[drivejunk]

I'd speculate that ("bad batches" aside...) when the point came that lawmakers enacted a youth requirement on tires via "fix-it tickets" from annual state inspections or spot check, tire manufacturers were freed from obligations to make tires which might last longer than six years. It would be silly to do so from a business standpoint. Quality has been adjusted accordingly. Other factors surely apply but this seemed to happen around the time that 15"s were no longer kept in dealer stock and tire names we used all our lives were replaced by a random stream of cut rate tire brands. Meanwhile, annual state vehicle inspections here were dropped in favor of allowing traffic stops as vehicle inspections.

So, law change is my guess. Crummy quality tires are the standard now and anything small is niche and worse. The average no-name popular general public size tire is fairly round these days so its not like they forgot how but focus has shifted. My daily drivers wear 16s... same thing now. Its up to 17s for modern brakes and fresh decent tires. Thats my take anyhow. I ain't cleaned a whitewall this century.

 

[captpn]

To me BFG look right on our cars. The font is nice and small and its what i remember from back in the day. I had only 1 letter of my new BFGs turn brown. strange. Anyway a friend showed me his white ink pen (amazon) that resolved his brown issue and looks great. touch up as needed. Apparently the brown cant be cleaned off since its leaching from inside the compound, but it can be covered up.

 

[The Camaro Guy]

The new size and font of the Coopers letters mimic the BFG RWL since Goodyear took them over.

 

[oldcutlass]

I prefer the Coopers blackside out.

 

[captpn]

Nice!
I didnt know they changed the font. Before i recall the letters were big. Very similar font now and uppercase only on the Coopers.

 

[Alwhite00]

The new BFG's seem to turn brown a week after you clean them.

 

[70power]

For me I just can’t do anything that says, “Cobra” on my GM.