Goodyear to close 92 US stores...

Roccland · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 16, 2007 Posts: 1156

That's gonna hurt...how they gonna pay their HELOCs back without a JOB?
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DoomWarrior · Heavy Crude Joined: May 06, 2008 Posts: 195

"In the current economic condition, people are driving less and it obviously affects every facet of the U.S. auto industry, including how often they replace tires or buy new cars"

D'ya think?

pedalling_faster · Intermediate Crude Joined: Dec 10, 2005 Posts: 727

It's my fault. I need new tires for my F150 & I've been procrastinating.
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Roccland · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 16, 2007 Posts: 1156

americandream

pup55 · Expert Joined: May 26, 2004 Posts: 3542

For every 1 billion vehicle miles "not driven" there are 100,000 fewer tires sold (at a tire life of 40,000 miles and 4 tires per vehicle) and there are 200,000 fewer oil changes (at 5000 miles per oil change).

For that matter, at 140,000 miles per vehicle there are actually 7,000 fewer cars being "consumed".

DOT

So at 10 billion fewer miles per month, since May (which the DOT says is what's happening), that's 3 million tires, 6 million oil changes, and 4.2 million cars still on the road that would normally have to be replaced somehow.

This conservation stuff is tough, if you are in the automotive industry. No wonder the administration resisted it so long.

Roy

OT mostly....

Where I used to live, we had a rent-to-own rim shop where you could either lease or rent to own your dubz. And they were usually very busy.

What a concept!!!

Ridin' on 20's... And the really outrageous ones would have the rim size in little stickers on the side of the cars, like "24's". I saw that quite a bit in Baton Rouge, and I see it when I pass through Atlanta.

Very interesting. Being a car loving gear head for most of my life I was always fascinated by different folks' ideas of what a custom car should be. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Usually the biggest rims would be mounted on beater mid-80's model Chevy Caprices and Olds Cutlasses, clearly costing much more than the car.

The other dark secret about those huge expensive rims is their weight. When you see an Escalade with 22's on it, you can feel comforted to know that those rim/tires can weigh as much as 100 lbs each, and are destroying the suspensions and wheel bearings on the vehicles.

What an idiotic fashion statement!

frankthetank

There is a local kid who maybe back in 2002 or so might have been cool with his 2001 Tahoe and big spinners, but now when i see him i laugh. Big pile of junk with rust starting to show through. Probably eeks out about 12mpg... Probably spends his whole Taco Bell paycheck on gasoline...

I feel that as we head forward, people will put off fixing vehicles and even basics, like oil changes. I have a feeling that 3000 mile oil change will turn into 10000 and so on. More people will be driving on banana peels, because a set of tires isn't cheap. Insurance will also go unpaid.
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IndigoMoon

The stores that are being closed are underperforming. It looks to me like they are trimming the excess weight.

Goodyear reported a Q2 profit of $75 million or 31 cents per share, higher than $56 million or 26 cents per share in the 2007 second quarter. LINK

They are also building a new $900 million project that includes a new Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. headquarters and revitalizing the surrounding neighborhood in Akron, Ohio. LINK
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Roccland · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 16, 2007 Posts: 1156

IndigoMoon

MarkJ · Heavy Crude Joined: Mar 25, 2008 Posts: 136

Goodyear, Cooper, Bridgestone, Firestone, Kumho, Pirelli and others are raising tire prices about 10 percent this fall.

The guys that lease my auto garage said tires sales and auto repairs are up since more people are keeping their vehicles, but more people than ever are complaining about tire prices, labor prices, parts prices, parts markup etc.

We have a big winter tire market locally which boosts tire sales. If they don't buy new tires, the tow services, body shops, auto repair garages and salvage yards get more business.

mommy22 · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 22, 2005 Posts: 262

My husband actually works at the headquarters in Akron (Indigo...where do you live?). He has said for the last several years that auto tire sales all around have been down. People are riding around on bald tires way longer than they should...it's actually going to start becoming a serious safety issue.