Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. This is my opinion, and I hope that I can influence those who read this into making smarter decisions, when it comes to the purchasing of tires for their own automobiles.

The point of this little site is to raise awareness of Firestone's inadequacies based on a little bit of history, as well as through my own personal experiences.

Avoid Firestone. Their tires are overpriced, and they have durability that can be compared to tires nearly half the price. Their service centers are apparently staffed by incompetant, incapable simpletons, who are either stupid, or spiteful, based on my experiences alone. Shop anywhere else, and might I suggest Discount Tire Direct?

In the late 70's, Firestone practically hit bottom, when they practically hit bankrupcy, due to a major tire issue. Minute amounts of weight could make or break what was back then, Firestone 500's tires. Granted, a lot of it had to do with Ford's shoddily made vehicles back then, but Firestone got thrown under the bus, and had plenty of involvement in the debacle to take the majority of the heat.

Firestone has since then clawed its way back up to prominence. But apparently, that hasn't completely hidden the fact that the company's products and services, absolutely stink.

My car's OEM tires are Firestone Firehawk GTAs, 195/55/16 size. At the time of my car's purchase, my car was the ONLY vehicle in North America to use that tire, and size. For the matter, Firestone was the ONLY tire manufacturer to make a tire of that particular size. And because of that, Firestone found it easily capable of charging whatever they liked for it, since the demand for them would be really low.

The first time I needed new tires, Firestone was selling them for $89 each. Not bad, and pretty reasonable, for above average performing tires. My car, at the time of writing this has 138,000 miles on it - I have done a lot of driving, and required new tires a few times now. Each time I went back for new tires, sequentially the price has increased each time. Soon, the Firestone Firehawks were $99 a pop. The next time I checked, they were $125 a pop. At this time, I realized the financial unfairness of the price-gauging, and switched tires. By tweaking the size to a 205/50/16, a new world of options opened up for my car. For the record, the last time I checked (May, 2005) the Firestone Firehawk GTA 195/55/16 size was up to $159 a tire. Since 2002, the price of the tires had increased nearly 100%. If that's not wrong, I don't know what is.

Early in 2003, while on a road trip, I hit a sinkhole pretty hard on Virginia's I-95. I didn't realize it until I reached my destination in North Carolina, but apparently that bump created a nasty bulge in my driver's side front tire. Seeing as how three of my four tires were getting pretty bald, I found this a good opportunity to just simply replace them, getting rid of the ailing tire. To Firestone's credit, they do have locations pretty much everywhere, and there were about three in the Raleigh/Cary North Carolina area. I called around to see if anyone had any tires in my size, and apparently, no one store had three new tires, but if I were willing to wait a day, one store could acquire three.

Firestone Service Center, in Cary, North Carolina, located in Crabtree Mall - This is where I ended up going to, to get my tire situation taken care of. I am a car person - I pay attention to all the little aspects of my car. I have a keen sense of when things are amiss as well; vibrations, rattles and dings. For a while, I was the guy that intentionally parked away from others so that the chances of dings were less. Those days are long gone, but I'm trying to prove a point here. Bottom line is that when I took my car into the Crabtree Firestone, the spoiler on my car was immaculate, and ding-free, and when I left the place, there were some pretty deep gauges and scratches on it.

Click the pictures to see enlarged

Now these scratches were in an area my rear-view mirror directly lines up with, so upon leaving the Crabtree Firestone, I couldn't help but notice these weird marks on my spoiler, it wasn't until I got out of my car and examined my spoiler did I realize that they were some pretty deep scratches.

Upon calling Crabtree Firestone to express my displeasure, naturally they took the defensive, and denied it completely. THERE WERE NO SCRATCHES PRIOR TO SERVICE, SCRATCHES WERE THERE AFTER THE SERVICE. It was as simple as that, but it ended up turning into my word against theirs.

Unfortunately, this had to be taken to a corporate level, which draws out any conflict. Resolution was found nearly eight months later when I was sent a $300 check as a "Goodwill settlement." This would basically cover the cost of a new spoiler (on like ebay), but I ended up keeping the cash. I could live with the scratches, that still exist on my spoiler today.

After the debacle of the Crabtree Firestone in Cary, North Carolina, I vowed never to go there again. Surely, this had to be a case of one bad location. With a corporation this large, surely, they cannot all be bad. Well, I was wrong.

Atlanta, Georgia, late-April 2005. I will not disclose the exact location of this Firestone, because I now live in Atlanta. Furthermore, if I create confusion in where not to go, perhaps people will just avoid all Firestones in the Atlanta area completely.

Quick summary - a local Atlanta-area Firestone Service Center took what was supposed to be a simple oil change and tire rotation and turned it into eight months of frequent correction trips, employee incompetence and belligerence, a blown tire, legal threats, and many hours of wasted time. All the full details can be found in link below. This incident has made me lose all confidence in Firestone as an entire company, and makes me likely to never go to a Firestone ever again. I would plead to anyone that I know to do the same, as there is no reason to go to Goodyear or Michelin instead of a Firestone. Just because the OEM tires of a vehicle are with a particular company, no matter what the size, there are bound to be tires that fit the same wheels elsewhere, even if it means tweaking the sizes a hair or two.

Read the actual letter I sent to Firestone!
PDF Format (with key names and numbers omitted, because I do not want to get sued)

Resolution - After turning down their 50% "Goodwill settlement," I received legal advice from a lawyer in my family, to get all the documentation I could about the situation, and write a letter describing the entire chain of events, and send it to Firestone, their Corporate Headquarters, Georgia's Congressman, the Atlanta Better Business Bureau, as well as to his law offices. Fortunately for myself, I knew what kind of mess I was getting into, and made sure to keep all documentation of money spent, phone calls made, and the names and times of the people I spoke with. I sent the letters off in June. At the time of my writing this, I had just recently received a reimbursement check in the mail for the precise amount I requested - the cost of the replacement tire and repairs, motel stay, tow truck, as well as the numerous cell phone charges I incurred as a result of being stranded in Greensboro, North Carolina at 3 in the morning.

Conclusion - large companies tend to think that they are invincible, and by drawing things out, people who try to get things back from them will just simply give up in time. I never gave up in trying to set things right, and granted it took a lot of time, but it was worth it to me. When something like this occurs, I cannot stress the importance of good documentation, like receipts, names and times of people spoken with. To Firestone, $411.58 is nothing but pocket change, but to me, it's kind of proof that they cannot bully me around.

So, I hope that anyone who's made it this far realizes now that Firestone absolutely sucks. Their products are no better than any other tire manufacturer, but their service is on par with a Kinko's or a convenience store clerk.

Drive safely, keep your tire pressure regulated, and do whatever it takes to keep your tires in good condition. Because shit like this is never worth it.