New Tires for van.

[cuh...@webtv.net]

Which tires do you reccomend I buy for my 1983 big old Dodge van? I want
tires which have really good road grip, especially something for rainy
weather, but not tires which make noise when I am driving.

There is a Cooper tires factory in my state, does Cooper manufacture
what I want? I do not want tires which are manufactured in any foreign
countries.
cuhulin
.....................................
Buy American Made Products
.....................................

[hls]

<cuh...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:8192-4B37...@storefull-3171.bay.webtv.net...

> Which tires do you reccomend I buy for my 1983 big old Dodge van? I want
> tires which have really good road grip, especially something for rainy
> weather, but not tires which make noise when I am driving.
>
> There is a Cooper tires factory in my state, does Cooper manufacture
> what I want? I do not want tires which are manufactured in any foreign
> countries.
> cuhulin

Why dont you flip over to www.tirerack.com and research this vehicle and
what tires are available. You can read the reviews, find out about tread
life expectancy,
wet traction, and a lot of other things.

I have bought Cooper on a couple of cars. They are okay, but nothing
special, in
my experience.

[Ad absurdum per aspera]

Cooper seems somewhat more American than most companies in what has
become a highly globalized business. They have a reputation as a
decent place to work. However, they also make tires in, or have
cooperative deals or ownership stakes in, factories in several other
countries. Those tires may or may not be destined for the US market
(and tires made here may or may not be destined for export).

This is true of a lot of tire companies, whether at top level they
appear to be foreign or domestic. The details of which tires are made
where for whom tend to vary quite a bit in response to a lot of
factors, including (in no particular order) labor cost, raw materials
prices, logistics cost, currency exchange rates, trade negotiations,
and the ebb and flow of demand in different markets, as well as which
factories are set up to make what kinds of tires.

So if you want to support business in the US and/or your home state,
Cooper would seem to give you a better chance than most -- but you
have to check the country of origin of your particular size, model,
and brand of tires -- maybe even of your particular tires! I think
it's required to be marked on the sidewall and certainly is required
to be available to the consumer through some means.

If you're worried about quality... well, I would trust name-brand
tires made in most of the advanced, industrialized, and relatively
free nations, and would be suspicious of tires that are remarkably
less expensive than their competitors. Tester and consumer ratings
that you can find on tire-related websites can also tell you something
useful.

But when it comes down to the actual country of origin, only your
sidewall knows for sure...

--Joe