Most manufacturers of everything also make products for other brands. Manufacturing is expensive, so it's in the interest of many companies not to own their own plants, and it's in the interests of the plants to keep the production lines busy and profitable. <br><br>For example, I was doing a video shoot at a plant that made riding mowers. There were three lines with three different -- and competing -- brands. Many of the parts were identical, coming either from elsewhere in the factory or from the same suppliers. For example, there was a stack of batteries between two of the assembly lines. the same batteries were going into different brands of mowers, but they stuck DieHard labels on the ones going into Craftsman mowers. I used to laugh when someone would say Brand A was better than Brand B. Dude, they're made on the same assembly line in Alabama.<br><br>But sometimes the material and process specs will be slightly different. The company that's putting their name on it might be trying to reach a different price point.<br><br>In the tire world, Michelin owns BFGoodrich. They have a plant near here where they make both brands. But the two brands are aiming at different market segments, so the tire specs are tweaked this way and that to fit their needs. Is BFG better than Michelin? Is Michelin better than BFG? They're the same company. Is BFG tire A better than Michelin Tire B? Ah, that's where specs and intended use are important.<br><br>Bridgestone owns Firestone. Same story. Goodyear owns Dunlop. <br><br>There are more tire brands than tire factories. Store brands are made by one of the big companies -- with different specs, the same specs, different features, same features, different compounds, same compounds... It depends on what they're trying to accomplish in the market. The expensive brands aren't always the best and the cheap brands aren't always the worst, though the chances of a cheap tire being as good as an expensive tire are very slim. A cheap tire might be as good as one that costs a little more and an expensive tire might not be as good as one that costs a little less.<br><br>So I second going to TireRack.com and looking at all your options. Decide what's most important to you. High mileage? Low price? High fuel economy? Low noise? Maximum durability? High load capacity? High traction? Offroad capability?... You probably won't get everything you want, because some things are contradictory. There are also customer reviews that might help you sort things out.<br><br>You don't need to buy from Tire Rack, but they're a great resource.
