Having bought a spare set of wheels I now have a variety of tyres. Checking their manufacturer's codes has thrown up some interesting results:

 

The Nexen tyres were made by Nexen in South Korea

Laufenn (sub brand of Hankook) by Hankook in Indonesia. Similarly

Barum (sub brand of Continental) by Continental in Romania. But then...

Bridgestone - a major world manufacturer - by General Tire (sub brand of Continental) in USA and

Avon - that eternally British brand (OK, it's owner by Cooper's of USA) by Trayal who do not even produce own brand car tyres in Serbia

 

Makes you wonder.

I work in the tyre industry, these days the maunfacturer on the side of a tyre means nothing on 50% of tyres. Hankooks lower spec and off road tyres are Made by Petlas in Turkey. Oh and Bridgestone is owned by a Japanese company now, no longer USA. Also most low to middle spec Pirelli tyres are made by a Chinese company called Prometeon.

Edited 22 February, 20206 yr by Mexico75

On 22/02/2020 at 15:16, Mexico75 said:

Bridgestone is owned by a Japanese company now, no longer USA.

According to Wikipedia Bridgestone were established in 1931, in Japan.

1 hour ago, KenONeill said:

According to Wikipedia Bridgestone were established in 1931, in Japan.

 OK you got me there, I always thought they were a US company originally, they bought Firestone at some point and I thought Bridgestone was an amalgamation of two company names. 

I have always known them as being Japanese, the fact that people may think of them as American is probably due to their success in marketing and rebranding during the dark years when people would wrongly and ignorantly speak of jap crap.

 

They would do well to promote being Japanese, Toyo have a great reputation.

 

Agree with the comments about a brand name counting for nothing on budget items.

Perceived Premium Brand names on some tyres count for nothing. Continental & Pirelli have some shockingly bad tyres, and Bridgestone Duellers (Suzuki have handicapped AWD's for many years with these) can be total rubbish as VW Group brands fit as OEM to SUV type vehicles.

 

Budget they are not as in price if you replaced like for like, ditch finders they can be.