What are your 'name brand only' items?

What do you refuse to get generic versions of?

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Tires. Every time I've tried to save money by purchasing some PrimeWell or Sentury or other no-name tire I've worn them out in no time flat or they burst when I hit any bump that stands more than 1cm above the road surface. If they are that weak then they aren't safe.
- I work in the rim and tire industry so I find this really interesting. Haven't seen either of those two brands before where I am, but most cheaper brands nowadays are all made at the same two or three locations and just get a different name stamped into the sidewall.
  
  It's been a while but I think primewell is Firestones bargain brand. They're shit but compared to anything wal-mart was selling they were tolerable. I never saw as many broken belts as when I was working there starting out.
  
  My information may also be out of date, it's been years since I was so broke that I had to just buy whatever cheap tires I could afford.
  I had a set of "Sentury" tires I put on a Mitsubishi Mirage, and they were worn to the wear bars in 9,000 miles. They were carrying a 1,900 pound/860 kilogram car, and that was heavy enough to wear all four tires down in less than 1/4 the tread warranty period.
  
  That's really bad, sounds like a winter compound tire was sold as an all-season or something. That sounds like the typical treadwear for a winter tire that gets run in the wrong season.
  Also for anyone reading this, If you ever need cheap tires try your local independent mechanics or to a lesser extent franchise mechanics shop, lots of people swap tires when they have 35%+ tread life left. Lots of shops will let these tires go for cheap if you get them put on at their shop. I would gladly take a good quality tire at 40% tread life vs a cheapo crap set at 100%

208 comments