I keep reading that the new Fit is supposed to come with an Ecopia (whatever that is) tire. Mine came with Firestone FR740's. Other than they may just have more than one type on hand, what is it supposed to have? Damn Firestones are expensive...as much as the ones on my new Camaro

 

I read somewhere that the Firestone will be the tire used in the future on all levels of trim (and on the LX right now), but due to inventory issues, Honda used the Bridgestone until Firestone could get up and running to full capacity.

 

Thanks. I hope future Fit owners will be prepared for the sticker shock if they have to replace one of the Firestones. Not to mention the difficulty of getting one if one goes bad.

 

Generally, stock tires are good for holding the rims off of the ground until the car is sold. Apparently, nobody looks at the tires when buying a new car.

Honda is really scraping the bottom of the barrel selling cars with Firestones.

 

Are the firestones a bad tire? I know nothing about tires, what are some preferred ones?

 

Firestone went through a rough patch several years ago, when some of their tires started separating on the road. As I recall, this was due to poor quality control on the assembly line. While I would like to think they have overcome this particular problem, they are still faced with a poor marketing image, that won't go away for quite a while. Personally, I would not freak out if my Fit had come with Firestone tires, although I'm not sure I would replace them with Firestone when the time came for new tires. I have the same memories of the Ford Explorer, which I think was the vehicle involved in the Firestone debacle. Interesting footnote: both Ford and Firestone were big buddies back in the 20's. In fact, Bill Ford who was born in Detroit, Michigan, is the great-grandson of Henry Ford and great-grandson of Harvey Firestone.

 

That, and the fact that Ford specified low inflation pressures on the Explorer to improve ride. The combination of the two caused many failures and several deaths that could have been avoided. More people died while the tire and auto companies engaged in blaming each other and delayed fixing the problem.

This inflation pressure issue is the reason we're stuck with expensive and buggy TPMS systems on our cars. Thanks, Firestone, for increasing the price of every car.

This isn't Firestone's first "rough patch." They screwed up previously with the Firestone 500:

Firestone 500 Steel Belted Radials | The Center for Auto Safety

And, more recently, the Firestone ATX:

Tire Defects - Firestone ATX, Firestone ATX II and Firestone Wilderness AT Radial Tire Tread Problem

My level of forgiveness has been exceeded. Despite being owned by
Bridgestone, Firestone's company culture is one of producing shoddy merchandise at low price points primarily for the OEM market.