The Volkswagen Golf GTI, which fits Bridgestone Potenza tyres, has been voted the ‘Greatest Drive’ of 2005 by Auto Express magazine.
“This is excellent news,” said Andy Lane, consumer marketing manager at Bridgestone UK. “The Golf GTI is an exciting, top-of-the-range car that requires the very best in grip and control, and this is just another example of how the UK’s top cars can perform at their best on Bridgestone rubber.”
(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s successful Assurance Triple Tred line has already been honored with several awards. Recently, the tyre earned recognition as “one of the most innovative ideas of the year” from R&D magazine. The magazine staff selected the product as recipient of an “R&D 100 Award.” The 43rd annual awards summary will appear in the magazine’s September issue, with an awards presentation scheduled for October in Chicago.
Auto Express magazine has named the Vredestein Sportac 2 as tyre test winner in its 2005 Product Honours report. Goodyear’s Hydragrip and the Barum Bravaris were also commended.
“Think tyres and Vredestein is unlikely to be the first name that springs to mind, but the Dutch firm’s rubber certainly is impressive,” the consumer magazine wrote, adding: “Vredestein has always made products that perform well in the wet, and the Sportrac 2 was no exception, recording a series of top-three results.”
(Australia/Australian Tyre Dealer) The Goodyear Eagle Revspec RS-02 has won the best overall performance tyre award in the annual Wheels magazine tyre test for the second year running. The 235/45R17 performance tyre joins the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 as a Wheels award winner.
“Today southeast Asia and China host some of the fastest growing markets in the world. So having a tyre exhibition in Singapore is an ideal combination,” says Klaus Haddenbrock.
The publisher and chief editor of Tyres & Accessories, and its German sister magazine Neue Reifenzeitung, is confident that this year’s Tyrexpo Asia will be a complete success and the number of exhibitors and visitors will increase strongly.
For him the region is much more than just a “cheap production platform” and the tyre business will continue to be bullish in the future. “Its not only Western manufacturers that are looking for new markets in which to sell their products, so do their Eastern counterparts,” he adds.
The 2005 show will be the fifth time Tyres & Accessories has supported Tyrexpo Asia. Once again, T&A is the show’s exclusive European media partner. Organised by East Sussex-based ECI International, Tyrexpo Asia will be held at the Singapore Expo Centre from 13 – 15 September 2005. T&A will be on stand H 14.
(Akron/Tire Review) Not only is it a top seller, but Goodyear’s Assurance TripleTred is also an award-winner, taking a Silver IDEA in the 2005 Industrial Design Excellence Awards.
Co-sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and BusinessWeek magazine, the Industrial Design Excellence Awards evaluates designs for innovation, aesthetics, user benefits, business impact and ecological responsibility. Products from Apple, Nike, BMW and Microsoft were awarded IDEAs in the competition, but the Goodyear Assurance was the only tyre honored.
Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, has published charges against the seven Michelin supplied teams that declined to take part in Sunday’s disastrous US Grand Prix. The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said teams had “committed one or more acts prejudicial to the interests of a competition and the interests of motor sport in general.”
Specific charges alleged that teams failed to ensure that they had a supply of suitable tyres for the race. Perhaps most controversially, the teams were also accused of making “a demonstration damaging to the image of Formula One by pulling into the pits immediately before the start of the race”.
Goodyear has spent in excess of £2 million on launching its new RunOnFlat campaign to the UK media. The manufacturer has also hired a Hollywood director to deliver its first television advertising campaign for ten years.
Motorists will be able to view the new TV commercial from the 1st June. The advert was created by Leagas Delaney, London, and shot in Australia by Alex Proyas, director of last year’s Hollywood blockbuster I Robot. The advert will run in 16 European countries and kicks off an advertising campaign which includes TV and print advertising, public relations, and web and in-store activities in Goodyear’s 500 Hi-Q fitting centres.
(Akron/Tire Review) Michelin North America’s launch of its PAX System run-flat tyres on Honda Odyssey minivans last year earned it the Silver Award for outstanding achievement in a new product launch from the Automotive Public Relations Council.
The nationwide media PAX/Honda launch reached more than 30 million Americans via television, radio, newspaper, magazine and Internet reports, according to Michelin, as well as live driving demonstrations in New York, Detroit and Los Angeles.
In recent months the motorbike consumer press has heaped praise on Avon’s Viper Sport (see T&A February 2005) and Supersport tyres. Journalists from MCN, Superbike, Bike and TWO all attended the European launch of the Viper at the Catalunya GP circuit near Barcelona, Spain in February. The tyres were tested on a variety of bikes, which together clocked up around 3,000 miles on one of the world’s fastest and demanding circuits.
In the wake of the collapse of MG Rover, it seems that the vultures are already circling the carcass. According to an Auto Express report, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corportation (SAIC) plans to build 321,000 Rover 75s in the next five years. Not one will come from Birmingham.
A new study from industry analysts Plimsoll Publishing asks how important are the leaders of a company to its financial performance? It suggests that we will soon find out, as one in four of UK Tyre manufacturers and distributors company directors will be aged over 60 by the end of this year and, as they near the end of their careers, who will take over?
From next Tuesday 19th April, our website’s subscribers area can only be accessed by subscribers to Tyres & Accessories magazine. Access is via a unique subscribers number only.
To find out your subscribers number contact Pat Aldous by email or on +44 (0) 1255 22 22 33.
From next Tuesday 19th April, our website’s subscribers area can only be accessed by subscribers to Tyres & Accessories magazine. Access is via a unique subscribers number only.
To find out your subscribers number contact Pat Aldous by email or on +44 (0) 1255 22 22 33.
(Akron/TR) Goodyear’s new Fortera, which features SilentArmor Technology, was named one of the “20 Seriously Hot Products that (Almost) Speak for Themselves” by Popular Science magazine. The story appears in the magazine’s April 2005 issue.
“To see our new Fortera SilentArmor tyre in this published gallery of high-demand new products is a real plus for Goodyear in the generation of word-of-mouth support and the creation of consumer buzz,” said Sanjay Sivanandan, vice president for Goodyear consumer tyres. “It demonstrates to consumers that tyres can be high-tech, too. In this case, people will recognize Kevlar as a key feature in these tyres. They don’t buy a tyre for technology alone; they buy the benefits of technology. They want relevant technology,” he said. Last year, Goodyear’s Assurance TripleTred line made the Popular Science list.
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