[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by //M

A lot of vintage cars have Firestone tyres. The 1937 RR Phantom III from the Poonawalla garage in Pune is one example. A silver Jaguar XK120 from Pune/Mumbai also has Firestone tyres. I have seen a few more classic cars with Firestone tyres, can't recollect the models now.

Were Firestone tyres easily available in India before Bridgestone introduced the brand here last year?

Firestones were easily available in India till mid 1980s. I guess they shut shop after Bridgestone bought the brand.

Regards,
Shashi

[sandeepmdas]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Firestones were easily available in India till mid 1980s.

Absolutely. Firestone, Dunlop, Vikrant and India Super are four brands that were relatively well-received in the '70s. My late father was a tyre dealer and he had all these brands (except Dunlop) along with MRF, Good Year, CEAT and two Kerala-based "local brands" - Premier and yes!....Apollo .

[Paleo]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

Absolutely. Firestone, Dunlop, Vikrant and India Super are four brands that were relatively well-received in the '70s. My late father was a tyre dealer and he had all these brands (except Dunlop) along with MRF, Good Year, CEAT and two Kerala-based "local brands" - Premier and yes!....Apollo .

And Premier was acquired by Apollo a decade or more ago; still runs two facilities in central Kerala (as Apollo now)

[avi550m]

Any BHPians using the FR500's? They seem to be a budget alternative to MRF's/Ceat/JK's. Was trye shopping for my A-Star. the FR500's are a good 400 cheaper per tyre than the Yokohama Earth-1/Ecopia EP150/Apollo Amazer 4G. If it is not as hard as the MRF's/Ceat's I might get it.

[ScorpMan]

Just replaced OEM Goodyear's on my 2012 Jazz to 185/65 FR500. Got them for 4350 per tyre. Have hardly done 100kms, so too early to say about the performance. I have always been a die hard Bridgestone Turanza fan, but sadly couldn't get them anywhere. But these Firestone's seem to be much better than other budget brands.

[SJM1214]

Originally Posted by smekad

I think the title should say "relaunched"

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Firestone is an old brand (historic)

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Firestones were easily available in India till mid 1980s.

Yes! The title should be relaunched. Found this advertisement of Firestone Tyres in a 1961 Gujarati magazine.

[KVNair]

Replaced four of my Swift ZXI stock MRF tyres after 35000 kms with Firestone FR 500 tyres of the same stock size 18565R15. Did a longish trip after the replacement from Bangalore to Allapuzha, and back. The tyres have good grip and braking seems to have improved, and no squealing sounds around corners at speed unlike the original MRFs. Did not notice any improvements in tyre noise on the highway compared to MRFs and ride quality was more or less the same. These tyres were much cheaper than Bridgestone tyres, and come with 2 years unconditional warranty. I think these tyres are better than the stock MRFs and will serve me well for next 35000 odd kms.

[jetsetgo08]

Any more short reviews of how these tyres are in comparison to B290 or budget Indian tyres like Apollo, Ceat etc. ?

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by jetsetgo08

Any more short reviews of how these tyres are in comparison to B290 or budget Indian tyres like Apollo, Ceat etc. ?

Firestone used to be a household name in the 1970’s. Our old Fiats and Ambassadors had Firestone Shoes for years and years!
It’s a good old brand. Nice to see it being revived.
I wish they would revive the old Dunlop 2001 Radials too - those were excellent tyres as I remember them.