An all-rounder tire brand sold exclusively at your local Les Schwab.

Mazama Tires Website:
www.mazamatires.com
www.lesschwab.com

About Mazama Tires

Shopping for a set of new tires and, if you stop at your local Les Schwab, you’re going to come across Mazama Tires. Priced affordably and in dozens of sizes, if you’re a car, crossover, or truck owner, there’s a chance there’s a Mazama Tire that fits your needs.

It’s no coincidence you came across Mazama Tires at a Les Schwab as, according to Mazama’s trademark information, Les Schwab Tires owns the Mazama Tires trademark, selling Mazamas since 2018.

Zooming in on a set of Mazama Reputations and Open Ranges and it looks like Mazama Tires are made in Thailand.

Mazama Open Ranges say made by Sumitomo Rubber Co. LTD.
It’s small but these Mazama Reputations say “Made in Thailand”

Look closely on the zoom-in of the Open Ranges and it says Mazama off-road tires are made by the Sumitomo Rubber Company, an over 100-year-old tire company based in Japan with factories all over South East Asia. This bodes well for the Open Ranges quality.

It’s not clear if Mazama Reputations are also made by the Sumitomo Rubber

Strengths

-Super long tire mileage warranties
-All-around performers
-60-day trial period
-Presumably good customer service

According to Mazama’s website, they seem to only have two tire models, Reputations; their all-season, and Open Range; their on and off-road A/T all-terrain tire.

Both tires have super-long tire mileage warranties, Reputations carrying an 80,000 mile warranty thanks to Mazama’s Specialized Silica Tread Compound and the Open Ranges with a 60,000 mile warranty.

As far as Reputations, such a long-lasting all-season typically comes with a price (i.e., a generally harder tire and slightly firmer ride.)

Both Mazama Reputations and Open-Ranges seem to be all-around performers.

The Reputations offer good wet and dry performance, as well as marginally decent light snow and mud ratings (they carry an M+S stamping.)

Reading through some of the more critical reviews (3 stars and below) for the Open Ranges, the most common complaints include being slightly louder than stock, holding onto small rocks, they are difficult to get balanced perfectly, and installation error complaints (not a fault of the tire itself.)

For a house brand tire that’s not a so-called Tier 1 or Tier 2 tire, only coming across those critical points is pretty good in my opinion.

With a 60-day ride guarantee, you can bring back any Mazama tires you purchased new back to a Les Schwab Tires for a full refund so, theoretically, you have nothing to lose taking these tires out for a spin.

As these are sold by Les Schwab, the tire service company itself carries a certain reputation for quality and a slightly more polished look compared to your typical Firestone or Insert your favorite tire chain here (I’m not getting paid by them, honest! Maybe I should, though.)

And, for that, I hold these Mazama Tires to be measurably better than your typical off-brand (tire you’ve never heard of made in the last 10 years) tire.

With close to 500 locations, assuming you live near a Les Schwab, you have peace of mind they’ll hopefully either work with you if you have an issue.

They’ll also more than likely honor any prorated mileage warranty issues and make a claim on their 60-day ride guarantee as painless as possible.

Weaknesses

-Affordable, but not super cheap, either.
-Not stellar tires, just above average.

For a relatively new tire brand made in Thailand, Mazamas aren’t cheap. Consider a Mazama Reputation sized 205 50 R16, typically found on a Toyota Corolla, as of this writing, they cost $151 per tire.

Compare that to a Douglas All-Season (WalMart exclusive), Sentury Touring, Mastercraft Stratus AS, or a Goodyear Reliant (WalMart exclusive) in the same size. All those arguably comparable tires cost marginally cheaper, between $60-80 per tire.

Then again, those aforementioned alternatives have tire mileage warranties that reflect that price (Douglas 45,000 miles, miles, Goodyear Reliants 65,000 miles.)

For almost twice the price, are you really getting twice the amount of value?

Well, yes and no.

At almost twice the price, they DO last almost twice as long.

But, at least as warranties are concerned, for those other tires, you either have no recourse, the tire companies make it hard to make any warranty claim, or you have to deal with a Walmart Tire Service center, a thought that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

As for the performance of Mazama tires, I got the sense that purchasers were mostly satisfied with what they bought, not wow’d, not ecstatic, not surprised in a good way, just, satisfied.

And, for most tire purchasers, that’s good enough.

This review of their Open Range tire sounds par for the course, summing up their entire lineup in my opinion.

“This is my second set of this specific tire,” says Marc Utah, a four star reviewer in 2021. “I like these (Mazama Open Ranges) tires. First set only got 45,000 miles before they were considered unsafe by way if tread wear.

I had the tires rotated every 5000 miles. They are quiet and are an excellent all terrain for the type of driving I do. The tires wore out before the mileage warranty was up and because I had them rotated as per manufacturer’s recommendation I was able to get a prorated replacement price for the second set of tires. I like the tires enough to get them again, and the warranty makes it worth it.”

As you can see, while the price makes them not as affordable, if Marc’s experience is indicative of the service he got, that’s what you’re paying for, seamless customer service and, with so many locations, peace of mind.”

Relevant Videos

I could not find an unbiased video review for Mazama Reputations so, if you’re doing your own research, I’d recommend reading any of Reputation reviews with three stars or fewer (critical reviews are likely the more honest ones.)

Conclusion

Based on the dozens of reviews I’ve read and what I can find online about Mazama tires, I have no problem recommending these tires to anyone.

I feel like a lot of Mazama tire purchasers might be the road tripper or family vacationer who needs a tire repair and new tire ASAP and, for those potential Mazama tire purchasers, I also recommend these tires. Despite the above average price, you’re not getting “ripped off,” even though it’s from a tire company you’re just learning about.

Mazama Tires seems to be a solid all-rounder type of tire company, so far.

I look forward to what other tires they add to their lineup in the near future.

Sources:
www.lesschwab.com (Open Ranges)
www.lesschwab.com (Reputations)

2 COMMENTS

  1. The Reputations are a pretty ok tire. They are firmly priced in the territory of Michelin Primacy Tour A/S and Bridgestone Turanza QUIETTRACK, which I hear is quite pricey for the segment.

    The latter of which according to reviews is the quietest in the segment while also having a better warranty (80k vs 70k) and with an additional 30 days of buy and try time (90 vs 60). I price checked the installed price for the QUIETTRACKs from Firestone vs the Reputations and the the QUIETTRACK was actually $36.12 cheaper than the Reputations all things else equal.

    What I can tell you is that I discovered the Bridgestone QUIETTRACKs because I was particularly looking for a quieter tire. Oddly enough I found QUIETTRACKs when I was reading reviews on the Michelin Primacy Tour A/S as a I have ran Michelin’s on a previous car. I have a section of road that makes for a good test as some is fresh smooth and flat pavement which transitions to older flat but rougher pavement allowing me to know for sure the noise was entirely the tires and not wind. For context the road noise was loud enough to prompt me to purchase expensive noise canceling headphones. If the QUIETTRACKs will fit the 15in steel rims on the old Camry I am half tempted to get them installed just to compare.

    While I love the customer service at Les Schwab, I feel like the Mazama Reputations is more a tire of convenience or for informed customers that just want a decent tire but don’t care particularly about price or performance. The test car came with mis matched budget tires and granted the Reputations were a little quieter than those but not much. At the price of the Reputations I feel like Les Schwab could do a better job when it comes to the segment.

    TLDR: If you can plan ahead there are much better premium options from well known tire manufacturers for slightly LESS money. Reputation tires seem like a Generic version of a product that is not as good as name brand but costs more than name brand.

  2. We’ve had the Reputations since early May 2022 with about 6-7000 miles driven, my wife being a safe, but NOT an efficient, featherfooting driver. Been the quietest tire we ever had, plus great smoothness. Resists hydroplaning well. Advertised correctly with extra deep tread. At our mileage now, the tread is no longer extra deep. I might think it might not give the long life advertised.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here