If one thing can be predicted about the tire industry, it’s that crystal balls will never be involved. Ask tire experts what they foresee for the business and you’ll likely get a diversity of visions that no crystal ball-gazing could sort out. The range of variables is just too vast.

It’s no surprise, then, that in Tire Review’s quest for fortune-telling from tire dealers across the U.S., scenarios for the industry come up wide-rang­ing, reflecting everything from con-­ siderable concern to unbridled optimism. But while these experts envision very diff­erent things, their views provide a panorama of insights. From East to West, from South to Midwest, the dealers cover too much ground – liter­ally and figuratively – to encapsulate in a mere crystal ball.

Here is the plethora of predictions and preparations offered by an octet of tire dealers. From the East are Nancy Muller, corporate assistant at Kost Tire and Auto Service in Clarks Summit, Pa., and Spencer Carruthers, owner of Ken­wood Tire in West Bridgewater, Mass. From the South, Mark Morrison, pres­ident of Tires First in Columbus, Ga., and Michael Upton of Upton Tire Pros in Madison, Miss. From the Mid­west are Roger Cornelius, president of Statewide Tire Distributors in Vandalia, Ill., and Mark Griffin, president of Tan­dem Tire in Iowa and Wisconsin. And from the West, Sean Furrier, co-owner of Western Tire Centers in Tucson and Kim Sigman, partner and general manager of Com­m­unity Tire Pros in Phoenix.

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