Cosmo Tires New GRIPIT XT Off-Road Review in Peru

South of the Equator with Cosmo Tires

Among all the legacy tire manufacturers with a history dating back to the industrial revolution, the young brands are trying to leave their mark on the pavement. Companies like Cosmo Tires, a tire brand making a name for itself with style woven into the tread – literally. Style with performance designed to go the distance.

A statement I can write with confidence after spending some time south of the equator in the scenic sand dunes of Peru, getting a grip on the new Cosmo Tires GRIPIT XT light truck off-road tire.

An Overseas Off-Road Adventure

Good friend of JBW, Michael Satterfield, aka The Gentlemen Racer, deserves honorable mention for this article. In his wisdom, he sent me to represent TGR and JBW on a round-trip ticket to Lima, Peru, with Cosmo Tires.

They say travel broadens the mind, but whoever came up with that saying never flew Delta. Flight delays, runaway taxing traffic, and a check engine light on the cockpit’s dashboard all came together to extend my stay. I didn’t take my first breath of Peruvian air until 2am. Trying my best not to look like a dumb American tourist was difficult while wearing a cowboy hat, and bags under my arms and eye lids.

By that time, I was ready to experience the hospitality of a soft bed. However, before that, I had to get to the hotel from the airport. I needed a ride, and a man named David, driving a manual-shift Hyundai, answered the call.

Ride sharing (Uber) isn’t too popular at airports thanks to taxi drivers, so a lot of the drivers are “unofficial”, meaning they will drive you but not through the app. They are drivers, but think of them as independent drivers.

Night Drive through Lima

I had heard that Lima, Peru, was famous for its traffic. However, based on my late-night commute across town, the traffic isn’t nocturnal. We made good time getting to the hotel with streets crowded with nothing but the fluorescent glow of overhead lights. Fighting to keep my eyelids up and awake was a struggle, but David, the driver, helped by gnawing my ear off about where to go, what to see, and more importantly what to eat in the city.

The JW Marriott Lima, Peru

The summit of the night meant I couldn’t see the ocean view that would greet me a few hours later, come daybreak. When I arrived at the hotel, the JW Marriott in the upscale district of Miraflores, I exhaled into the pillow with a sense of triumph from a long journey completed. Exhaustion overpowered the anticipation for the unknown that the morning and the following days would bring.

This chosen lifestyle of writing has provided me with more than a justifiable amount of opportunities to sample breakfast at luxurious hotels. They all fail in comparison to the breakfast buffet I enjoyed at the JW Marriott in Lima, Peru, with a range of options like scratch-made waffles and quesadillas to beef stew and fresh-squeezed orange juice. You wanted to chew the air. A friendly wait staff that made an effort to remember your name the following day was the cherry on top.

The Cosmo Tire Family

Founded in 1995, Cosmo Tires has strived as a family-owned business spearheaded by the brothers Tony Gonzalez, CEO and founder, and Joaquin Gonzalez, President of Cosmo Tires. Many of Cosmo Tires managers and chief operators are lifelong friends and family who joined the team over the years building an internal infrastructure with deep roots.

Tony is unlike any CEO I’ve met before with talents and job titles that unravel like tools on a Swiss Army knife. An Artist, designer, songwriter, film, and music producer, and car collector, Tony is unlike any CEO I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. The same goes for his inner circle of the Cosmo Tire family.

A decade of interviewing and working with corporate types has created fatigue from their PR-approved responses, which are designed to cover whatever lies between the lines. The Cosmo Tire Family is different. I was able to have genuine conversations with a mutual trust that it wouldn’t be on the record.

As a result, I gained a personal understanding of how this tire company maintains its signature style without losing sight of the challenges often caused by success.

During a night spent at an oasis nestled in the Paracas Bay in Ica, Peru, The Legend Paracas Resort, we were treated to an after-dinner bonfire. Being the introverted sociological scribbler that I am, I stayed back under the cover of a palm tree to observe the scene through a cloud of cigar smoke that made the beer in my other hand taste even better.

Witnessing a company run by family and lifelong friends enjoying the results of their collective hard work that earned them a night around a bonfire in a faraway land became a source of inspiration for me.

Surfing the Dunes with Cosmos Tires GRIPIT XT

A night around the bonfire turned into a morning of strong Peruvian coffee, no cream. Get our collective minds prepared for the day ahead of a long but comfortable bus trip deep into the heart of the Paracas, Ica, desert dunes.

Upon arrival, we walked several football fields from the edge of the desert towards what looked like a mirage among the dunes. The mirage was real, the Cosmo Tires desert off-road test track, complete with a full bar, bathrooms, and floor seating under a sun-shielding tent.

After the official global debut of the GRIPIT XT tire, hosted by Cosmo Tires CEO Tony Gonzalez, we were allowed to try it out first-hand on a designated desert sand course.

The vehicles we would be trying out these tires on were the Chinese-imported, Ford part-borne, JMC Grand Avenue mid-size pickup truck. The off-road course incorporated the use of low range 4×4 to navigate the loose yet suffocating sandy terrain.

Cosmo Tires GRIPIT XT Highlights:

• Unique Sidewall/Shoulder Claw Design: Hand-drawn by the CEO himself, Tony Gonzalez.
• Quiet Kat Technology: Geometric isolation™ grooves designed to break up airflow and reduce road noise on-road during highway and city driving.
• Scalloped Shoulder Lugs (patent pending): Protrusions and intrusions for improved traction in sand, mud, and snow.
• Bead Claw reinforcement (patent pending): Heartbeat-shaped extrusions improve bead retention for better performance over loose surfaces like sand and snow.
• Direct Super Silica (DSS) compound: Durability designed to resist cuts while boosting grip on wet surfaces and lowering rolling resistance to improve efficiency.
• Ultimate Tire Technology (UTT): Reinforced bead and internal structure for optimal strength in all-terrain.
• Construction strength: Constructed using a 3-ply sidewall and up to 12 plies of under-tread reinforcement.
• 50,000-mile warranty + Hassle-Free Warranty: Cosmo Tires’ warranty includes road hazard protection and workmanship coverage.

My favorite detail on the GRIPIT XT is the hand-drawn tread design. It adds an artisan quality to the meticulous engineering, testing, and technology it took to design these tires. Moreover, it highlights why Cosmo Tires stands out from the competition.

They understand that tires can offer more than grip. They can serve as the final piece of the puzzle in completing the look of a vehicle. A shiny chrome or alloy wheel is nothing without the sealed rubber compound that surrounds it, so why not add some style? Give the sidewall some character with names like El Jefe, Mucho Macho, Mud Kicker, and RoadHunter, to name a few from the expansive Cosmo Tires catalog.

Clawing the Dune with GRIPIT XT Cosmo Tires

The Cosmo Tires GRIPIT XT performed excellently off-road, traversing the sand dunes.

The vehicles used for testing were the Grand Avenue, built by Jiangling Motors Corporation (JMC) Group. This mid-size pickup truck resembles an off-brand Ford Ranger, as it shares many components, including the 2.3L turbocharged engine from Ford. The JMC Grand Avenue is new to South America, having debuted in 2024.

The trucks ranged in trim levels from the base model featuring a 2.3L turbo-diesel engine with a six-speed manual transmission, and the top-of-the-line off-road focused Grand Avenue Pro. This model comes loaded with a snorkel, a premium interior, better ground clearance, and a 254-horsepower 2.3L turbo gasoline engine with an exhaust note that sounds like a robotic Rottweiler.  

It also comes standard with an eight-speed automatic and a dial to select one of seven drive modes. Including features like crawl control and “tank turn” which reduces the truck’s turning radius down to 16 feet. Not bad for a pickup truck that retails for under $30K.

The 2.3L turbo diesel engines in these trucks don’t crack 200 hp, so we had to keep our foot firmly on the throttle for the GRIPIT XT to claw, dig, and grip like the feet of a camel.

Where to Buy Cosmo Tires GRIPIT XT

Find a Cosmo Tires dealer near you using the Locator feature on CosmoTires.com. Check out their wide selection of tires for SUVs, trucks, off-road, high-performance, and commercial vehicles like buses and trailers.

You can also order through online sellers like Priority Tire, Walmart, and Amazon.

I’d like to end with a sincere thank you to the Cosmo Tire Family for this memorable adventure.