Mazama and Sumitomo tires

I hate the upsell games the Firestone shops practice around here. Its disgusting to over hear the slimy BS they pull on women especially. I've been going to Discount Tire some when traveling, but I prefer my local independent shop. I find I get better service from the Mom and Pop place and the prices are fine, they can get whatever brand strikes my interest. They sell lots of Cooper and Mastercraft tires and lots of cheap foreign stuff you never heard of! I've had a number of Coopers on my stuff and they have preformed well, I have Coopers on the CRV now. The MaterCraft LTR's have been good on my 4x4 Dodge Ram.

Indeed. I've spent a lot of time defending LS over the years, but I can't anymore. I will say that in my experience their service has always been great and I've never had any issues with any of their products either.

I'm not sure when it changed at our local store, but they constantly try to upsell unnecessary service or items. There are specific services I'll go there for, but I won't tire shop there. I've often wondered about their high priced second tier tires.

Garry&Gayle wrote:
They have not split from Toyo, my local Schwab dealer is currently going to order me a set of Open Country at 3s they are on backorder. I had the open countries put on in a hurry up affair while on vacation and I'm trading them in on there 60 days trade off, they are under rated for my application and don't seem as stable towing as my old Toyos.

So you had Toyos (whatever model), you got new Toyos, Open Country's you said, and you're "trading" them on new again Open Country's because you cheeped out and got the light duty models for your half ton and not the LT tires?
What did I miss?

Yes they have split from Toyo. Doesn't mean they can't order them. They could order a Goodyear or a Michelin or whatever if you wanted as well. Funny you mention that, because I just checked quick-see, they actually show a Toyo RT in one size locally (probably left over stock, since Toyo RT's are not great tires) and they don't mention the brand name, just like their marketing team has removed the brand names from the now 2nd tier tires they actually carry.

Of which they have priced somewhere between the same as the most expensive brand name tires you can get and considerably higher than the rest of the excellent brand name tires you can get.

They've gone the way of the other actual brand name tire shops like Goodyear and Firestone, with exorbitant prices and shameless up-sells ("required" up-sells in some cases, like brakes).

Bottom line, anyone who shops at Schwabs anymore, either is unaware of their overcharging tactics or literally has money to burn.

At least they are still good about free flat fixes and re-balancing, although on average if a person has 1 flat and 1 intermediate balance in the life of a tire, it's still worth nowhere near the upcharge cost.

They have not split from Toyo, my local Schwab dealer is currently going to order me a set of Open Country at 3s they are on backorder. I had the open countries put on in a hurry up affair while on vacation and I'm trading them in on there 60 days trade off, they are under rated for my application and don't seem as stable towing as my old Toyos.

I didn't realize they split with Toyo. I've always thought Toyos were really good tires but pretty overpriced at least from Les Schwab. Of course everything is pretty overpriced from Les Schwab. They are useful when you need something and you're stuck in a small town, though.

I've been happy with Discount Tire for the last several years.

We’ve got some open road ATs kicking on some trucks. No personal experience but they seem round, black and appear to hold air.
Last tires I priced at Schwabs last fall, of course they didn’t have Toyos anymore which was what I was after. Quoted me the Mazatlans or the Open Range or whatever it was and they were $10 more than Toyo AT3s and almost $100 more a tire than Nitto Terra G2 from Best Tire, whom was about the same as online.

But mostly I wouldn’t spend my money at Schwabs anymore unless I had a gun to my head or it was a 2am loader tire repair. They’ve gone from premium prices to rip off, IMO.
Fwiw I’ve had great service and decent prices from Best tire the last couple years. Covington store anyway.