How to buy American made tires

[PessOptimist]

James we do appreciate your efforts to get us to buy union made American products.

I recalled having responded to this thread back in 2/09 when you started it. I went back and read it. I stated the lack of US made tires around and my own difficulty finding them. No solutions offered but it did turn in to a nice discussion of trade imbalance and solar panels. Almost forget, shoes and clothing.

I did end up buying a set of tires at a company owned Goodyear store. I did need to get it done and get on with the vacation. It turns out they were made in AL. The store manager was of little help in making sure I got US made tires. He couldn't tell me anything about the plant being union or not. The other customers in the store were either amused or irate because I was wasting time and they are just tires.

The point of this is that it is not as easy as you make it out to be, nor has this thread been of any help unless you want a US made solar panel. IIRC, when I bought my tires in 2009 at the Goodyear store, some of the featured brands were Yokohama, Hankook and Continental.

And while I am complaining, where was that coupon in 2009 when I needed it?
PO

 

[James48843]

A couple more "Made in the USA" links and information:

http://fuckyeahmadeinusa.tumblr.com/

and, for USA made clothing:

http://www.allamericanclothing.com/SFNT.html

 

[driz]

It's easy to tell if a tire is made in the US or rather that it wasn't . Remember it's not the USA marking you are looking for but rather lack of any country of origin marking at all. US products aren't required to be marked but everyone elses are so look for the "Made In China" cast in there someplace and avoid them like the plague no matter what the US manufacturer is that owns the plant. Some of them have plants both here and China but in order to get imported the US owned Chinese junk tires have to be marked so you can see it someplace. Of course you can guess that they bury it as deeply as Customs law lets them get away with. Aside from the support American workers issue Chinese tires are legendary for cracking and dry rotting in extremely short order. They just don't hold up period by comparison. If you think it's hard getting decent car tires today try buying trailer tires lately. They all suck and few manage to last more than a few years .

 

[James48843]

It's easy to tell if a tire is made in the US or rather that it wasn't . Remember it's not the USA marking you are looking for but rather lack of any country of origin marking at all. US products aren't required to be marked but everyone elses are so look for the "Made In China" cast in there someplace and avoid them like the plague ... .

I thought so too, until I actually started looking, and discovered that at least at the tires at my local store (Discount Tire), NONE of the foreign tires had their country of origin labeled on them. Despite U.S. requirements that all products have a country of origin mark, NONE of the imported tires I looked at did so. I don't know if they are not required for some reason, or if the foreign tire manufacturers just aren't getting caught. Either way, I have found known Chinese made tires (and Singapore, and South Korea, etc, etc, etc) without a country of origin marking on them.

 

[Buster]

Yeah..I was looking at; Michelin, TOYO, Yokohama, Kumho, Sumitomo, Pirelli tires and couldn't tell where they were made..

 

[James48843]

Yeah..I was looking at; Michelin, TOYO, Yokohama, Kumho, Sumitomo, Pirelli tires and couldn't tell where they were made..

Many Michelin tires are made by American "United Steelworkers Union" members in Alabama and Indiana.

BE	B. F. Goodrich, Tuscaloosa, AL (Michelin)	351L
BF	B. F. Goodrich, Woodburn, IN (Michelin)	715L
AN	B. F. Goodrich, Opelika, AL (Michelin)	753L

Code Company/Location
(Parent Company) USW Local Union No.

More:
http://www.boilermakers.org/resources/news/buy_union_made_tires

 

[Afishegg]

I'm sorry, but are you saying me buying 4 tires made here in america is going to make an inkling of a difference in our current financial sichiashun? I think that's some funny stuff there boyz, heck my government uniform is made overseas. You (and me) buying 4 new tires made here in the hopes of changing things is the equivalent of pecking at mount everest with a rockpick. I remember belonging to a union and some members would drive up and park on the jobsite in their Toyota and Isuzu trucks and they would be "threatened" not to park that "foreign" made car on a union jobsite, I would laugh to myself at those comments knowing those trucks were probably made or at least put together here in America in a plant using American workers.

 

[James48843]

I'm sorry, but are you saying me buying 4 tires made here in america is going to make an inkling of a difference in our current financial sichiashun?

As I walked along the seashore
This young boy greeted me.

He was tossing a stranded starfish
Back into the deep blue sea.

I said, Tell me why you bother.
Why you waste your time this way?
There's a million stranded starfish.

Does it matter anyway?
And he said, "It matters to this one."



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