Guess the Top Ten Tire Makers in America!

Ferrari 360

Your tires have a lot to do with how your car rides, how it handles, and what kind of mileage you get. Even more than that, your tires are the only four spots that (normally!) connect you and your car to the Earth, so they are critical to driving your car safely. Now don’t turn that around on me and ask if your car doesn’t have four tires if it will lose contact with Earth and float off into space. This is a car blog, not “Stump the Theoretical Physicists like Dr. Sheldon Cooper on the Big Bang Theory, CBS Thursdays.” If there’s one place that NMS doesn’t want to go cheap, it’s on tires and safety.

Hot Rod

So let’s just play a game! Who are the top ten automotive and tire makers in the US? This is really a trick question, because some of the companies in this top ten (as judged by sales) don’t make tires, they make other automotive parts out of plastics and rubber. So this quiz will be easy, right?

 

BMW i3 electric car wheel

Hey, who said life is fair? We played this game with guessing the top ten car makers in the world once, so let’s make it more challenging with tire, rubber, and plastics companies. What’s also tough about this is that most of these companies make more than one brand of tire, so it’s just about impossible to guess correctly.

Ford Mustang

Regardless, thanks to our friends at Rubber and Plastics News Rubbernews.com LINK

here’s the top ten, ranked from top selling in 2015, from 1-10. If you are a super auto geek you can even subscribe to the Rubber and Plastics News, which is one way we find out interesting things like this. Who knew that reading was fun and educational?

·      1-Bridgestone

·      2-Michelin

·      3-Goodyear

·      4-Continental

·      5-Cooper Tire & Rubber

·      6-Cooper Standard Automotive

·      7-Toyo

·      8-Yokohama

·      9- Gates

·     10- Parker-Hannifin

Right about now, if you’re still there and reading this informative blog, you’re probably wondering who in the world is Gates and Parker-Hannifin. If so, today is your lucky day, because we had to Google it ourselves!

 

NMS FIAT Abarth stock wheel

Gates doesn’t make tires, but they make a lot of other automotive and industrial rubber products for manufacturers and the after-market. According to the company website: “Gates Corporation is the world’s leading manufacturer of power transmission belts and a premier global manufacturer of fluid power products.”

 

NMS FIAT Abarth Ciao Milano wheels

Parker-Hannifin’s website states: “Founded in 1917, Parker Hannifin Corporation is a global company with annual sales of approximately $13 billion in fiscal year 2015. Parker Hannifin is the world's leading diversified manufacturer of motion and control technologies and systems, providing precision-engineered solutions for a wide variety of mobile, industrial and aerospace markets.”

So they don’t make tires, but they make stuff with plastics and rubber. Glad we could clear that up! Bottom line: drive safe, keep those tires inflated, and replace worn and dangerous tires.

 

BMW