'Counterfeit' tires pose consumer risk

[ZLoth]

From Consumer Reports:

'Counterfeit' tires pose consumer risk
Tested Chinese tires underperform; manufacturer disavows them

What began as a routine tire test became a journey through a maze of deception, finger-pointing, and a lack of accountability that in itself could prove dangerous if the product should prove to be defective.

When it comes to safety and performance, Consumer Reports has long said that you shouldn't skimp on tires. That's what we discovered once again when we recently tested three sets of Chinese-branded all-season truck tires that cost as little as $89 apiece in our test size, 265/70R17. All three of these bargain-bin tires landed at the bottom of our Ratings, in part because of their performance in our winter-condition test, as well as so-so to poor tread life. The surprise came when the owner and distributor of one set of the tires alleged that the tires we tested were "gray market" –that is, produced or sold by a factory and vendor that were not authorized to make or distribute them–and from tire molds that may have been stolen.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[formulanone]

Chinese tires tend to vary greatly in quality; they're cheap for a reason. Usually, tread life is on the short side, wear patterns vary, and they can be noisy or prone to wobble. Most of these manufacturers don't have the resources, engineering, and R&D facilities like the established brands have, and thus could create an inferior tire. Tires can be a "you get what you pay for" item, although cheap tires are likely all that many people need. I've sold tires at retail shops, and half the folks just buy the cheapest set, just as they might for most things. Tires are just looked at as those dirty, but necessary, black round things which little thought is given to until you either get an unfortunate flat, or they're worn down.

This story sounds plausible, but a bit of a complete one-off scenario. Stolen moulds just seems a little far-fetched, although re-sold ones might be more believable.

[SteveG1988]

Chinese tires tend to vary greatly in quality; they're cheap for a reason. Usually, tread life is on the short side, wear patterns vary, and they can be noisy or prone to wobble. Most of these manufacturers don't have the resources, engineering, and R&D facilities like the established brands have, and thus could create an inferior tire. Tires can be a "you get what you pay for" item, although cheap tires are likely all that many people need. I've sold tires at retail shops, and half the folks just buy the cheapest set, just as they might for most things. Tires are just looked at as those dirty, but necessary, black round things which little thought is given to until you either get an unfortunate flat, or they're worn down.

This story sounds plausible, but a bit of a complete one-off scenario. Stolen moulds just seems a little far-fetched, although re-sold ones might be more believable.

Here is my hypothetical stuation.

Mr. Jones is the manager of the closed factory. he gets notified he is going to be sacked by the higher ups for incompitence...he decides to arrange through the gangs of the city to sell off the equipment. Since it is all going to be disposed of or transfered around, he hides it as "Broken, waiting on parts" while in reality it is "Broken, parts sold off" Mr. Jones leaves the company when the factory is closed, but not before selling whatever he can off. Years Later they start to make the tires again, in a factory somewhere else in the country, the Mafia connection puts Mr. Jones in charge of that facility or has Mr. Jones make connections as a representaigve of the original company. These tires then enter the distrobution chain and get sent around the world.

[roadman]

Also consider the source here - CR.  This is the same group that dissed a car (2012 Focus) because their testers didn't like the entertainment system and didn't know how to properly drive a dual clutch transmission (which is NOT an automatic, but rather a computer-controlled manual transmission).