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Replacement tires may not be on the highest priority for fleet managers, at least, not until tire wear, tire performance or tire availability becomes an issue. For budget reasons, most fleet managers want to know how long the tires last and what the state contract pricing is. To reduce complaints from patrol officers, some managers want to know how the tires perform on the street. A few managers might want to know what other brands are available on the state bid. In some cases, the availability throughout the jurisdiction is of interest.
In the past, virtually every one of these tire concerns was answered with one word: Goodyear. They performed well, had reasonable tire wear, were on nearly every state bid, and were available everywhere. And they had over 95% of the police fleet market. Other brands existed, some were even OEM options, and some were actually used by departments on their patrol cars: General XP2000 V4, Firestone FireHawk PV41 and BFGoodrich Touring T/A VR4. However, the easiest answer for all things black and round with tread was Goodyear.
All of that has changed for the 2006 model year. The Ford CVPI comes with Goodyear tires, although the exact Pirelli tire used by Ford on the Mustang GT was initially considered. The Impala comes with Pirelli tires. The Tahoe comes with General tires. The Charger and Magnum come with Continental tires. (Continental owns General Tire.)
Change is definitely in the wind. Due to the small police tire market and other uncertainties in the long-term police tire supply chain, the police tire market is now wide open. The prudent fleet manager will both keep up with these changes and keep the options open. Better yet, the alert fleet manager will get a set of optional tires for each vehicle type and put the department's EVOC instructors to work evaluating them. With 75% of the police vehicles being the Ford CWI, prudence demands a look at alternative V-rated or W-rated, 17-inch tires.
To smooth the transition to Pirelli tires, especially for police replacement tires, Pirelli will handle state bids and GSA bids, and they will also do stand-alone contracts for cities and counties. They will ship factory-direct to 1) a police central distribution warehouse, 2) a...