are tire rack prices too high?

[HTSS_TR]

I bought more than 1 set of tires from TR more than 20-25 years ago, back then they were lower price than any local shop and we didn't have America's Tire locally.

But TR's price is too high now compares with others, and local AT matches price with online so I do some researches, print the lowest total price I could find and take it to local AT for price match, they just add installation/balance.

This way I get the low price and have local services in term of free rotation/balance, flat repair and tread life warranty.

 

[fdcg27]

As with anything else, you have to shop a bit, which is so easy to do online these days.
TR is sometimes the least costly option, but sometimes some other source is.
Costco can be either a deal or a rip-off, as with TR.
TR does offer a large slice of the tires you might want in any given size, so it's at least a good site to look at when looking for tires.

 

[3for3]

Over the years when I shopped around for tires I asked TR and Costco if they would price match other online and storefront competition. Each time I was told by both TR and Costco to some degree "we don't have to price match because we have the best prices/and or services". Boy, are they wrong.

The last time I questioned TR about price matching Pirelli P7 Plus', the employee on the phone seemed as though he was tired of answering that question, but he muttered "our competition price matches us, no reason for us to price match when we have the lowest prices and best service." Ohhhh-kay dream on.

I liked to use the TR website to research tires, but the new website is not so user friendly anymore.

It seems like they use huge pictures and fonts to yell out "YOU'RE HERE TO SHOP FOR TIRES!!! YOU'RE HERE TO SHOP FOR TIRES!!! BUY OUR TIRES!!! BUY OUR TIRES" Are they trying to cut down on the amount of people just using their site for researching tires and price comparing? I'm sure a lot of website hits, but not equating to a lot of sells per number of visitors.

I am sure DT can get any tire and size that is offered on the TR website. A sales person at DT told me they can special order brands like Nokian, Mastercraft, Vredestein Tires, etc.

One TR rep said TR can only sell brands and models listed on their site. For example TR could not even price quote the Hankook Dynaopro MT because they cannot sell that model. It is a very popular tire sold all over the web, and my friend asked me to find the best deal on them. TR sells Hankook, but not every model.
So, how can TR claim to have the best service?

 

[CharBaby]

In my Zip Code, the shipping is $69 for the LTX M/S 2's making the cost between TR & DTD very close in price. But, these tires would be waaaaaaaay more money here in my area from tire stores and I don't belong to a club such as BJ's or Sam's. And I guess we just got our first Costco:

http://www.ny1.com/nys/rochester/news/2015/02/8/costco-hiring.html

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: edyvw
I am done with DT afar they sold me Michelin PSS. I said specifically: Do not want tire that is older then 6 months (not bcs of tire, but bcs of how they store tires). They delivered tires that were 8 months old.


Something you have to realize with the Michelin PSS tires, they have very limited production runs in sizes. We had a customer see the Ford tire commercial and came in to get prices on Michelin PSS for his Nissan GTR. We had a hard time finding them and we called Michelin and they said they hadn't made that particular item number for over 9 months so anything on the market would be at least that old.

I had to wait a bit when I had my S60R for the PSS tires to become available in my size, same with my current Mustang.

O and TR prices are lame compared to other wholesale distributors when you factor in their freight. They used to be the Mazda tire supplier for dealers, but were replaced by a company that did not bone us on freight. They still call and claim they are the "Mazda dealer tire center" and tell us that we have to buy from them. My boss and I just laugh and hang up on them. I can usually beat their prices without much work.