Hey there, welcome! I’m Emrecan Gürkan, but everyone calls me Emre.
Quick intro, I promise. I’m a civil engineer by training, with some graduate studies in industrial engineering on top. I started out as a field engineer on tunnel and bridge projects, so believe me, I know what tough conditions look like. Then I spent almost two years at Brisa Bridgestone as a Field Marketing Engineer. My main focus was truck and bus, off-the-road and agricultural tires, with some passenger and light truck work too. These days I’m a spare parts product manager in the truck industry.
When I’m not working, I’m probably off the pavement somewhere. I’m an overlander at heart, so if you ever come to Turkey, ping me. I’ve got routes to share!
What I actually did at Bridgestone
My job was a mix of field work, data and a lot of driving:
- Field tests. I ran long-term tests in different cities, measured tread and wear, and compared results against competitor tires. The test tires I drove myself were mostly passenger and light truck tires, the same kind you’ll find on this site.
- Benchmarks. I worked with the technology team to pick which competitor tires to test and what to measure.
- Complaints. Every month I went through customer complaint data, and I visited customers at home and abroad to see the problem on the actual vehicle and figure out what caused it.
- Market research. I ran field surveys, followed competitor launches, and wrote new product concept reports for international product teams.
- Dealers. I visited dealers all over the country to hear what drivers were really saying.
That complaint work is what I lean on most here. Once you’ve seen enough tires come back, you start reading a complaint and spotting the real cause: the vehicle, the load, the pressure, the driving style, or yes, sometimes the tire itself.
So how does TireTerrain work?
Here’s the honest version: the numbers on this site don’t come from my own tests. They come from people like you, real tire owners.
- Lots of owner reviews. I analyze more than 44,000 reviews from Tire Rack, SimpleTire and Discount Tire. Each one gets sorted into topics like snow traction, road noise and tread life, and every number on a tire page is counted straight from those reviews. When a group is small, you’ll see plain counts instead of percentages, so nothing looks more certain than it is.
- What the maker says. If a manufacturer makes a claim, you’ll see it right next to what owners actually report. Sometimes they match. Sometimes they really don’t!
- Independent tests. If Tire Rack has tested a tire, I link you to their results instead of copying them.
- Emre’s Take. This is where my field experience comes in. It’s my read on why a tire behaves the way owners describe, and who it’s a good fit for. It’s my opinion, and I’ll always label it that way.
I use an AI model to help draft the page summaries from the data. I check every number and edit every text myself before anything goes live.
About the links
I don’t sell tires. Some retailer links are affiliate links, so if you buy through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data says.
Got a question, or a tire problem that’s driving you nuts? Reach out on LinkedIn or hit the buttons below. Have a safe ride, folks!