Consumers beware problems with Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3

[wun911]

I have recently got a set of Goodyear eagle F1 GS-D3 tyres for my MX5 in Australia Melbourne. The size of the tyre is 205/45R16.

Apparenlty some Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres are so crap its illegal to put them on cars in Erupoe! (So Goodyear decides to ship the crap tyres to Australia)

http://www.mx-5.com/Community/forums/Sh ... stID=20483

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... 386634&i=0

Initially the Goodyear eagle F1 GS-D3 were made in Germany, but over time more and more inferior tyres were made in Thailand. (However consumers were not informed about this change, and certanily the price didnt change to reflect the lower quality)

I won’t be buying Goodyear tyres EVER again especially with the “bait and switch” tactics, and the \"pot luck\" you have to go though to get a decent set of tyres from Goodyear. I have tried contacting Goodyear about this several times at goodyearmarketing@goodyear.com to no avail.

I hope this post will save other Australian consumers from buying crap goodyear tyres.

[Lukus]

That's a pretty big statement...

[StanTheMan]

I thought its been spoken about a fair bit on here.

can't recall which particular brand But also the same car having tyrs from Thailand & Germany & tyers failing very prematurely & also the compound they used.

So bitch away

[Lukus]

I thought its been spoken about a fair bit on here.

can't recall which particular brand But also the same car having tyrs from Thailand & Germany & tyers failing very prematurely & also the compound they used.

So bitch away

I can understand why Goodyear didn't reply!

From what i can gather, it appears there are batches of tyres made in Germany, China and Thailand. Those made in Thailand are not rated for the conditions in the UK or the rest of Europe which seems to be the main problem. Clearly what he is describing is simply tyre compound. I would suggest those same tyres used here would be perfectly fine. If indeed there are concerns with widespread premature failure (pretty rare i must say, i've seen very few and i am a technician by trade) then that is a different story all together.

"Apparently some Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres are so crap its illegal to put them on cars in Europe! (So Goodyear decides to ship the crap tyres to Australia)" is missing the point of what they are saying in those posts. They simply are not suited to their conditions, so are not marked. Manufacturers of tyres usually have a few facilities. They can have different qualities, but generally the quality control is the same regardless. It is simply the cheaper labour that gives a cheaper price. Dunlop for many years produced wet weather tyres in England and dry weather tyres in Japan. The English made very very good wet weather tyres (they are obviously exposed to wet weather quite a bit) and the Japanese made very good slicks. Does that mean the quality as different? Absolutely not.

Everything is pot luck. You think when you buy an electrical device, that the one next to it was made in the same factory? I know for a fact there are many manufacturers of various phones, camera's, ipod's, pretty much anything mass produced. They make them under licence, but are certainly in different locations. I have investigated various places in China, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and India for business opportunities and alot of them sell the same products. Genuine Nokia phones from more than one place. It happens in all industries!

[manga_blue]

I've had some of these Thai Goodyears for a while. Initially they were sort of OK, maybe a bit greasy but now at 50% worn they have become totally undriveable.

With my trusty Yokie C-Drives flat-spotted I tried them for 3 laps at Phillip Is last weekend then swapped straight back to the Yokies because the Goodyears frankly terrified me. The C-Drives were 8 to 12 secs a lap faster. Nuff said?

[Lukus]

The problem is you're using them outside the envelope of what they were designed to do. It's like Rhysk in the brake pad thread using Hawk HP Plus on the street and wondering why he went through 2 sets of disc's in 5000km. They're not designed for it, so you can't base your opinion on using them outside the design parameters.

I used my Toyo standard fitment tyres on my Mazda2 the first day i took it to the track. They are the equivalent of the Goodyear. I couldn't expect them to give blistering lap times, as they're designed for getting 40,000km of life out of them whilst driving me to work or the shops, not belting around a race track.

Had you used German or Chinese Goodyear's you would have had the same problem.

I think the main thing this *warning* has highlighted is you get what you pay for and that you need to be a little more careful about what you pay your money for. Initially, the original poster on the MX5 forum bought those tyres because they were cheap. That says everything. I don't need to know anything after that, because as soon as the next sentence says \"and they were crap\" i would say \"Really!?! You think!?!\". He may have been happy with the previous Goodyear's but not every tyre is the same. He may have been lucky before.

It just shows that people need to be careful all the time, it shouldn't be isolated to Goodyear.

[bigdog]

Actually Lukas, the tyres wun911 is referring to are a high performance tyre, sold as a competitor to the Toyo T1R and the Pirelli P Zero etc, and as such should be well up to spirited driving and the occasional track day. I have been told many times by tyre retailers and wholesalers that the country of manufacture is a criitical issue when buying tyres.

Witness the Dunlop vintage race tyres used on my clubman. I had a set that were made in Japan prior to the Kobe earthquake a few years back, and they were brilliant - great grip and long life. After the earthquake Dunlop switched to UK made versions of the same tyre - same tread pattern, and exactly the same compound of rubber according to Dunlop. Most competitors could only get 4 races on them before they were worn out, and the grip was inferior from the start. At $400 per tyre you can understand that no one was happy!

As far as I know the Goodyears should be clearly marked on the sidewall with their country of origin - and I understand from a friend who uses them that the German made ones are excellent, so I would simply insist that the tyres you are buying have the 'Made In Germany' inscription before you hand over your money... same with most tyres, eg Toyos should be Japanese.

As wun911 is warning us - be careful you are getting what you pay for!

[manga_blue]

The problem is you're using them outside the envelope of what they were designed to do.

No, they're just plain undriveable anywhere. They're so bad now you could lose it trying to stop in a school zone.

Bigdog's right, these are marketed as extreme performance tyres.

Wun911's warning is appropriate and should be heeded, thanks. These really are particularly nasty.

[wun911]

To lukeus

Imageine if these crap tyres were on your MX5 then you would probably be BITCHIN with me. Your lucky that your not in my shoes and you get to enjoy your MX5 to its full potential.

The fact is that the Goodyear Eagle F1s are sold as \"preformance tyres\" If you read the goodyear website it says:

\"The ultimate high performance tyre in the Goodyear range.The Eagle F1 is consistently voted top of its class in many of the world's leading car magazines, most recently in the 2007 Wheels Performance Tyre Test! This tyre combines the OneTRED design of a racing slick, for superb handling in the wet or dry, with unique V-TRED technology reducing the chances of aquaplanning.\"
http://www.goodyear.com.au/TyreDetailAc ... m=nPerPage

All the reviews are based on the better German made tyres. I read the reviews and had purchased the tyres based on these great reviews. However, Goodyear was evil enough to replace the preformance product with crap and sell it for the same price .

I've had the tyres since winter and they don't preform well in any condition wet or dry it 'feels' like the tyre is made of concrete instead of premium silica compound.

Sure ipods are made in seveal locations all over the world but if your new ipod didnt work properly you can go back to apple and they would fix it for you. My tyres don't have grip and make my MX5 feel like a skateboard... So why can't Goodyear fix it for me?

Just like you lucus I also belive in the saying \"you get what you pay for\" belive me I didn't hunt around for cheap tyres. I have no problems with paying a premium price for some preformace tyres. Problem is Goodyear did a bait and switch and I ended up paying top dollar for crap tyres.

This is just a \"buyer beware\" or you better make sure and double check that you get the German made tyres from Goodyear.

[bruce]

I would request a pro-rata refund/credit on the tyres, either through the retailer (talking to the manufacturer) or directly with the manufacturer.

Failing that I would take it back to the retailer who sold them to you and see if he will do a trade-in on the tyres (probably not worth much 2nd hand).

[Benny]

I'd contact the ACCC (comsumer division) and have a bitch with them.
What Dunlop have done would be construed as false and missleading advertising.
If they are using the magazine test results for these German made tyres in their advertising, then supplying inferior Thai made tyres in reality, then they would be VERY interested to hear about it.

Even shows like a current affair would be interested.
Personally, I think it is a cheek to do something like this.
Bring in a hot performance tyre for the magazines to test, then supply the public with overpriced rubbish in place of it.

[Richee]

Sorry Benny but its Goodyear not Dunlop - unless they are the same

[Benny]

Sorry, these black round things all sound the same to me!
I stand corrected, it should be Goodyear, not Dunlop.

[Mactype]

Did you get these from a Goodyear retailer or one of the cheapo tyre places that typically sell lots of big diameter chrome rim and tyre packages?

Just theres a heap of parallel importing happening with tyres and it sounds like you may have picked up a set of these and are blaming Goodyear Aust. when they in fact may not have had anything to do with it.

[Andrew]

My current and last 1.5 sets of tyres have been Goodyear F1's and havnt had any of the issues listed above.

Not 100% sure where they have all been made at the moment but i can only speak highly of them.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned anything about wheel alignments