The Wall Street Journal [sub] reports that Cooper Tires is (once again) in big trouble. Sales are down, costs are up, and the recalls just keep on coming. There's no way Cooper can continue as an independent tire company. The market is saturated with well-funded, technology-rich competitors with big brand names and major automaker OEM contracts. Cooper is a throwback from the golden era of US tire makers as the budget-priced, small-dealer-supported alternative to major brands. Other than Goodyear, all the rest of the US tire companies went bust and/or sold out to the Japanese and Europeans. Most tires today are sold in big chain stores, be they Wal-Mart or America's Tire… and Cooper isn't there. Kumho and Hankook of Korea have swooped in to take the bargain tire business while the likes of Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Pirelli, Dunlop (Sumitomo), Yokohama and Continental fight it out for market and mind share. Look for Cooper's joint ventures in China to turn around and swallow the company and the Cooper name to become another old American brand slapped on a Chinese product, like a Westinghouse toaster.
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That is too bad, as I am looking at Cooper ST’s or STT’s for my Jeep TJ later this year.
Cooper makes a decent tire at a decent price. I’m hoping to buy a set of H/Ts to replace the Long Trail T/As on my wife’s Jeep Grand Cherokee.
My mother has a set of Coopers on her Toyota Avalon, and they are at least as nice as the Mega-Buck Michelins they replaced. She saved $400 by going with the Coopers.
I hate seeing companies that make good products have difficulties.
Its funny that Edward mentioned it, I switched to Kumhos (after a poor experience with Cooper Cobras) and find the brand to be significantly better than its price tag implies. Overall, from race to touring rubber, I think they are just as good as the more expensive Goodyears.
Another proud American company being overrun by cheap foreign imports.
Apparently we are content to no longer manufacture anything of value, but will become a nation of expert fianciers (oh wait, the Bear Sterns bailout and credit crisis shows we are just as shallow and greedy about that too)
The company is called “Kumhos”? Don’t you think they should change the name of their company in this country, lest Don Imus get kicked off the air again?
“Kumho.” Singular.
I have ’em on my FWD sedan. I think they haven’t got their quality control down yet — in my nearly new set of 4, one had a bubble and another shows signs of developing one. Lots of visible bands radiating out from the center, as if they can’t keep their sidewall-cord tension constant in the manufacturing process.
That rather large caveat aside, they perform just as well wet or dry as the Tripletreds and X-Ones for about 60% of the price. Hard to argue with that.
Maybe Cereberus would be interested in another company…
OK that was just mean, wasn’t it?
Mohawk used to compete with Cooper, now they’re swallowed up by a global entity (though still “out there” in the marketplace).
Seriously, perhaps Ford Motor Company could send a contract to Cooper for OEM tires, keeping a fellow American company afloat.
Goodness knows, their relationship with Firestone (which is owned by Bridgestone now, anyway) is permanently fractured.
Profit was down, but it was greater than zero, at $1.69 million, so they aren’t as near death as Horner implies (although somebody could buy them out at any time). In any case, the weak dollar should help them and any other company that still makes stuff in the United States.
Dunlop is now owned by Goodyear.
I’m going to buy Cooper tires for my car when I need tires. They are an ideal for all American consumers. An American product made by Americans sold by local businesses.
I’m not sure how my father got talked into putting Coopers on his motorhome…perhaps because of money (it came with Michelins), but he did.
2 of the 6 very new (less than 6 months old) Cooper tires separated on my parent’s motorhome, causing thousands of dollars in damage each time. Turns out they were well aware of the inferior tires they were selling and were quietly writing checks to people who inquired, but weren’t doing much else until threat of a class action suit.
My father went back to the more expensive Michelins, and has had troublefree operation from the last two sets.
I personally spoke with the weasels at Cooper HQ, and I’d be happy to see them go under.
I hope they pull through. Cooper is my favorite tire brand.
Had a set of coopers that lost their confidence in the rain before they were 20,000 miles old. Technology costs money, and the competition doesnt share. After good experience with yokohama I put a set of kuhmo solus 21’s on new 18’s on my colorado. So far very good for $56 apiece.
Wow, blautens, sounds like Cooper ARE perfect for Ford…
Anything with ho in it, I will pass on,
i’m one of those who believe your tires are the most important safety feature on your car. saving a few bucks on tires is like buying cheap seat belts, but even worse. i’ve never had a problem with michelins, and just a week ago put a set of goodyear asymmetrics on my car; it’s early but the ride quality is great and handling on my favorite curves is at least as good as the PS2s that were replaced. you get what you pay for.
“Its funny that Edward mentioned it, I switched to Kumhos”
Uh, I don’t see any Edward on this thread :).
“Dunlop is now owned by Goodyear.”
Uh, sort of. Goodyear bought 75% of Dunlop from Sumitomo and Sumitomo and Goodyear bought shares in each other. The two companies are tied up in an alliance about as complicated as the Nissan/Renault deal. But your point is valid, I shouldn’t have listed Dunlop as an independent company.
John Horner aka jthorner
Coopers came with my wife’s 90 Maxima. They were a constant problem. Replaced them with Michelins and never had any more complaints. SInce then, I have purchased only Michelins or Bridgestones. Life is to short to take a chance with defective tires.
hltguy :
May 9th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
The company is called “Kumhos”? Don’t you think they should change the name of their company in this country, lest Don Imus get kicked off the air again?
I suspect you don’t know how it’s pronounced. It’s a bit embarrassing to look at, but the pronunciation isn’t so bad.
Kumho = “koom-o”
taxman100 :
May 9th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Another proud American company being overrun by cheap foreign imports.
Apparently we are content to no longer manufacture anything of value, but will become a nation of expert fianciers (oh wait, the Bear Sterns bailout and credit crisis shows we are just as shallow and greedy about that too)
I suppose I understand your sentiment, but if they make an inferior product to the competition and/or don’t charge considerably less, they aren’t going to sell. Consumers are not stupid.
It’s obvious, if sales are down compared to the competition, that they don’t have a leading edge in an area that matters, and my wallet isn’t a charity organization.
jthorner- good explanation. I didn’t know it was so involved. I figured GoodYear just bought the Dunlop name outright.
The problem with Michelins is that they are generally 20-40% more expensive than other brands with no apparent increase in performance/quality.
Some people will buy a lower performance Michelin just to get the brand.
I like Kelly Tires as replacement tires. I think they too are owned by Goodyear, but they have always held up well for me.
Indeed, Kelly-Springfield is one of Goodyear’s bargain brands, playing a similar role to that which Dayton does for Bridgestone/Firestone.
In a recent very comprehensive test of tires on an S-class Mercedes, auto,motor und sport gave the overall win to a Hankook over all the expensive European brands (Michelin, Bridgestone, Conti, Goodyear, Fulda). The Hankook cost 69% of the most expensive tire, Michelin, which came in second from last. The Kumho came in third from last, just ahead of the Michelin.
Kumho and Hankook are doing a great job at bang-for-the-buck which is part of why I say that the market really doesn’t have a niche left open for Cooper to play. Historically Cooper tires have been like many GM products: “competitive in their class”, but rarely have Coopers been first rate performers at a great price. All a matter of personal opinion, of course.
Looking through user reviews at TireRack.com it seems like the Koreans may not be up to Michelin level quality control consistency yet, but their customer complaint rates don’t seem any worse than for other respected brands like Pirelli and Continental.
My ’03 Odyssey came with brand new Cooper all-seasons. We replaced them with winter tires (Viking Snowtech) for that 1st winter since we didn’t believe them to be even mildly adequate for snowy weather. The Nokian i3’s that the Ody runs on in the summer outperform the Coopers in all respects.
Nokian is not a large brand, and their tires are fantastic. If Cooper can’t compete technologically, then that is a fault of their corporate strategy.
Kumho and Hankook get huge subs from their Government. Just wait till the Chinese get here. They will under cut the Koreans with super subs by their Communist Government.
The Chinese are guaranteed to succeed here due to Americans love of cheap sh*t.
“Nokian is not a large brand, and their tires are fantastic. If Cooper can’t compete technologically, then that is a fault of their corporate strategy.”
I work at a Cooper Plant and just wanted to say the we also manufacture Nokian, Mickey Thompson, MasterCraft, Dick Cepek, ProComp just to name a few. S
I work at a repair facility and find that we have excellent luck with Cooper tires and Cooper brands. We do a lot of Deltas and have very few issues with them, which our distributor is always happy to take care of. A local construction company will only put the Hercules Terra Tracs on their vehicles and my husband, a mechanic for over a decade, likes to ride with Mastercraft Coursers. While I also have had good luck with Bridgestones, I have been left extemely disappointed by Goodyears and Continentals. We actually had a third party inspector hired by after market vehicle warranty company that had done automotive tech work on the European race circuit tell us that Continentals were a terrible tire. He gave us accounts and technical jargon that has made us think twice about pushing them. We had some experience that coroborated his knowledge (and he was EXTREMELY knowledgeable about all things automotive!)You stick with what you know, and what is recommended to you. I give my customers the best information I can, using customer reviews, my experience, and my distributors knowledge and let the customers decide from there. I also encourage them to do their own research.
O yea those other companies are all high and mighty. I don’t think there is a 100% dependable tire built in the world, so I guess I’ll have to walk and get hit by one of them cars with Goodyears when the tread seperates from the tire.
–$12 million against Michelin tire tread separation.
–A product liability lawsuit has been filed against Goodyear, claiming that defective tires were responsible for a fatal auto accident, where the tire tread separated
–Bruce K. has pursued personal injury litigation against major domestic and foreign corporations on behalf of clients injured by defective products, including cases against Bridgestone, Firestone, Cooper Tire, Uniroyal, Goodyear, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mitsubishi, Michelin, BF Goodrich, Kelly-Springfield, General Tire, Denman Tire, Pirelli-Armstrong, Kumho, The Budd Company, Hayes Wheels and other manufacturers.
I purchased 4 Cooper Discoverer HT 265/70R16 at Tire Kingdom for my 2003 Ford F150 on June 10, 2010 The mileage on my truck was 121,850. I now have 150,881 miles and have less then 2/32nds left on my tires all of them, even wear on all of them. I took in my truck yesterday to Tire Kingdom Store #283 Greenville SC and they said that they could only compensate me for one tire. What does a 60,000 mile warranty mean when you only get less then 30,000 miles on the tires??? Then I send an email to Cooper and they tell me that only the dealer can fix this problem… Went to Discount Tire and bought Michelin Tires and know that they will stand behind them!
I bought a set of Cooper Trendsetter tires in an emergency situation. One tire gave me problems from day one with an intermittant leak. After about a year I discovered a microscopic pinhole in a seam of the tire. It was sent back to Cooper, by the dealer,where they proclaimed it as damage incurred after the tire was sold. Very poor customer relations. No more Cooper for me.