Founded over 120 years ago in Akron, Ohio, the American tire company Goodyear has become one of the most famous marketing images in the world. And it’s no wonder why – the company has been manufacturing tires for nearly as long as cars have existed! Along the way, the brand has often led the entire rubber industry with new tire technologies, making it one of the top 4 tire manufacturers in the world.
Although not the most affordable brand on the market, Goodyear consistently makes high-quality, ultra-durable and dependable products that serve a variety of functions and fit a number of vehicles. From all-season tires for passenger cars and SUVs, to off-road models for trucks, to racing tires for motorsports vehicles, Goodyear offers an incredibly comprehensive product lineup. If you’re thinking about purchasing Goodyear tires, this review should hopefully help you decide whether or not this is the right brand for you.
Best Selling Goodyear Tires
Goodyear’s Wrangler Radial Tire is an all-season, all-terrain tire built for light and medium-duty vans, trucks, pickups, crossovers and SUVs. Engineered to provide outstanding year-round traction on both rugged terrains and highway environments, this tire provides ultimate confidence in handling no matter the road or weather conditions.
The Wrangler has a rugged, aggressive design that enables it to have a firm grip and dependable traction on both smooth pavement and rocky off-road terrain. With a special, all-season rubber compound, the model offers superior traction not only in dry conditions, but also in wet and slippery conditions, including light snow. Importantly for highway drivers, the tire is also designed to absorb road noise and vibration and deliver quiet and comfortable rides. Notable features include:
- DuPont Kevlar layer: provides strength and durability, resist punctures and offers confident off-road driving
- DuraWall Technology: provides additional toughness and resistance to cuts in the sidewall area
- Optimized tread design: for even stress distribution across the entire tire. Also improves mileage
- Open shoulder blocks: for evacuating mud from the tread and improving off-road traction
- Biting edges + rubber compound: by creating more traction between the tire and pavement, wet traction and braking is improved.
- Brand Goodyear
- Model Wrangler Radial
- Weight 27.6 pounds
The Eagle RS-A is Goodyear’s most popular high-performance tire. It is used as OE on many sport coupes, sedans and even law enforcement vehicles, which should tell you all about its performance: excellent year-round handling and traction, exceptional durability and great comfort are just some of the things this model delivers.
The Eagle RS-A combines an asymmetric tread pattern with all-season rubber compound to provide all-around solid traction. Both dry and wet weather conditions are a piece of cake for this tire, and even light snow doesn’t represent a problem. Furthermore, whether you’re driving on the smoothest highway or a very bumpy road, the Eagle RS-A will deliver a comfortable, smooth and quiet ride. To top it all off, it’s actually budget-friendly! The features that ensure tire quality include:
- Asymmetric tread design: for enhanced all-season traction and responsive cornering
- Shoulder tread blocks: promote handling stability and confident steering response
- Wide lateral grooves: enhance water evacuation, improving wet traction
- Special rubber compound: promotes traction and ride comfort.
- Brand Goodyear
- Model Eagle RS-A
- Weight 20.4 pounds
If you’re looking for a tough, durable tire for your RV or trailer, give Unisteel G614 RST, Goodyear’s best-selling specialty tire a try. Made of quality materials, with a unique, sturdy design, this commercial grade tire is made for heavy duty applications.
The Unisteel G614 RST may be one pricy tire, but there are several reasons for that: not only is this model heavy, steel cased and retreadable, it’s literally made to withstand huge amounts of abuse and heavy cargos. This G-rated tire is also incredibly durable – as long as it’s properly inflated and well-maintained, it’s guaranteed to last for years. Its shallow tread also helps with even wear, so you don’t have to worry about the “bald” look with the Unisteel G614 RST – it will wear evenly and slowly. The features that ensure strength, durability and comfort, include:
- Solid, rounded shoulder ribs: by increasing rib stability, even wear is ensured
- Premium casing and mold shape design: ensure tire toughness and promote durability and stability even on super-heavy trailers
- Shallow tread: provides even wear, plus reduces running temperatures for casing toughness
- Rib edge sipes + lateral grooves: enhance overall traction, including wet grip.
- Brand Goodyear
- Model Unisteel G614 RST
- Weight 20.1 pounds
Goodyear Tires Buying Guide & FAQ
Goodyear tires are among the top global tire manufacturers for a reason. For one, they consistently make quality, durable tires that you can always count on having a good tread life. Two, pretty much every single Goodyear model provides solid to way above average handling and traction in different weather conditions. And finally, most models also deliver comfortable and quiet rides, no matter the road. The only downside? Some of their prices are slightly over the market average. And although the price doesn’t always equal quality, there are cases when it does. Considering Goodyear’s phenomenal designs, quality materials and technological innovations, we believe their prices are completely justified. But if you’re still unsure if this is the right brand for your needs, our short but handy buying guide should hopefully be able to help you make the right purchasing decision.
Why Choose Goodyear Tires?
One of the oldest, biggest and most popular tire companies in the world, Goodyear has become a synonym for quality and durability. Every Goodyear tire we ever had the pleasure to use or review, has shown excellent stability, comfort and fuel efficiency. This shouldn’t come as a surprise – using various innovative features, the company is constantly aiming to push the boundaries of tire technologies; and often, they succeed. However, Goodyear tires are not the most affordable tires on the market. Should that stop you from giving them a try? We stand behind a firm No. Here’s why:
Superior Quality
To consistently produce high-quality tires, Goodyear has a number of experts and specialists who work on tire pattern designs, material selection, prototyping, in-depth analysis, testing and manufacture. In fact, their engineers test tires against more than 50 performance parameters, and this goes for each new design. The tests include braking parameters, cornering grip, fuel consumption, durability, hydroplaning and internal noise. To go a step further, Goodyear allows third parties to test their tires who, we may as well add, are always able to confirm the internal results.
Overall, Goodyear tires are some of the most durable and long-living tires on the market. Whatever model you choose, it’s pretty much guaranteed to serve you for years to come.
Innovative Tire Technologies
To keep up with the demands of the market, Goodyear incorporates several impressive technologies into their tire designs that allow them to provide superior performance in different road and weather conditions. For instance, Goodyear’s tire tech called SoundComfort reduces interior vehicle noise by a whopping 50% by attaching foam ring to the inner surface of the tire. DuPont Kevlar on the other hand, provides exceptional toughness and ensures the tire remains stable on all surfaces. RunOnFlat, another tire tech, helps keep you on the road even after a blowout.
On their website, the company writes that their engineers are at the cutting edge of innovation, and not only in rubber and polymer science, but also in computing, mathematics and physics.
Design Features
Goodyear has been developing tires for over a century, so it’s not a surprise they’re able to continually produce quality products. Their models deliver good to outstanding overall performance, including highly responsive braking and cornering no matter the road. Most of their tires are also very comfortable too, producing little to no noise even after they’ve been countless times around the block. But when it comes to Goodyear’s most important design features, or things to keep in mind when making purchasing decisions, they’re durability and stability, first and foremost.
- Durability and stability: high-quality materials and exceptional design ideas make Goodyear tires one of the most durable tires around. Using basic and advanced tire technologies, including DuPont Kevlar, Patented 3D- Block Interlocking System and Silent Armor technology, Goodyear makes their tires practically resistant to punctures and instability. Overall, these tires deliver superior stability and safety, with even tread wear that normally lasts a very long time.
- Handling: with excellent stability comes excellent handling. Using technologies such as EfficientGrip, SmartTred and ActiveBraking and ActiveCornerGrip, Goodyear ensures their tires provide solid handling and traction, no matter the road or weather situation.
- Ride Comfort: pretty much all Goodyear models deliver comfortable and quiet rides. How? By making use of innovative features and unique tire designs, including SoundComfort technology and asymmetric designs. A number of their tires also have Resonance Noise Attenuated silencer grooves in their tread design which not only reduces road noise but also shocks and vibrations, resulting in smoother driving.
Sources:
- Goodyear Tire Reviews, Tires Views and More