Bandag Loses Biggest Fleet Contract to Goodyear
Eurofleet, Bandag’s pan-European fleet service, has lost its largest contract to Goodyear, according to informed sources. The news is a severe blow for the company as the account in question, a full service tyre contract with GE-TIP (General Electric Equipment Services – Transport International Pool), covered roughly 35,000 vehicles and accounted for 50 per cent of Eurofleet’s revenue. Now that Goodyear has taken over the contract, Tyres & Accessories has learnt that the company will mostly supply its retreaded products to all 69,000 of GE-TIP’s trailers. During the course of the new three-year deal Goodyear is expected to supply 40,000 new and retreaded tyres through its Truck Force network every year. While the majority of these will be hot-cure products, the company will also provide Goodyear and Dunlop new tyres as OE to the fleet’s new trailer purchases.
Continue ReadingNilco Launches Stainless Steel cleaner
Cleaning solutions specialist, Nilco, is targeting its new Stainless Steel cleaner at the UK automotive aftermarket. The product is said to clean and polishes in one easy application and gives an excellent performance on stainless steel, chrome, aluminium and laminates.
Continue ReadingGoodyear Calls for Independent Tyre Wear Tests
Goodyear has warned motorists to consider the whole life performance of tyres to ensure they are getting the optimum safety and performance in all weather conditions throughout the life of their tyres. The manufacturer says that the difference in tyre performance when worn is even greater than when new and is lobbying for more independent testing on tyres at various stages of their lives. The timing of Goodyear’s announcement follows claims from Michelin that TUV tests found its new Primacy HP tyres perform 25 per cent better when worn than any other premium product. In an independent test of new tyres, Goodyear reports that its HydraGrip outperformed Michelin’s Pilot Primacy and Pirelli’s P6 in a 50mph wet emergency stop test. According to the manufacturer the independent test found that the Hydragrip-equipped car came to a standstill three metres earlier than its competitors. The tyre is said to have outperformed the Bridgestone Turanza by as much as 10 metres.
Continue ReadingMaywood to Exhibit at ATS/CV Show
Maywood Equipment Group has announced that it will be exhibiting at The Automotive Trade Show (25 to 27 April inclusive) at the NEC in Birmingham as well as at the Commercial Motor Show, which takes place at the same time. Maywood is a leading supplier of lifts in The UK and will take the opportunity to show visitors a selection of lifts from their total range of over 50 models.
Continue ReadingGreenMan Completes Sale of Tyre Unit
GreenMan Technologies Inc., a recycler of over 20 million tyres annually, has completed the sale of its tyre business. GreenMan CFO Chuck Coppa said in a prepared statement that the magnitude of operating losses in the Georgia subsidiary prompted the sell-off. GreenMan posted an accounting loss of about $3.4 million on the value of the operations, and calculated losses attributable to the Georgia subsidiary at $8.3 million. GreenMan sold the business line to Tires Into Recycled Energy and Supplies Inc. and MTR of Georgia Inc. The Lynnfield, Mass.-based company will end its Georgia leases and collected $405,000 in cash in the two deals.
Continue ReadingBFNAT Gets County Dollars to Help Plant Upgrade
(Akron/Tire Review) Wilson County, North Carolina, commissioners have approved a $364,324 economic incentive package for Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire (BFNAT) on 6 March, funds earmarked to help the tyremaker expand its passenger/light truck tyre plant in that area.
Continue ReadingArvinMeritor Sells NA Aftermarket Light Vehicle Exhaust Business
ArvinMeritor, Inc has sold its North American Light Vehicle Aftermarket (LVA) exhaust business based in Loudon, Tennessee and Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, to IMCO (International Muffler Company), a producer of aftermarket exhaust systems and components based in Schulenburg, Texas. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Continue ReadingTenneco Plans Expansion of Exhaust Lines
(Akron/Tire Review) Tenneco Inc. said it will introduce 575 additional part numbers to its Walker and DynoMax aftermarket exhaust system lines in April, expanding coverage for domestic and import vehicles. The new SKUs cover cat-back exhaust systems to direct-fit catalytic converters and premium muffler assemblies, and will give Tenneco 92 per cent coverage of the North American car population, the company said.
Continue ReadingNew Bike Tyrestore Catalogue
Bike Tyrestore has just released its 2006 Ultimate World Of Bike Tyres catalogue. The catalogue contains 64 pages of information covering all of the main brands of motorbike tyre available for the new season and includes the full Bridgestone Fitment Guide, useful for any dealership! This year’s catalogue is designed to be “100 per cent trade and consumer friendly” while giving dealers an “authoritative guide” they can show to and discuss with retail customers, leading to the best choice of tyre for bike, rider and riding style.
Continue ReadingBridgestone Summer Tyres Top German Tyre Tests
Bridgestone tyres have topped a number of comparative tests in some of Germany’s leading automotive publications. The Bridgestone Potenza RE050A was one of just two models to receive the top ‘highly recommendable’ rating in its category from ‘ADAC Motorwelt’. The respected journal of Germany’s automobile association compared a line-up of 17 225/45 R17 Y/W tyres running on a Mercedes C-Class 230 – with dry handling evaluated at the Nürburgring; and wet performance, comfort, noise and rolling resistance measured at the Contidrom complex near Hamburg.
Continue ReadingNTSA Probes Faulty TPMS Claims
The Office of Defect Investigations at the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating consumer complaints that the 2004 and 2005 Toyota Sienna’s tyre pressure monitoring/regulation system can fail. In one incident, a consumer reported that by the time he pulled his Toyota Sienna to the side of the road the tyre was smoking and had burst into flame but the warning light failed to come on, according to consumeraffairs.com.
Continue ReadingFire at Cooper’s Melksham Plant
Cooper Tire & Rubber Europe suffered a minor fire over the weekend of 4 and 5 March. Five firefighters were taken to hospital as a precaution after the fire at the company’s Melksham production facility. Cooper’s Sarah McRoberts told Tyres & Accessories that the fire was successfully contained by the factory’s sprinkler system. Despite more than 35 firefighters attending there were no serious injuries and business is reported to have been unaffected. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Continue ReadingThorite’s New Diamond Compressors
Compressed air products and pneumatic systems supplier Thorite has announced the launch of new direct drive “Performance” portable compressors. The new machines augment Thorite’s own brand Diamond compressors and are instantly recognisable by their bright red, rather than dark blue air receivers.
Continue ReadingNizhnekamskshina Slows Production in January and February
During January and February of 2006 JSC “Nizhnekamskshina” says it produced 100,000 less tyres than planned. According to the company, the basic reason for the disruption was the high rubber price. The beginning of March has not proved to be much better for Russia’s largest domestic tyre producer. In Nizhnekamskshina’s words the situation “remains complex” due to short supplies of natural rubber.
Continue ReadingGoodyear Increases Prices
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is to increase its consumer, commercial vehicle and OTR tyre prices by 4 per cent. The increases will cover all brands and were reportedly caused by escalating raw material costs. The announcement takes effect from 1 April.
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