Are Goodyear Tires Good? An Honest Brand Review

Goodyear is one of the few tire names almost every American driver already knows, and that recognition cuts both ways. Some drivers assume the blimp and the racing contracts mean you are paying for the marketing. Others buy Goodyear on the badge alone and never ask what they got. Here is an honest look at what the brand actually delivers, where it earns its price, where it does not, and which Goodyear tires are worth buying today.

Disclosure: New American Tires Hub is an independent tire retailer. We sell the Goodyear tires discussed on this page and we make money when you buy from us. We are not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The views below are our own, and we say where the brand falls short as well as where it does well.

Who makes Goodyear tires?

Goodyear tires are made by The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, founded in 1898 and still headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The company took its name from Charles Goodyear, the inventor of vulcanized rubber, who died decades before the business existed and never had any stake in it. Today Goodyear is one of the largest tire manufacturers in the world and it owns several other familiar names, including Kelly and Cooper Tire, which it acquired in 2021. It also holds rights to the Dunlop brand across parts of the North American market. Goodyear operates plants in the United States and in a number of other countries, so the origin of any single tire depends on the model and size you buy.

Are Goodyear tires good? The honest verdict

For most drivers, yes. Goodyear sits in the upper half of the tire market, close behind the outright premium brands and clearly ahead of budget imports. Its strongest work is in mainstream all-season touring tires and in light truck rubber, which happens to be exactly what most American drivers need. You will usually pay more for a Goodyear than for a value brand in the same size, and in return you get a tire with a long service record, wide availability, and predictable wet and dry behavior. That is a fair trade for a lot of people, though not for everyone.

What Goodyear does well

The brand's real advantage is breadth backed by engineering depth. A few areas stand out:

• Original equipment credibility. Goodyear supplies tires fitted to new vehicles from the factory across many carmakers. A tire has to survive a manufacturer's own testing to earn that, which is a meaningful signal of consistency.
• All-season touring. The Assurance family is the core of the lineup and the reason most people buy the brand. It is built around quiet running, wet grip, and long tread life on cars and crossovers.
• Trucks and SUVs. The Wrangler line has been on American pickups for decades and covers everything from highway-biased treads to genuine all-terrain patterns.
• Performance range. Eagle covers sporty daily drivers through to the Eagle F1 Asymmetric family for high performance cars, so you can stay in one brand as you move up.
• Availability and support. Goodyear is stocked and serviced almost everywhere in the United States, which matters when you need one replacement tire in a hurry rather than a full set.

Where Goodyear falls short

No brand is right for every buyer, and Goodyear has three honest weak points.

The first is price. In most sizes a Goodyear costs more than an equivalent value-brand tire, and the gap is not always matched by a gap in everyday performance. If your car is a low-mileage second vehicle, that premium can be hard to justify.

The second is a confusing catalog. Goodyear runs many sub-lines with similar names, and the differences between an Assurance MaxLife, an Assurance ComfortDrive and an Assurance WeatherReady are not obvious from the box. Read the specific model, not just the family name.

The third catches a lot of shoppers out. Some Goodyear lines are sold only through specific retailers. The Viva family, for example, has long been sold mainly through one large retail chain rather than through the general tire trade, so if you have been searching for a Goodyear Viva Authority or Viva 2 and cannot find it at independent tire sellers, that is usually why. The closest equivalents in the general Goodyear catalog are the Assurance DuraPlus 2 and Assurance TripleMax 2, which sit in the same everyday touring role. You can see what is currently on the shelf on our Goodyear tires page.

Goodyear's lineup at a glance

Goodyear organizes its tires into families by how and what you drive. This table covers the ones you are most likely to meet:

The best Goodyear tires to buy right now

There is no single best Goodyear, only the right family for how you drive. These three cover the most common cases: a value touring tire for a small car or compact, a performance all-season for a sedan or coupe, and an all-terrain for a pickup or SUV.

If you are not yet sure which size, season and tread type your vehicle needs, our guide on how to choose the right car tires walks through it step by step.

What the UTQG numbers on a Goodyear tell you

Most passenger car tires sold in the United States carry a UTQG grade on the sidewall: a treadwear number, a traction letter, and a temperature letter. The system does not cover everything, so you will not find a UTQG grade on winter tires, temporary spares, or light truck and special trailer sizes. Where it does apply, the treadwear number comes from a controlled government test course and is assigned by the manufacturer to its own tire. A 600 is built to wear about twice as long as a 300 in that test, but it is not a mileage promise. Real tread life depends on your driving, your roads, your alignment and your inflation. Traction is graded AA, A, B or C for straight-line wet stopping, and temperature is A, B or C for heat resistance at speed.

Goodyear's grades line up with what each family is for. The Assurance A/S sits at 600 A B, built for tread life. The Eagle Sport A/S runs 560 A A, keeping most of that life while adding the higher temperature grade a sportier tire needs. The Eagle Touring is graded 500 A A, trading some wear for grip and refinement. None of these is better in the abstract. They are different answers to different questions, which is why matching the family to your driving matters more than picking the highest number. The load index and speed rating stamped next to the size tell you the rest of the story, and our guides on tire load index and tire speed ratings explain how to read them.

How Goodyear compares to other brands

Think of the market in three tiers. At the top, Michelin, Continental and Bridgestone lead in outright wet and dry limits and in refinement, and they charge for it. At the entry end sit value brands that compete mainly on price. Every tire legally sold in the United States has to meet the same federal safety standards, so this is a question of engineering depth and consistency rather than of safe against unsafe. Goodyear sits at the top of the middle: not always the outright performance winner against a Michelin Pilot Sport or a Continental in the same class, but close enough that most drivers will never find the gap, and usually cheaper. What the extra money buys you with Goodyear is a longer track record, wider size availability, and more consistency from one tire to the next. It is also worth knowing that Goodyear now owns Cooper, so if you like the engineering but want to spend less, our review of whether Cooper tires are good covers the value-tier option from the same parent company.

The verdict

Goodyear earns its reputation. It is not the cheapest way to put four tires on a car, and it is not the last word in outright grip, but it is one of the most consistent choices on the market and it covers nearly every vehicle on American roads. If you drive a truck or SUV, the Wrangler line alone makes the brand worth shortlisting. If you want a quiet, long-wearing tire for a car or crossover, the Assurance family is one of the safest picks you can make. Buy the specific model that matches your driving, confirm the size against your door placard, and Goodyear will rarely disappoint you.