Does anyone buy from Tire Rack anymore? It doesn't seem worth it......

[Joe1]

I tried tire rack a few times in the late 90's. The selection was great, but it was inconvenient/awkward to get them installed at a place l didn't purchase at.

If l had an exotic car or vehicle that required specialty tires, l would consider tire rack and use a proper independent shop for installation.

Walmart is fine for my generic Toyota. They are often cheaper and offer a seamless option for installation at an attractive price with lifetime balance and rotation. My Walmart tire purchase and warranty is readily available in the Walmart app. In my particular case, TR usually doesn't make sense, but it may be a viable option for others.

 

[UncleDave]

Hi everyone,
As the title indicates, does anyone actually buy tires from Tire Rack anymore?
In general their prices are not great especially when you consider the cost to mount and balance the tires. I have looked on their website for the affiliated shops to mount and balance the tires, and some shops are over $60.00 per tire. Yes there are cheaper shops, but at a minimum you will be paying at least $100.00 for mounting and balancing. The mounting and balancing costs negate any real savings in buying from Tire Rack.
I was looking at a set of BFG tires for my car and it is close to $200.00 cheaper to buy them from Costco (included mounting and balancing and rebate). I basically buy all of my tires from Costco.
I have purchased two different sets of tires from Tire Rack because the deal was too good to pass up and even with the mounting and balancing costs, they were still a great deal. I will say that I had no issues whatsoever in buying both sets of tires from Tire Rack.

I just don't see the draw to buy from them unless it's a stellar deal.

What do you think?

Not anymore.

Not after they shipped me one out of two needed brake rotors.
Then failed to complete my order for a pair, or let me return the one rotor.

They walked away from me as a client, so I walk away from them.

Sad we had a prior decent relationship

 

[Astro_Guy]

It makes sense to me if I am purchasing a set of tires and wheels together. They have a depot about an hour from me in Delaware where there is no sales tax which is a serious sweetener to the deal. We did this in December 2024 for our newly aquired 2023 Prius. By and large I agree with the original premise that buying loose tires then having them mounted locally produces little if any savings.

 

[GaryMX5]

I like Tirerack for preseason snow tire purchases....before the panic of the first snow sets in and local supply disappears or causes long waits. We're lucky and have a monster Tirerack warehouse in the Denver area and can save a few bucks picking up tires there. With the warehouse being in town, our Discount Tire stores can get tires really fast and usually more selection than what's carried in the store. I've also taken advantage on their closeout sales on older stock. They're up front and provide build dates for these specials. I was able to get some really good Pirellis for less than some cheap Asian options.

 

[dubber09]

I bought from them several times with shipping inside US and then would take tires back to Canada to have them installed in place of old ones, balanced and put back on car by a local shop for C$80 cash all in. TR prices went up significantly a few years back and are no longer competitive or a bargain compared to prices at Canadian online retailers.
Personally, I used to shop regularly in US in the past for two main reasons - better products variety and lower prices. Lower prices isn't generally a thing anymore, we now see border traffic reversed, US residents come here for groceries and dining while Canadians barely go to US.

 

[MParr]

I'm sure some folks have good reasons for buying tires from Tire Rack. I don't and never have. Their prices are way out of whack.

 

[Bob in Utah]

Discount Tire Direct used to have great deals too. As I suspected, with the merger, both sites got worse.

For years I was a DTD customer

Now with the merger/buyout or whatever happened

Lest set of 5 tires/wheels came from Trail Built Off-road in April’25

 

[charbaby]

Coincidentally, the TR prices is the same as the local tire stores in my area. Or I should say the the local stores have finally started to match the online tire stores. However, I am usually very dissatisfied with the install of many local shops. Dissatisfied with the attitude, lack of knowledge, poor tire balancing etc.

 

[Astro_Guy]

Or I should say the the local stores have finally started to match the online tire stores.

In my area it seems that all of the local shops simply match Tire Rack.

 

[ripcord]

I only read TireRack for the reviews.

I used to buy new tires in eBay, but have been finding better deals on Amazon or Walmart lately.

 

[Hermann]

Purchased my Continentals LX-25's from Tire Rack. On a scale of 10 the tires get a 9, Tire Rack a 3. Nothing but issues. They shipped my tires out of Miami area during a hurricane without protection. Two tires got lost when the shipping label got wet and blew away. Needless to say that it was a challenge to get things right. Tire Rack was not willing to ship new tires for 10 days, after they and FedEx conducted a trace, which didn't go well. In the end it took 21 days to get tires.

Thankfully I chose to have mounting done at Discount Tire. DT has smoothed out the overall experience.

Tire Rack = Never Again

 

[k1xv]

I live in the middle of nowhere, it seems. Forged aluminum aftermarket wheels for your new low profile tires? Nobody wants anything to do with them. Hunter mounting and balancing? Closest place is 50 miles away. Costco? 90 miles away.

With TireRack, I can order the tires I want, have them shipped directly to the mounting shop I want,, drive there with my car, get tires mounted with my wheels still pristine, and continue on my way. Rock bottom price? Probably not. I can usually get the lowest price on tires by ordering them from Walmart on line, delivered to a nearby New Hampshire store (so sales tax), and driving there to pick them up. But I would never have WalMart mount tires on my forged aluminum Corvette wheels. So by the time I drive to New Hampshire to pick the tires up, burn my time and money picking them up and coming back home, and then trying to figure out how to get them to my tire mounting shop, the Tire Rack direct shipping approach is the least hassle and results in the best job.

 

[Duckless]

I still make most of my tire purchases from Tire Rack. I prefer browsing their site, comparing and checking out the reviews on their website versus anywhere else. I'm fortunate that they are a short drive away so install and road hazard are expensive. I always shop around and check Costco as it is an equal drive, and find them to be similar pricing.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Hi everyone,
As the title indicates, does anyone actually buy tires from Tire Rack anymore?
In general their prices are not great especially when you consider the cost to mount and balance the tires. I have looked on their website for the affiliated shops to mount and balance the tires, and some shops are over $60.00 per tire. Yes there are cheaper shops, but at a minimum you will be paying at least $100.00 for mounting and balancing. The mounting and balancing costs negate any real savings in buying from Tire Rack.
I was looking at a set of BFG tires for my car and it is close to $200.00 cheaper to buy them from Costco (included mounting and balancing and rebate). I basically buy all of my tires from Costco.
I have purchased two different sets of tires from Tire Rack because the deal was too good to pass up and even with the mounting and balancing costs, they were still a great deal. I will say that I had no issues whatsoever in buying both sets of tires from Tire Rack.

I just don't see the draw to buy from them unless it's a stellar deal.

What do you think?

The problem I have with Costco they don't do alignments. How ever regardless of that it is where I bought my last Michelins for the Duramax.

 

[barkingspider]

the last 4 sets of tires I purchased I priced Tire rack, Walmart and local Indy shops. 2 sets I got from Walmart and the other 2 sets were from the Indy shop as TR couldn’t come close to the price.

 

[charbaby]

On my last TR purchase, I not only got the tire MFG $100 Rebate, I also got TR's instant $80 Rebate at checkout. Something the local dealers don't offer. So it's the TireRack for me or any online dealer who wants treat me well.

Some of my local tire dealers won't sell tires to a customer unless the dealer does the install. If I could find a local dealer who will just sell me the tires(who isn't 50 miles away) I'll buy from them...maybe! If I can get the best price.

 

[Dborch41]

I live near a naval air station that has an auto hobby shop where I used to buy tires from all the time (my wife is a retired veteran so I have dependent privileges). They always had good prices, "fresh" tires, no sales tax, and the guy in charge of the shop doing the installation was seriously squared away. They weren't a volume operation so the techs were never in a big hurry, I remember one time when the guy was taking quite awhile getting one wheel to balance. He said it was in limits but wanted to get closer to zero, I can't complain about that. They also used torque sticks on their impacts then followed up with a proper torque wrench, not every shop does that.

I'm using past tense because I recently went there just to find out they no longer sell tires, I guess it wasn't available to enough people to be lucrative. Broke my heart because that leaves the neighborhood Discount Tire as the best alternative. I suppose it varies among franchises but this one has a pretty good reputation. I just bought four new truck tires at a decent price, but I'm a bit leery of these guys getting happy with their impact guns. I've made it a habit now to remove the wheels two at a time and take them in myself, they were fine with that and were flexible with the scheduling so I can't complain. I need the exercise anyway.

 

[dnewton3]

I've got my last two full sets of tires from TR and been pleased with the ease of purchase, etc.

The installation ... not so much. A local installer from the TR recommended list. Many to choose from; just won't use "that one" again.

 

[SstrongBadD]

I do the same at America's Tire - and I tip $20 per wheel. I tell them point blank to give me "your best guy" and that I don't want the rims gouged and I want the weights put on straight. I also ask them to calibrate the Road Force machine before balancing. I remove the weights and clean the wheels in advance to a spotless condition so there is no doubt. I watch them like a hawk and tell them I will inspect every wheel after they're done with them. I always take the wheels "loose". I don't let anyone jack up my car and remove/mount wheels. I won't even let them install my rigid valve stem refresh kits. I have them remove the tire, then I get the bare wheel and do it myself. They're always happy to take my money!

I shop at Costco all the time but doubt they would cooperate with my wheel OCD-ness.

This is my oldest wheel set. This set of BBS CHs are 22 years old and have over 100,000 miles on them. They started life on my 2003 BMW E46. I've since moved them to our 2011 BMW E90.

Scott

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did you say you have 100k miles on a set of tires?

 

[Volvo_Expert_Tech]

This wasnt attached to my other post so i am posting again. This is a german website vs tirerack for the same exact tires. In addition to the huge price difference, those on SOFA in Germany get an additional 19% off the advertised tire priced because we dont pay VAT.