Best place for tire purchase

[JohnnyO]

Support your local small businessman! (I own a small business) I buy from a local shop with fine balancing equipment, for the most part they do not sell name brand tires. OTOH, it's decent stuff, I can walk around and browse the racks, and since I'm there so much and send them business, if I need a rotate & balance they only charge me half what they charge anybody else.

Tire Rack is nice, I've bought from them, the prices look good but once you figure in about $10 each shipping and $10 each to mount and balance, it kinda negates any savings. I've bought there for my dad's and my sister's cars that had oddball sizes that were tough to find.

 

[VaderSS]

When you live in a large city, yes, the shipping and M&B tend to negate the savings, but whan you are not in a large city, it is still usually possible to achieve quite a savings, as well as getting tires you simply cannot buy locally.

If the local offers the product at anywhere near the mail-order cost, up to about 10% or so higher, I'll go that route, but I'll not get raped either. At any rate, you still gotta' pay someone to mount and balance them, so you are still helping the local out.

 

[Eddie]

I have used TireRack and think they are very good. One problem I've had is when I needed to use the tread wear warenty. Tirerack says Sears Automotive. Sears insisted that I have receipts for alignment work every 6 months before they would hornor the warenty. In short: they don't want to warenty anything if you didn't purchase the tires from them. That is a real negitive if you purchase on-line. ed hayes

 

[MNgopher]

I use the Tires Plus a few miles away. Doesn't hurt my cousin is one of the head mechanics over there...

I got a price match on my REVO's, lifetime balance, rotation, and tire repair, and they actually had the tires in stock as opposed to every other outfit that quoted me 4 to 6 weeks on the size I wanted at the time.

Maybe its just me, but the help at Wal-mart doesn't give me the warm fuzzies even if they are cheap...

 

[nthach]

i go to a small tire shop in Marin, my dad thinks Costco is good, but i beg to differ.

 

[02supercrew]

I ended up ordering tires through Sam's club for both of my vehicles...LT265/70R17's Bfg at's for my F-150, and P215/65R16's Gy Alegras for my wifes Taurus.

I ordered them @ almost $15 per tire cheaper than any online store that I could find, which more than paid for my membership 3 times over.

 

[tmorris1]

I've had good luck with Sam's Club and a small local shop that has good prices. Tires Plus tire prices are good, but then they rape you on the mounting, balancing, and valve stems. I think Sam's has lifetime mounting and balancing for about 8.00 - 9.00 per tire (used to be 6.50). They also told me that they can order most any tire that they don't stock.

 

[cryptokid]

i just picked up a nice used tire balance machine and tire mounting machine.

i do all my own work on my vehicles. the only time i ever bother to go into a tire store is to buy tires.

heres a money saving tip for some of you. if you buy new tires, they will try to stick you with a tire disposal fee. locally it is $5 per tire.
if you just elect to take youre tires home and put them out with the trash you can save $20. i dont know if every city takes used tires for free with the heavy trash but mine does.