I have a coworker here who was a fan boy of them, and he eventually gave in after admitting it sucked to have to order in six at a time to find a decent set of four that would run true and balance out correctly. This was on his 2001 Durango which came with Wranglers as OEM.
One little known fact about tires: the tire companies that have agreements to supply manufacturers for new vehicles will sideline the "better" tires for that purpose. Meaning, when they do final QC checks, the ones that are "the best" get sent to whomever (Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, etc.) to be placed on new vehicles as per their contract. That's why there are different paint marks on new cars' tires than ones for replacements, as well as in some cases the dealers get sent different grades of tires for replacements than do the aftermarket. Apparently, Goodyear is one of the worst for this, and they have lower standards for "not good enough for OEMs, but good enough for aftermarket". Which coincides with why I have seen so many replacements be sub-par even when the ones that may have come on the vehicle when new were at least acceptable even if not great.
So over the years, we've had to inform people of this, and the phrase "I told you so" gets called into use more times than I can remember. Because some people insist on replacing tires with the same ones the car came with, which in this case rarely results in the same level of satisfaction. And over the years, a LOT of new cars and trucks have left the factory floor rolling on Goodyear tires. Even a lot of Volkswagens.
The other end of the spectrum is Michelin, which to this day I have yet to see a bad new one (and I have put on a LOT of tires), and never, ever seen one that could be badged as defective. They also don't play the high/low grade game. If your car came with a Michelin tire from the factory, you can buy that exact same tire in the aftermarket and rest assured it will be of the exact same quality. But, they cost more. They should.
This is all coming from someone who has no brand name linked to my work, we have nobody's tire name on our shop, and no contracts with anyone. In fact, we make less money on Michelins because they never, ever seem to give retailers any special deals to move their product. Once in a while one of their lesser brands (BF Goodrich or Uniroyal) but even that is pretty rare.
