Founded: 1941
Founder: Chosun Tire
Headquarters: Seongnam, South Korea
Website: https://www.hankooktire.com/global
Hankook is one of the biggest rubber enterprises in Korea, and also a prominent Asian brand. They’ve recently been expanding outside of their home region, which is the reason why there have been so many Korean tires on the market recently. The regular customer doesn’t really any concept of a Korean tire, which should be fixed.
Who owns Hankook tires? Hankook cooperates closely with the Japanese from Bridgestone, but it isn’t really a vertical relationship. They are just partners at the moment.
In general, Hankook tires are decent. They are cheap and there is a lot of them on sale at all times. However it seems that Hankook isn’t always capable of noting defects in their own tires. The frequency of defects can be tied to the origin of a tire, but it’s really hard to tell.
Who makes Hankook tires? Hankook make their tires all by themselves. They have many divisions across the world, but all the manufacturing and developing effort is done by Hankook.
When they are defective, the defects ruin the tire overall. They are usually pretty quiet, handle well and don’t pop for a long time. If there are defects, the tires become absolutely unusable.
Where are Hankook tires made? The main facilities are in Korea, US and China. The place where your specific pack was made matters a lot. They genuinely vary in quality based on the country of origin.
As of the actual characteristics, the grip is almost perfect. There are problems surrounding wet surfaces – wet tarmac and wet gravel. While the latter is quite understandable, the former is irregular. The resulting hydroplaning is usually the result of poor manufacturing, which is why many drivers never experience floating.
For their usual cost, Hankook tires are pretty good. The prices go as low as $40, but you can definitely find cheaper regional prices (in Europe, Russia and Asia). Thankfully, these tires are in high supply everywhere.
Who sells Hankook tires? Hankook tires are sold by Hankook in their own stores located all over the globe, and also by many independent dealers. Finding and buying them is effortless, just ask at the nearest tire shop.
The tires can also spontaneously suffer from noise and rigidness. There’s no telling how they manage to spoil these characteristics during production, but, on occasions, they somehow do.
As for their durability and wear resistance, it is pretty good. As always, it can be reduced significantly by poor manufacturing, but if you’re lucky they’ll serve you exceptionally well. The usual mileage limit is around 55,000 km (around 35,000 miles). The number can be reduced or increased by sloppy or mindful driving, respectfully.
The number doesn’t sound all too convincing. After all, there are tires that can last for 100,000 miles. In this respect, they are pretty bad. However, in terms of cost-effectiveness, they are fairly decent. You don’t pay for them too much, and they last for a reasonable amount of time (2-3 seasons).
Of course, you should first make sure there are no defects. Otherwise, the death may come long before that. These defects may not show themselves immediately, so you better check them up before driving.
You won’t have to worry about them all the time, they aren’t really frequent. Only about 5% of customers contract any sort of dangerous defect. If it’s still too much for you, it’s better not to consider them at all.
