Buying tires online

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supton

supton

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I haven't run the numbers yet as to if it works or not... As in, is it cheaper to buy a set online, pay shipping, and then have a local shop mount and balance. I'm not sure it does, not in common/popular sizes and common/popular tires, but it's easy to enough to run some numbers.

What I am curious is, how does it work out if it doesn't work out? Say you receive a bad tire that won't balance, or breaks a belt in short time. Do you keep an old tire to rotate on, and just eat shipping costs of returning the tire to the manufacturer? Thereby negating any savings?
 
Ive bought a lot of tires online as I have a good shop that mounts tires as their only function, and it has come out better... However, the pricing on some tires at Costco has been compelling to the point where it was a good deal to pay to join costco in order to save money on the tire purchase.

Never had a bad issue with a tire, so I cant comment on that.
 
I've bought at least 8 sets of tires on line. Never had a problem, never had one fail.

For cost, it pays to comparison shop. For example, just put 4 Michelin Pilot AS3 on the S600, and my local tire store was cheaper than Tire Rack when all costs were factored in. I just put 4 new Generals on the XC, and Tire Rack was cheaper including the cost of shipping and paying $80 to get them mounted and balanced.

Some tire stores offer free rotations if you buy 4 tires there. I do my own, so this is less a factor or me.

Finally, I needed tires the same day this past weekend (bad week for tires, 3 cars in 3 days....) for the 300E because of a blowout. Local tire store had a set of Yokohamas in stock - and they're an odd size, so local guy it was, even though Tire Rack would have been cheaper, the exigency of the situation dictates the choice.
 
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I have purchased pre mounted/balanced snow tires from the tire rack and they saved me about $100 for the set. I found it was pretty convenient having them arrive at my door ready to bolt on. Unfortunately for you, but, fortunately for me, I had no issues so i cannot speak to the warranty issue. Good luck on whatever you decide.
 
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My experience is it makes sense with expensive specialty tires not common sizes.I would not hesitate to buy mounted wheels though as they charge nothing to mount them and can weed out bad tires since they typically use high grade balancers.

I have had bad two tires in 4 sets ordered online and find it to be painful to get any help locally for obvious reasons. Also some shops charge more or refuse to mount other folks tires.
I now stick to local shops but have a plethora of choices as live in an area concentrated with shops.

Don't assume its cheaper online definitely call around.
 
I've very rarely found it cheaper to buy tires online. And when it is, bring that price to your local tire stop; most will at least match the price.
 
When I got tires from tire rack they somehow managed to avoid my state's environmental fee... couple bucks prepaid on a new tire where they assume you're just going to throw it in the woods later.
mad.gif


I came out ahead even including shipping. I also got a name brand Kumho instead of the off brand junk they peddle locally.
 
Originally Posted By: supton
I haven't run the numbers yet as to if it works or not... As in, is it cheaper to buy a set online, pay shipping, and then have a local shop mount and balance. I'm not sure it does, not in common/popular sizes and common/popular tires, but it's easy to enough to run some numbers.

What I am curious is, how does it work out if it doesn't work out? Say you receive a bad tire that won't balance, or breaks a belt in short time. Do you keep an old tire to rotate on, and just eat shipping costs of returning the tire to the manufacturer? Thereby negating any savings?


I do not believe the online places are selling seconds or blems. The shipping is almost covered by no sales tax. I got some recently from Treadepot.com. They have various sales and I got 4 Cooper M&S with free shipping.
 
I'm not worried about getting seconds as much as getting the random bum tire. I have a pretty high value on my time, and would be willing to pay a few bucks more to avoid issues; but to be fair if I have to go to a shop and wait an hour to resolve an issue... it's the same amount of time and frustration. Hence I'm willing to give online a try, but I'm not sure how it works out trying to replace a bad tire if it's DOA somehow.

Looking around some shops have free rotations, and some don't, so that factors in somehow. I can rotate tires myself, probably takes less time to do so; but if I do so then no real warranty on the tires at that point. Which is another consideration, as I've never had tires last as long as the manufacturer seems to think they will.
 
My experience with online tire retailers is from the tire manufacturers point of view.

The guy the mounts the tire doesn't have a vested interest in your satisfaction. He has no incentive to sort out the good from the bad and to try to find solutions to problems that my come up.

Take for example a warped wheel that is causing a vibration. A guy who only mounts the tire may not even inform you you have this problem and you could spend many days trying to resolve this issue.

A second example is mounting damage. It's easy for the installer to deny that they are at fault - and again, many days of work would ensue to get this resolved.

I am NOT a fan of buying tires online - with some exceptions. In my case, it is the only way I can get my discount. I can also see using an online retailer for some odd, specialty items.
 
I have bought tires both from Tire Rack and locally.

My preference is to shop for a good deal online, print it out, and take it to my local tire dealer and see if they will match it. Most of the time they will. When they do, I have local support for the tires I've purchased. I haven't had one go bad, but it adds to my peace of mind.
 
When I put Firestone Destination LE2's on my Explorer last year the local Firestone's tire price was slightly less than Tirerack's. Was a slam dunk to just go with the store.

So I agree you always need to call the stores and compare with tirerack prices.
 
Only time I have bought online thus far has been from DTD. As far as I know (tires when on a parent's car) there have been no issues, but remember one user posting he usually mounts with 30 days of purchase, and had a problem and DTD worked it out with him without too much hassle.

For me, usually the local shop can get pretty close +/- $5 to Tirerack after I figure in mounting, balancing, shipping, etc. but the labor day sale at DTD yielded a huge savings. Cavalier - 195/65/15 CS4's for ~ $167 after all discounts (not to mention they only wanted to replace 2 tires so I sold the other 2). I think at the time I would have been able to get a set of tires for the Ford in my sig for ~$85 after all rebates, and would have just had to cover mounting and balancing... might be worth checking out if they are doing anything for Black Friday.
 
Though I have actually helped others do the searching online compared to buying localy and they have done better by buying localy for their Brand/Size of tire(apples-to-apples).

But, not me. I have personaly saved between $120-$150 from buying 4 tires online, paying shipping(or not), local(*Walmart) install as compared to(apples-to-apples) buying from our local tire stores.

The only items that I am not getting when buying online(and I can still opt for these) is, Road Hazard Warranty and Free Flat Repair. I still get lifetime balance/rotation from W*M.

I think that in 45 years of driving, I have gotten 2-3 flat tires and never ruined a single one to justify the RHW cost. So, I am going by my personal experience.

I also have a little more time than many folks to, mess around with buying online and taking tires over to W*M. Lots of folks just don't have the time or paitients as I do!

I've been buying tires and other parts online for about 10-12 years now with great success.
 
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I've bought several sets of tires from Tire Rack and had them mounted by one of their recommended installers. So far I've had good luck with the tires and the installation, but it still pays to shop around, it's possible to find a better price at a local dealer.
 
Originally Posted By: kam327
When I put Firestone Destination LE2's on my Explorer last year the local Firestone's tire price was slightly less than Tirerack's. Was a slam dunk to just go with the store.

So I agree you always need to call the stores and compare with tirerack prices.


I just helped a friend do a search online and localy for the Destinationl LE/2's and he can get them at the same price from the Firestine Dealer as buying online w/local install...and more, all the extras!

I haven't been this fortunate!
 
I mail-ordered a few pairs and sets from bestusedtires some years back, but they aren't enough of a deal for me to bite lately.

I've also bought new sets of tires from eBay. I saved about $100 over buying locally, but it can be a hassle to find a shop to mount/balance them for you. Used isn't generally a problem.
 
I have successfully used the online price to get a local match.

Arrive with the price including shipping and say I'll buy here if you can match this price and mount and balance them for something close to the install partners listed on the website.

For more pedestrian tires, I just go to Sam's Club and pick my tires, have them installed while I buy 5 gallon drums of nacho cheese.

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I've very rarely found it cheaper to buy tires online. And when it is, bring that price to your local tire stop; most will at least match the price.
 
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