I found this little tidbit concerning Dunlop on Wikipedia:


I was under the impression that Dunlop tires were now made in Japan, but that may or not be the case. It's likely that Dunlops in the US and Europe are re-badged Goodyears, at least that's how I read it.

 

Actually... The "brand" world is littered with "contract manufacturing" deals.... It is very prevalent in the automotive business... Go to the country of origin for a particular brand/style of tire and a lot of times you will see that they are made all over the place. The "manufacturer" in a lot of cases is just the designer who then sends a set of specs to a factory that spits out the final product...

It is in my business as well.... We actually have a quite a few suppliers that are also customers... Using any excess manufacturing capacity to build harnesses... They actually buy their own parts back from us... It's just nuts how it all works today. Just like the cars themselves.

 

Mike,

Many of the major tire manufacturers build their tires in plants all over the world. As long as the specs are rigorously adhered to, one would think that a tire built in Mexico or Spain or Japan or Buzzard Breath, Oklahoma would all be the same from a quality and longevity standpoint. But like many other skilled trades, there's as much "art" to building tires as there is science. Some tirebuilders are master craftsmen, while others have been working on the production line for less than a month. This comes from a guy I know who built tires for Firestone here in North Carolina for nearly 20 years before he made his fortune in the stock market and walked away from the manufacturing world....

I've been told that even though Goodyear has owned Dunlop for a number of years, they have not meddled with the Dunlop product line or R&D and continue to run Dunlop separately. I have no idea how accurate that is, but I do know that I have been pleased with the Dunlops I've owned and disappointed with the Goodyears I've owned during the past 10 to 12 years....

 

Things get really murky when you have certain brands made under license. As an example you might see an off-brand tire that is made by a name-brand manufacturer. While both the off-brand tire and the name-brand tire will have the same design and performance, the off-brand will typically sell at about half the name-brand tire.

 

I do as much or more research on the tires that I purchase as I do on the vehicles that I purchase. I believe that tires are the most important component on any vehicle. There are instances where your tires may be the deciding factor as to whether you and your passengers live or die, especially during inclement weather....

 

I very rarely see a bad review on these tires and I couldn't ever figure out why they were so cheap. I finally gave in to give them a try on my GTO as they look like they could be the best deal in tires. If I have a good experience with them, they'll be on the S-Type when it is due for new tread.

 

A newer tire out there that is worth a look by all is the NITTO INVO. It is the "hot" tire recommended by Corvette Club of America members, so I put a set on my '05 STR and have been very impressed with them.

Because of their unique design they can be rotated and so far have been extremely impressive. They grip extremely well in the corners and are hard to break loose even with the STR. The wet grip is amazing and noise level would probably be described as average.