. 31…twenty-eight days from this writing…will be the one-year anniversary of the epic and tragic Cooper-Apollo Break-up. And even as they began the process of unwinding a $2.5 billion arranged marriage, they continued to profess their love publicly (well, sort of) while their respective legal teams rolled up their sleeves and continued the unseen liquidation

Congress Acts! Prepares to Make Eco-Innovation Nearly Impossible

A seemingly minor legislative move in Congress (wait a minute, something happened in Congress?) could have massive ramifications to the tire industry. HR 4012 – the Secret Science Reform Act of 2014 – would force the EPA to find, access, make public and verify independently ALL scientific and technical information connected to any proposed action

Illegal Tire Problems Plague the U.K.; Was Jac’s Last Act a Bug?

It is often said that we Americans and our British cousins are more alike than we sometimes want to admit. So it is a bit worrisome to read reports in the London Telegraph that more than 2.2 million (that’s MILLION!!!) U.K. cars failed mandatory MoT (Ministry of Transportation) checks due to unsafe or illegal tires.