I just returned from the Goodyear store with four new tires on my car. Goodyear has an in-house brand, Dark Horse, which makes tires the same way with the same materials and standards. The only difference is that the tires do not carry the Goodyear brand name. This saved me $70. The bill, with the new tires, installation, balancing and new stems, after labor and tax came out to $299.82.

The salesman from the store offered me two different kinds of tires fro my car. One was Goodyear Integrity, which are supposed to last for about 75,000 miles. The second kind was the Dark Horse brand, those are supposed to last for only 55,000 miles. He said that they are made with more steel in the rubber compound, thus having much better traction on the road. I picked the second kind, of course. I would rather sacrifice the mileage for the traction. Knowing how much time I spend on the road and the conditions in which I do not mind driving in, more traction appealed greatly to me. I might go out driving latter today just to test how well the tires grip to the road. 🙂