Page 8 of 8 FirstFirst ... 678
Results 71 to 74 of 74

Thread: Real skinny tires...

  1. #71
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    SW, WI
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    7,402
    Thanks
    594
    Thanked 2,688 Times in 2,106 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by 7milesout View Post
    That's an interesting thought, I never considered. Maybe I don't consider it my primary vehicle either. Maybe I consider my LS 460 as my primary vehicle, and that's why I baby it and keep it in the garage most of the time. Hmmmmm...
    I really like my Mirage. It does everything I expect of it. When I leave the yard with it, I have no concerns. It's a rock solid dependable little car. Even though more than 80% of my yearly mileage goes on my Mirage each year - If I had to go back to one vehicle, the Mirage is gone.



  2. #72
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    SW, WI
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    7,402
    Thanks
    594
    Thanked 2,688 Times in 2,106 Posts
    This thread got off topic like most. I am as guilty of that as anyone! I like wherever the discussions go.

    Back to tires - I want to make a distinction between these two tires -

    165/65r14 Falken Sincera SN250A A/S (320BB/no warranty) - $86/tire @ Discount Tire

    &

    175/65r14 Falken Sincera SN250 A/S (720AB/80,000 mile warranty) - $81/tire @ Discount Tire

    When Top Fuel first noticed the change from Dunlop to Falken for the 2021 Mirage, my initial reaction was super positive. I thought "WOW" that's a great tire upgrade, until I looked at things closely.

    For a long time, Discount Tire listed a 165/65r14 Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tire on their website. I contacted customer service via email several times about this. A 165/65r14 Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tire does not exist in North America. Every couple weeks I would email them & tell them this. Eventually, I asked them to provide me a photo of the tire that doesn't exist. If I lived near a Discount Tire, I would have ordered one & made a scene. The nearest tire in stock was in Minnesota. That was a long way for me to drive just to make a scene & drive home.

    After about the 5th or 6th email, Discount Tires response to me was "we are taking this tire off our website". My request by the way was - please add an "A" to the SN250. A Sincera SN250A A/S is not the same tire as the Sincera SN250 A/S. They refused to do what I was asking even though the tire was listed as a 320BB tire on their site. Even today if you read their tire description of the 165/65r14 Falken, it is still wrong. They refer to this tire being a 75,000 mile tire, but it's not a tire that even comes with a warranty.

    A 165/65r14 Falken Sincera SN250A A/S is the result of a great tire made to a lower standard for a company like Mitsubishi. I have no clue why this 320BB tire with no warranty is priced higher than a 720AB/80,000 mile tire in a slightly different size. I think the same thing has been done with some other sizes for other vehicle brands, too. An "A" is added to the name, & the quality associated with the tire goes out the window.

    A cheaper Falken made tire is about $100 less per tire over a Dunlop Enasave. If you think Mitsubishi made this change to upgrade tires, I highly doubt it. A set of these inferior 165/65r14 Falken tires may be saving them $400 per set for a new Mirage.

    Go to the Falken tire site and try to find these cheaply made tires -

    https://www.falkentire.com/

    You are not going to find them on their site. Falken doesn't even list one 165 wide tire on their entire site, yet Discount Tire, Walmart, Tire Rack, etc.. all have these tires for sale. Tire Rack wants $103+/tire for these pieces of crap! At least Tire Rack is more honest than Discount Tire, because they don't mention a 75,000 mile warranty that really doesn't exist.

    At the same time, you can go to Tire Rack & buy the real 175/65r14 Falken Sincera SN250 A/S (720AB/80,000 mile warranty) tire for $81/tire!!!!!

    So why do I even care? For years, I have been suggesting guys explore 175/65r14 tire options if they are not happy with their 165/65r14 choices. For a long time, some affordable options existed.

    I will use Dirk as my primary example. Dirk bought a set of 175/65r14 Barum tires for his first Mirage. I think he paid about $38/tire @ Discount Tire. I was buying the Federal SS657 for $40/tire around that time. Dirk liked the tires enough to buy a 2nd pair I believe for his wife's G4. He was also upgrading to nice 14" alloy wheels at the time. Actually, I think the woman was so impressed she finally married Dirk after all that! Well, I may be stretching the story some, but she did marry the guy!

    My point is those $38-40 decent tires don't exist any more. Everything has gone up, but that also makes the 175/65r14 Falken Sincera SN250 A/S (720AB/80,000 mile warranty) probably one of the best tire values out there for a Mirage with 14" rims.

    Discount Tire ticked me off behind the scene. When they brought the tire back, they got the name right at least. I share all this, because I don't want someone spending their money on an inferior Falken tire when a much better one can be had for less money. End of story!
    Last edited by Mark; 01-20-2023 at 04:19 AM.

  3. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Mark For This Useful Post:

    BigMW (01-20-2023),Fummins (01-20-2023)

  4. #73
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Location
    Atlanta Metro
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    3,523
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 1,389 Times in 1,007 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark View Post
    A set of these inferior 165/65r14 Falken tires may be saving them $400 per set for a new Mirage.
    OK, after this whole thread, I question: Is Basic the tire expert? Or is Mark? I'll take Basic for design related issues, and I'll take Mark for marketing related issues.


    As for the quote above, let me state my opinion ... it is: NFW! Now, I'm going to agree there was a cost down associated with switching tires. And as related to automotive, maybe a substantial one. But nowhere near $100 per tire. The reason I say that is, an OEM like Mitsubishi would be buying Enasaves and Sinceras for PEANUTS compared to what we pay for them. And at the peanut level, the differences are much smaller. Yet substantial for OEMs. But $100 per tire ... on a Mirage? The engineer who could manage to make that VAVE would be vaulted to the highest mountain, bowed to with head to knees, be given his choice of haram, made a statue of and would have been put on the Board of Directors.

    I'll add a guess. If I were to guess at approximately how many U.S. $s it take Mitsubishi to actually manufacture a nominal Mirage, I would have to guess between $2,500 and $3,000. So you can see how $400 per vehicle would be monumental / proposterous. That's just the cost to the end of the assembly line. There's a whole host of hogs that have their heads in the trough after that, and they all must be fed too.

    When I was a design engineer for Toyota, the word on the street (the talk in engineering) was that Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) made about $500 per Camry in pure profit. That's just profit, that's after all the hogs have been slopped and TMC takes the $ to the bank. Sounds wrong doesn't it? But multiply $500 times 350,000 Camrys. That's $175 MEEEEELLION ... in just profit. On one friggin car, just in the U.S.A. In just 1 friggin year. And multiply that times all the other cars they make. The other talk in the industry was that Toyota had enough cash reserves to buy all 3 U.S. automakers with cash to spare, but would never make such a poor investment.
    Last edited by 7milesout; 01-20-2023 at 01:00 PM.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2020 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.4 mpg (US) ... 18.0 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.9 mpg (Imp)


  5. #74
    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Niagara region
    Country
    Canada
    Posts
    2,453
    Thanks
    55
    Thanked 541 Times in 433 Posts
    What's important to consider is this, if a Mirage costs about $3k to make, and I heard talk of total car costs when I was an engineer at Ford, the difference between say a Fairmont and a loaded Thunderbird (my era there) in manufacturing costs might have been $500 but we're talking say, a $2500 MSRP car vs. a $7500 MSRP car. I recall an issue with IIRC Borg-Warner compressors going out suddenly and Ford charged $103 to the dealer for a new unit, but Borg was only on the hook to Ford for $10 and change for each unit that failed. That was the day I realized that Fomoco made more money the more defects in the products supplied by subcontractors.

    Oops. Off topic. Anyhow, these $50k Broncos, $75K F150, $100K Navigators only cost a fraction of MSRP to produce. Ford is the first of what I expect to be all the domestic manufacturers to axe all cars. Since the first T rolled off the line it was expected carmakers would always have an affordable option for the lower tier of society. Ford said screw it, let the poor walk. Chrysler and GM have all but announced they will follow the same path. No more Spark, no small Chrysler offering since the Neon. No more Festiva. Carmakers who serve parts of the world where people aren't flush with cash still must make affordable economy cars. But watch them. Once their sales consist primarily of upscale marquees they will drop their econoboxes quietly.


    Zero, 2014 ES Plus 5MT, written off but not forgotten.
    Zero II, 2014 SE, 5MT, climate She's HOME now!
    Shelby AKA "Cute", 2017 ES 5MT, A/C.

    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
    We're driving the Beetle of the 21st century, the greatest small car now available!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


  6. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Wallythacker For This Useful Post:

    Fummins (01-20-2023),inuvik (01-20-2023)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •