Know Your Car Basics 101: Goodyear Ducaro GA, First Good Impressions

Goodyear Ducaro GA was a major improvement over the older Eagle GA. What a grip! That was my first impression of the Ducaro but then again, it has to be since the tires were brand new. Image source: Hawk Tayar

Although I was eager to get my Goodyear tires changed last weekend, I had to wait for the tire shop to be opened. So to kill time, I decided to make a trip to the University Hospital with my cousin for blood donation. The last donation was somewhere in August and I planned to make a donation every 3 months or so.

So, having nothing much to do in the morning, donating blood was an odd but productive way to kill time. Within an hour (by 9.00 am), I was back home after donating 450ml of my “cholesterol-rich” blood (that is what I think every time I donate blood – kind of a motivation to keep me donating blood).

Anyway, after resting for a while, I headed to the Goodyear authorised dealer outlet in Puchong.

The shop that I normally go for my car service also sells Goodyear Ducaro tires but for them, selling tires is their side business. So, I was not sure how well they are into tires to be advising me on tires. Besides the last time they did balancing for me, the tires were not exactly “balanced”.

I had to re-do the balancing at a Bridgestone tire shop. So when it comes to changing tires, I opted for a “proper” tire shop. The job is done more professionally (like only need to take the car for one spin to know exactly where the problem is) and lasting (depending on the road condition, of course).

Going to a Goodyear authorised dealer outlet is also one sure way to ensure that tires purchased are the originals and is backed by a good warranty.

I guess I was early when I reached the tire shop – I guess because there were no other cars being attended to. I parked my car on the outside and walked in. The setup of the shop is rather simple – a small office at one corner, the machinery & the tools on the other corner, an area designated for storing the tires (from a small tire to tractor size tires) somewhere at the back and a huge area for the workplace.

I was met by a friendly “towkay” (boss) and I asked how much a Goodyear Ducaro (size: 185/60R14) will cost me (with balancing and everything of course). He was about to open his mouth to say the price when I quickly cut in and said “price for all 4 tires”.

That stopped him for a while and he heads back to the office to grab a calculator. He punched a few figures and said RM150 per tire (including everything). It was a good deal as a Goodyear Eagle GA cost me RM138 (excluding balancing) – two years ago. Having a newer model for an extra RM12 was a good deal indeed.

It took almost an hour for the guys at the outlet to open up all my old tires and changed it to new ones, did some balancing and finally taking the car for a spin. The service was good and there was no wastage of time (unlike some shops that I know) when doing the work.

In total, it cost me RM615 for the tires and alignment and in addition, I also got 2 RM10 KFC vouchers and a Goodyear promotion contest form thrown in as extra goodies.

The moment of truth came when I was leaving the outlet and was driving back home. Immediately I could feel the grip, there was virtually no noise coming out from the tires (could only hear the engine, exhaust and the music from my CD player). I tried several quick turns at some empty roads and the car responded well. I felt confident during the corners.

Later that day, I was cruising along the LDP when suddenly the car in front slowed down (for no reason!). Slight braking got my Ducaro to grip the road well to slow down my car at the right time. My old tires would have taken slightly a longer distance to slow down.

The only I missed “testing” is the wet test – I missed the heavy downpour late that evening.

I was at home and dozed off when it started to rain heavily. I guess wet testing need to be postponed to another day but I am confident that the Ducaro would not be disappointing me on this area as well. Perhaps the long drive to Taiping this weekend would be another opportunity to test out the Ducaro.