Where do you get your tires?

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BeerWars

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My wife's car needs new tires. I am pricing everything out now and I never realized what a PITA this was. Some have cheaper tires but bend you over the barrel on the install and various other fees. I am debating ordering online or going to a shop around here. Where did you get your last set of tires?
 
Discount Tire. Set of 4 Yokohama Geolanders. $40 rebate put me back in line with the least expensive tire they offered.

Ordered online and they called to confirm. They'll try to sell you their replacement guarantee pretty hard tho'.
 
My guess if you take tires you bought online, the place you take them to and have them put them on for you is going to charge you as much if not more for that service if you had just bought the tires there. Wouldn’t shipping kill you? If you pick up you still spend all that time running around.

I go to the local "Tire King" or whatever and buy them there and let them put them on.
 
I get tires wholesale!!! :D

Tire rack has a distribution hub about 15 minutes from me. I know people that know people and I can just go there as if I was from a retail shop and pay for them wholesale.

:ban: :ban: :ban:
 
I just bought a set of General Grabber HTS tires from www.tirerack.com. It cost about $550, including shipping. The total price was less than if I'd bought the tires locally (best local price was $560, plus over $100 for mounting and balancing at their shop). I chose to use a small shop that always gives great service and doesn't have a surcharge for bringing your own tires, and they only charged $50 total for mounting/balancing (done in less than an hour while we ran some errands).
 
For me it is convenience too. A place by where I work can do the job while I am at work instead of taking up my personal time. I went to one place, a major chain around here, and the guy said a couple hours and I needed to leave my truck. I went literally next door to another major chain around here and the guy said he could put them on in 1/2 to 1 hour max. He did them somewhere around the 1/2 hour mark, I go there all the time now when I need something done on the weekend and they are always fast.
 
I always get a price from tirerack.com (seems to be the cheapest online store), then have discount tire do a pricematch.

I am finding that price difference is negligable and Discount Tire makes their money on the install.

Ironically Costco has the highest tire prices but they are about $60 cheaper installed than everyone else.
 
I am finding that price difference is negligable and Discount Tire makes their money on the install.

Ironically Costco has the highest tire prices but they are about $60 cheaper installed than everyone else.

You can also grind on the install & warranties. You can usually get the warranties for half off and get a better deal on install if you negotiate.
 
i order the tires from discount tire direct and then take them somewhere else to be installed, i hate the local discount tire.
 
That was a long time ago, because I bought my van about the time the Honda needed tires. My current plan for new tires on the van is to have the local shop order and install them. Slightly more expensive than a chain, but they are the only place close and are more than willing to order exactly what I want.

My wife goes to Les Schwab, as they are all over the place in Portland and that's where she works.
 
I was going to get a set of tires from Discount Tire because they had a $45 mail in rebate, then i saw that COSTCO had the same tires for $5 cheaper per tire and also were offering the same $45 rebate but instant instead of mail-in.
If Costco has the tires you want I would check with them if you have a membership or a friend with a membership.
 
Last set was Sams. For what I wanted, it was the cheapest out the door price I could find. Saved more than enough to pay the yearly membership, which I already had. Plus they do free lifetime balancing, rotation, and road hazzard. And if there's not a Sams around, you can get those services done at Wally World.
 
If Costco has the tires you want I would check with them if you have a membership or a friend with a membership.

Are they sticklers on whose card it is?

I have my dad's card that I use to buy a few things here and there through the self checkout. I didn't know if the tire jockey was more discerning.
 
Americastire.com

or something like that. I have an 07 honda pilot. Which takes truck sized tires that are expensive as hell. I could not find anything for under $600 locally. I found them up in eugene for a decent price with a rebate.

I cannot remember the out the door price. But it was cheaper than sears, les schwab, and big O.

They also do price matching.
 
I bought my last set of tires from Discount Tire. But I went to Tire Rack online, found the set of tires that I wanted, and went back to Discount Tire with their price to get a price match. They offered me a price that was about $10 higher than if I had bought the tires online, had them shipped, then installed by them. So for me, the lack of a hassle was worth $10.

But I also work with a guy who is originally from the Chicago area. He told me that he bought a set from Tire Rack and had them installed at a store someplace near Chicago. I want to say that it was somewhere over the border in Indiana, but I'm not too sure where it was. I won't be seeing him anytime soon or I could get a more definitive answer for you. Either way, might be worth looking into as he told me that it was BY FAR the cheapest price he could find anywhere.
 
Local Big 10 tires. Their price was just a little more than tirerack.com would have been (after everything) and more importantly, I trust them to do a good alignment. My truck was out of alignment really bad and was ruining the front tires. The first replacement set, and alignment, was done by a Firestone dealer and the new tires were ruined just as quickly as the old set. They charged me for an alignment but didn't do it. Big 10 replaced those tires and did an alignment and these tires are wearing evenly/perfectly.

It seems 4-out-of-5 places I take my car for work, they try to rip me off. But this Big 10 tires doesn't do that. I took my ~200K mile Mustang in for new brake pads (still on originals) and just told them to replace them, I figured after 200K miles they had to be bad. They took a look and told me I still had over half the pad left and sent me on my way. Just having a place I know I can trust is worth a lot to me.
 
Les Schwab for me (the the NW)... prices are OK, but they made me a believer in service:

I was loaded with a 9' truck camper, 65 miles of gravel out of a small town in Idaho along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. I rounded a corner near a mine and totally ripped 2 tires open. No cell service, and facing a multi-day hike out, a Forest service truck picked me up, took me to the local Schwab, and they drove me back 65 miles with free replacement tires. They put them on the truck and it cost me nothing... NOTHING! I offered cash for the effort, beer, food, etc. but I was told "this is my job - glad we could help".

That sold me!
 
Les Schwab for me (the the NW)... prices are OK, but they made me a believer in service:

I was loaded with a 9' truck camper, 65 miles of gravel out of a small town in Idaho along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. I rounded a corner near a mine and totally ripped 2 tires open. No cell service, and facing a multi-day hike out, a Forest service truck picked me up, took me to the local Schwab, and they drove me back 65 miles with free replacement tires. They put them on the truck and it cost me nothing... NOTHING! I offered cash for the effort, beer, food, etc. but I was told "this is my job - glad we could help".

That sold me!

Wow that's amazing, I'm on the other end with Schwab. Nothing but bad experiences for me, & way overpriced.

I got tires for my Horse Trailer from tirerack and got a good deal, plus super fast delivery, wound up saving about $125 when it was all said and done. I've had good luck with Americas Tire, but we only buy new tires for my wifes truck since she pulls the Trailer with it. For my truck, I just buy used tires. If you can be patient, you can usually run across a pretty near new set of tires for a super cheap price. I guess it just depends on how many miles you drive a year. I drive my truck very little anymore since I started working from home, so going used just made more sense for me. I can usually get a decent set of 4 285/75/16's Mounted & Balanced for somewhere between $150-200. Might be worth looking into.:mug:
 
Last set was Sams. For what I wanted, it was the cheapest out the door price I could find. Saved more than enough to pay the yearly membership, which I already had. Plus they do free lifetime balancing, rotation, and road hazzard. And if there's not a Sams around, you can get those services done at Wally World.

I'll second the Sam's Club tires. I've bought tires there a few times. Always had the best price, and the free lifetime road hazard is great. As long as the tread is still over legal limit, it doesn't matter if you hit a curb, drive over a nail, etc..., they've always repaired/replaced it free.
 
tirerack or discount tire & walmart/pepboys or reasonable local install
I have yet to be satisfied with the value equation for goodyear or michelin tires. Avon, kumho are lesser known but i've had some great tires from both.
 
Usually sams club for me, best out the door price. Although I recently scored an awesome deal.
Im a corrections officer and happened to be working court duty. Through the grapevine I heard about a deputy sheriff doing driver trainer in his SUV and rolled it while doing reverse maneuvers. It was determined that the civilian tires were not suited for the SUV on the county squads and needed to be replaced with special tires. The tires are being pulled from all the squads in the county and have been hitting the county auction site. I picked up a set of Goodyear wranglers 265/75r17 that were almost new for $82, and about $80 at the local tire shop to install them.

Mike in Duluth
 
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