Douglas vs Goodyear Tires

Choosing the right set of tires seems extremely difficult these days, as many intricacies go with it. While shopping for tires, most people look at how they perform, how long can they last, and how safe they are. However, the most important aspect when buying anything is the price and what you get for your money.

As such, a premium tire can outperform a budget tire in almost every way, but does it make any sense to buy a premium tire at a premium price? This is exactly what we are going to be talking about in our Douglas Vs Goodyear tires comparison as these two tire brands are on the complete opposite ends of the price spectrum.

Douglas History

Back in the 1930s, Goodyear bought the Kelly Springfield Tire Company which was founded back in the late 1890s by Edwin Kelly and Arthur Grant. Douglas tires are manufactured by the Kelly Springfield Tire Company and Goodyear registered the name Douglas Tires in 1992 when they first started making tires.

Douglas tires can only be sourced through Walmart and are commonly known as offering pretty good value for the money. The Senior Manager of PR at Walmart has said that Douglas Tires are pretty much a Walmart proprietary brand and that Douglas Tires are made in the US by the world’s leading tire manufacturers.

Walmart has never officially confirmed nor denied that Goodyear specifically makes Douglas Tires, but according to lots of available data, they are. Douglas tires follow pretty strict rules that include affordability, good warranty coverage, mass production, and availability in virtually all Walmart stores across the nation.

It is clear that Douglas does not make tires in order to compete with the world’s leading tire brands head-on. They are there to saturate the market with low-cost tires for those people who either don’t have the assets to buy tires from premium brands or who simply don’t need them.  

Douglas Tire Families

Now it’s time to go in-depth and look at all the different tires you can get from Douglas. They are not in the business of satisfying the niche market, which means that they only offer tires that are the most popular in the industry. As such, you can only buy performance-oriented tires, all-season tires, and certain buggy off-roading tires at Walmart.

Douglas Performance

The Douglas Performance lineup of tires is designed with stability and performance in mind. They come in all-season form and are available in pretty much every size you want. 

They differ from Douglas All-Season tires because they are a lot more responsive and offer more traction, stability, and handling feedback. They are not as good as premium performance tires are, but if you are not the type of guy wanting to explore the limits of traction, these should do it.

They do lack the edge, and that will be apparent to everyone who has any decent experience with a premium performance tire. Dry traction is probably where this tire shines, but wet traction is not as good as some budget tires are. Aquaplaning resistance is good, but the compound simply isn’t able to keep the tire glued to the road at all times.

Douglas All Season

The Douglas All-Season tire is the go-to Douglas tire for most people. This tire is manufactured in most quantities and is available for all passenger cars including crossovers, minivans, and sedans. 

The main selling point of this tire is the price as it is considerably cheaper than even most budget tires. Since rubber compounds have come a long way since the 1990s, this tire performs admirably well in dry conditions, especially for the price.

However, when it starts raining, things aren’t as bright. The Douglas All-Season tire simply does not have the compound muscle necessary to compete with many budget tires, let alone premium tires. 

Comfort is okay while snow performance is frankly abysmal because traction is nowhere to be seen. As such, this tire makes sense for an old car, one that does not do many miles, and one that does not tread into the snow.

Goodyear History

The late 1800s were the time when many tire companies came to be, including Goodyear which was founded by Frank Seiberling in 1898 in Ohio. 

The story goes that Frank borrowed $3,500 from his brother-in-law to buy its first factory. The name Goodyear originates from a man called Charles Goodyear who is known as the man who invented vulcanized rubber.

In 1903, Goodyear invented the very first tubeless tire, 1909 saw Goodyear making the very first airplane tire and Goodyear didn’t stop pushing the industry forward ever since. 

Goodyear was even the manufacturer who manufactured the tires for the legendary Ford Model T. It’s safe to say that business went well as Goodyear became the world’s leading tire manufacturer in 1926.

In 1947, Goodyear came out with the very first nylon tire. 1963 was the year when Goodyear celebrated its one billionth tire. This was also the time when the company started investing in motorsport and the results were there immediately as Goodyear became, and still is, one of the world’s most decorated racing tire manufacturers.

Nowadays Goodyear is still at the top of the industry which means that they are able to trade punches with all the other premium tire brands. It’s rather clear that Goodyear wipes Douglas out of the water, but the question here is, is it worth it?

Goodyear Tire Family

Goodyear has many tire lines which means that they encompass pretty much the entire market. They do not only make tires for passenger cars, but also for commercial vehicles, racing tires, aviation tires, RV tires, and special off-road tires. Here we are only going to list tire families which are commonly being considered by the general public.

Goodyear Assurance

The Goodyear Assurance is the standard go-to tire family for most customers. These touring tires are designed to be refined and long-lasting which is exactly what most people want. 

Even though the Assurance line is technically a touring tire line, these tires are still able to perform really well in most situations.

The Assurance line consists of Fuel Max tires, MaxLife tires, Finesse tires, WeatherReady tires, and ComfortDrive tires. The moment you look at the name of these, you are aware of what they were designed to accomplish. These can be fitted to all passenger cars and they also come in all-season form.

Goodyear Eagle

The Goodyear Eagle line is designed with performance in mind which means that these offer supreme traction but at the expense of comfort and noise levels. 

However, Goodyear has made sure to retain the comfort aspect which means that these tires are more comfortable than most budget touring tires. Availability is excellent with the Eagle lineup as these can also be fitted to virtually all passenger cars.

The Eagle line includes Sport tires, Touring tires, LS tires, NCT tires, GT tires, RS tires, F1 tires, and Exhilarate tires. This means that Goodyear’s Eagle line is extremely flexible and all of these tires are designed to excel in various usage scenarios, whether it be ultra-high-performance or longevity.

Goodyear Ultra Grip

The Goodyear Ultra Grip lineup is designed with winter use in mind which means that these tires are dedicated to achieving constant grip in all sorts of winter conditions. 

Ice and snow are what these tires are made for, but don’t be fooled by thinking that they can’t perform in the dry, because they can.

The Ultra Grip line consists of GW2 tires, GW3 tires, Ice WRT tires, 8 Performance tires, and Winter tires. All of these sub-models are so flexible that they can be fitted on virtually all passenger cars including compact cars and larger SUVs.

Goodyear Winter Command

The Goodyear Winter Command tire family is also a winter tire, but the difference between these and Goodyear Ultra Grip tires is that these are studdable. However, some limits do apply as studs can only go on certain sizes and models. Moreover, these also don’t come in as many sizes as the Goodyear Ultra Grip line.

Goodyear Wrangler

The Goodyear Wrangler is the go-to off-road tire and also one of the most popular off-road tires in general. These can be had in SUV size, truck size, CUV size, and even crossover size. 

There truly are endless options to choose from as the Goodyear Wrangler line is one of the most widespread off-road family lines in the current market.

Extreme off-road and mud tires are also available. All in all, you can choose between 20-ish different models for various off-roading categories.

Goodyear Efficient Grip and Excellence

If you want a tire that offers decent performance but is still really refined, the Efficient Grip line is for you. There are only two different models within this group, one is performance-rated, and the other one is an all-season tire. Either way, these come in many sizes and can be fitted to all passenger cars.

The Goodyear Excellence line is more or less the same as the Efficient Grip line which means that these balance performance and refinement. You have a few more options to choose from than with Efficient Grip tires which is definitely a good thing.

Goodyear Fierce

The Wrangler is not the only all-terrain tire as Goodyear also offers the Fierce family of tires which are only available for cars with higher ground clearance. 

These are designed to offer you impressive off-road performance without suffering when it comes to relative comfort. These are typically being bought by SUV and light truck owners who daily drive their trucks, but sometimes like going on adventures.

Goodyear Frontera

If you are the type of guy who drives an SUV or a truck, but you never venture off the beaten path, the Frontera line of tires is exactly what you need. 

These tires are designed as SUV/truck touring tires which means that comfort and refinement are what they are after. The Frontera lineup offers the SL and HL models, the former is on the sporty side while the latter is a classic highway tire.

Goodyear Integrity

The Goodyear Integrity is likely the tire line here that competes best with Douglas tires as these are “affordable” Goodyear tires. These are designed with performance and refinement in mind which means that these are all-season tires on a budget.

Differences between Douglas and Goodyear

This is the part of our Douglas vs Goodyear tires comparison where we put these two brands head-to-head to see which one comes out on top. This could be the battle between David and Goliath, but it isn’t because Goodyear is better at almost everything.

Performance

Dry traction is where Douglas is most promising and their Performance line is actually really good when it comes to dry traction. However, really good is not something you can put against tires from the Eagle and Assurance line which are excellent in the dry. 

Wet conditions are where these two differ substantially as Goodyear’s Touring tires are leagues above the Douglas All-Season line.

Winter tires are also where Goodyear takes it with a landslide because Goodyear Ultra Grip and Winter Command tires are some of the best winter tires on the market. Off-roading is a no competition because Douglas does not offer dedicated off-road tires, at least not at the moment.

All in all, Goodyear beats Douglas in all performance aspects because they make premium tires that are simply better.

Available Options

Availability of options also goes into Goodyear’s favor because a single Goodyear family of tires can have dozens of different models while Douglas only offers two tire families with a handful of options. Sizing is decent with Douglas if you own a passenger car, but Goodyear virtually makes tires for everything.

Price and Warranty

Price is pretty much the only aspect in which Douglas tires beat Goodyear tires. Douglas All-Season tires can be had for just $35 per tire which is an extremely low price. On the other hand, Goodyear Assurance tires typically cost almost three times as much.

Douglas tires typically come with a 45,000-mile warranty coverage which is not the best, but adequate, especially for the price because some budget tires don’t even come with a warranty at all. 

Goodyear on the other hand offers industry-leading warranty coverages and the Assurance MaxLife tire comes with a record 85,000-mile warranty coverage.

Advantages Of Douglas

• Lower Price
• You can get them at Walmart
• Good for old cars that do low miles

Advantages Of Goodyear

• Better performance
• Better warranty
• More options
• Everything else

Which Brand To Choose?

At the end of our Douglas vs Goodyear tires comparison, we can easily see that Goodyear literally wipes the floor with Douglas tires. However, if you own an old car or one that you rarely drive for extended periods, it makes sense to save some money and go for Douglas tires. They are not able to compete with Goodyear as quality comes at a premium.