Going bottom dollar at WalMart tire center tomorrow

[burnbomber]

I'm gonna sing praise to the Walmart Tire and Lube Center. My 15 year old Equinox has 3 of my 4 TMPS sensors inoperative. From this forum, I learned Walmart has the best price for their replacement, and they've also supplied the "Knocks" tires (Goodyear Reliants) with lifetime balance and rotate. So, arrived at the Bixby, Oklahoma Walmart on a Wednesday at 8:05 am. The bays were empty; nobody anywhere. Peeking inside a door behind the garage checkout counter, they were sitting around jawing. I put in the ticket for new TPMS, rotate, and balance; this car was already in their database so I did not need to show receipts (which I had). I sat for a few, then went thru the store for some things and looked at clearance clothes. Before I could clear the store checkout; they texted to say it was done. $112 total charge for the 4 TPMS. All TPMS were reporting, I stopped to adjust pressures to MY settings (36 front, 32 rear) and hit the road. Took it up to 80, smooth balance with absolutely no vibrations. I was impressed; they did alright--a completely competant visit.

Afterwards, I jawed with 2 of them at the counter, asking about chinesium tires (my dilemma--$120 Thai tires vs. $285 Michelin/Goodyear/etc.) One said his buddy was praising Arroyo tires and pointed to a pair on a rack above, and at the same time he spoke down on Ling Long tires. A couple of YouTube posters also praised SE Asia tires--the "I do Cars" engine guy likes Milestar, and the "Bus Grease Monkey" clearly showed "made in china" molded into a new tire he put on a rescued bus.

 

[burbguy82]

ching shen fung dung

I heard these tire to be the same as the:

feng wang chung.....chinese of course

kim suk ill chi....from Korea of course

and last but not least........

sanjay prisha patel.....from india of course

and firestone



so you should be good to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[cheech279]

These are in fact the Arroyo "Grand Sport" UHP tire. 103W XL load. Tread depth is very deep.

Update to where they are manufactured: The sidewall says Made in Morocco.

That's almost as good as Made in Spain.

 

[DannyM]

That's almost as good as Made in Spain.

 

[HouseTiger]

It seems that with the level of technology in modern manufacturing facilities being equal, the variable is in the content and quality of the rubber and additive compounds, along with the reinforcing materials. Many of the big names have facilities in Thailand and Vietnam

 

[oilboy123]

Isn't that some singer the kids talk about?

Are we talking about her intellect being at the same level as the tire

 

[4wd]

Be careful in the rain. Very careful.

Rain, what rain ?

 

[RhondaHonda]

Walmart has some “Atturo” brand that fit my Model Y for $508 for 4 vs $1,650 for the Michelins I have now. I won’t be buying them unless I lose my job but it is appealing!

 

[oilboy123]

I had Reliant Goodyears made in USA installed last Febuary at Walmart. I have them on my 2016 Focus. I about 6,000 miles on them, they seem OK. But the last tires Cross climate were a lot more $$$.

But it was my only vehicle, so I had to get good tires Cross Climates for any weather. I have other vehicles if the weather gets bad now. Which is rare where I drive. I just brought in my loose steel wheels to Walmart. I had purchased the loose Reliant tires a few months before. So I did not have a lot of anxiety having steel rims worked on. We will see when the TMPS sensors give me a problem.

Bonus, the tire guy said my old Michellin tires still looked pretty good to him.
They were 5 years old with probably 1/3 tread left. I said have at them. I like a little meat on my tread. I don't like hydroplaning.....

 

[F150]

You're going to be just fine.. Cheap sensors have been doing well on my Wife's CRV along with the Walmart Goodyears.

Lots of decent tires coming out of Thailand these days too.

Your right, I have a set of Evolux on my 2018 Cadillac XTS, two years in but only 10,000mi. Wearing well ,quite and handles great. Time will tell I guess.

 

[nthach]

A couple of YouTube posters also praised SE Asia tires--the "I do Cars" engine guy likes Milestar, and the "Bus Grease Monkey" clearly showed "made in china" molded into a new tire he put on a rescued bus.

one tire nerd said Sailuns aren’t bad. I’ve been seeing Amulets(Jinyu/Sailun) on the local express commuter bus here, but their regular Gillig fleet gets Conti or Goodyear.

LingLongs are a favorite in cheap endurance racing - 24 Hours of LeMons.

 

[Patman]

one tire nerd said Sailuns aren’t bad. I’ve been seeing Amulets(Jinyu/Sailun) on the local express commuter bus here, but their regular Gillig fleet gets Conti or Goodyear.

LingLongs are a favorite in cheap endurance racing - 24 Hours of LeMons.

I had Sailun all weather tires on my last Civic and they were amazing! Very good in the snow, very reasonably priced and good tread life too

 

[PandaBear]

I'm gonna sing praise to the Walmart Tire and Lube Center. My 15 year old Equinox has 3 of my 4 TMPS sensors inoperative. From this forum, I learned Walmart has the best price for their replacement, and they've also supplied the "Knocks" tires (Goodyear Reliants) with lifetime balance and rotate. So, arrived at the Bixby, Oklahoma Walmart on a Wednesday at 8:05 am. The bays were empty; nobody anywhere. Peeking inside a door behind the garage checkout counter, they were sitting around jawing. I put in the ticket for new TPMS, rotate, and balance; this car was already in their database so I did not need to show receipts (which I had). I sat for a few, then went thru the store for some things and looked at clearance clothes. Before I could clear the store checkout; they texted to say it was done. $112 total charge for the 4 TPMS. All TPMS were reporting, I stopped to adjust pressures to MY settings (36 front, 32 rear) and hit the road. Took it up to 80, smooth balance with absolutely no vibrations. I was impressed; they did alright--a completely competant visit.

Afterwards, I jawed with 2 of them at the counter, asking about chinesium tires (my dilemma--$120 Thai tires vs. $285 Michelin/Goodyear/etc.) One said his buddy was praising Arroyo tires and pointed to a pair on a rack above, and at the same time he spoke down on Ling Long tires. A couple of YouTube posters also praised SE Asia tires--the "I do Cars" engine guy likes Milestar, and the "Bus Grease Monkey" clearly showed "made in china" molded into a new tire he put on a rescued bus.

I love Walmart prices but the cheapest of the cheap I got from Walmart tends to come with 2 problems:

1) They can be very old (like 3-4 years since manufacturing) when I got them, they had that white residue of rubber sitting on the shelf for years. That happened to my General Ultimax Walmart Special I got for 1/2 price of the Altimax. Can't complain I guess.

2) They often comes in the wrong quantity when they call you to go install after arriving at the tire center. A couple times I went there and found out only 1 or 3 of the 4 tires have arrived and the others are TBD. What a waste of time.

Something already ready to install? They typically aren't much cheaper than other places here and if they are they can typically price match Walmart too. I did that this morning at American Tires.

 

[DannyM]

I love Walmart prices but the cheapest of the cheap I got from Walmart tends to come with 2 problems:

1) They can be very old (like 3-4 years since manufacturing) when I got them, they had that white residue of rubber sitting on the shelf for years. That happened to my General Ultimax Walmart Special I got for 1/2 price of the Altimax. Can't complain I guess.

2) They often comes in the wrong quantity when they call you to go install after arriving at the tire center. A couple times I went there and found out only 1 or 3 of the 4 tires have arrived and the others are TBD. What a waste of time.

Something already ready to install? They typically aren't much cheaper than other places here and if they are they can typically price match Walmart too. I did that this morning at American Tires.

Never accept any tires that are that old if you aren't cool with it.. they aren't going to force you to accept them. Discount Tire or America's Tire sells similar dated tires depending on the tire.

When they call you .. just ask them right at that moment to go check that there are four tires there and the manufacture date so you don't waste a trip.

 

[PandaBear]

Never accept any tires that are that old if you aren't cool with it.. they aren't going to force you to accept them. Discount Tire or America's Tire sells similar dated tires depending on the tire.

When they call you .. just ask them right at that moment to go check that there are four tires there and the manufacture date so you don't waste a trip.

True, but that's still annoying.

 

[SOUNDMAN5000]

I can't say anything negative about Walmart tire center as I only used them once to change the oil in a car I paid $650 for.

However , after using a local independent " Good Ol Boy " tire shop I had a tech damage my Dodge Challenger wheel and would have ended in a court case if I didn't choose to just eat the damage myself. A replacement wheel was not worth me having a Stroke because of it so I had to choose to just eat it as it was getting ugly...

Most of my life I have owned performance cars and trucks and always purchased expensive tires. However with my normal cars from a VW Passat to a Honda Accord I have actually had better luck the last few years with with the budget perhaps import tires!

I have also had GREAT experiences the last few years with Discount Tire and is my now Go To Place for tires. I find Pro trained folks that are a cut above the "ruff looking non pro" I find in the tire business at other shops and I like the fact it has a large window I can watch the work being done on my car!

After my Dodge wheel damage I will no longer allow a car of mine to disappear into a shop with no windows!

 

[S62MPOWER]

DO NOT BUY CHEAP TIRES, the Goodyear Reliants are decent tires and not in the cheap category. Goodyear is a top brand. My experience is that cheap tires are quiet and generally smooth and EVERYTHING ELSE is heavily compromised: braking distance, hydroplane resistance, emergency lane change, and wet braking especially. INSTEAD: Go for sales on sites like Walmart, simple tire and tires-easy. Be flexible with your size tire's overall diameter. In other words, if you are within 2% of the over all diameter of stock tires by using a slightly wider or slimmer size, you can use the alternative size without effecting fit or speedometer error and sometimes the alternative sizes go on sale whereas your standard size for your popular car does not. Tirerack makes this size comparison easy, select your size then click view specifications and specifications FOR ALL SIZES, look for overall tire diameter for your stock size. Then look for tires that are close to your stock tire's overall diameter. That way you can shop for those sizes too, increasing your chance at finding a deal. Tirerack has tires that go on sale that are old stock. Be careful, they can be junk, just make sure you can return them if they are compromised from inappropriate storage conditions or Summer tires being exposed to freezing temperatures (this completely ruins Summer tires and happened to my brother). Give yourself some time, shop well before they are worn out and you may be surprised at what you find. I found Pirelli P7 Summer (NOT all season) tires for a huge discount for my Mini Cooper S in an alternative size from stock from Tires-easy and they had fresh manufacturing dates. They are slightly wider, but fit fine. I found another Pirelli, this time a Pirelli Cinturato P7C2's for another car after shopping for four months for tires from Pirelli, Continental, Vredestein and Michelin. The Pirelli's had seal inside, a puncture feature alternative to run flats which I didn't want. BUT, the seal inside feature only added 1lb of unsprung weight and doesn't effect ride quality like run flats, so I grabbed them and they are some of the best tires I've every owned, way cheaper than quoted normally, as I'm guessing Simple tire was getting rid of their seal inside versions through Walmart. When buying tires on sale, check the DOT codes for production dates as some unscupulous dealers will sell old stock without telling you. Shopping tips: Put a set of tires you really want on your watch list, see if specials show up within several weeks of doing this. Try putting them in your cart, leaving them there week or two, then remove them, see what happens. Sometimes they come at you with a discount. I did this same thing with top quality wheels from Enkei on Ebay and all of a sudden I got an offer from the seller for $75 AND Ebay was running a $150 coupon special. They had been on my watch list for three or four months. WANT MORE PROOF? Watch reviews from tyrereviews.com. He usually includes a cheap tire in each tire comparison test as an example of what NOT TO BUY, and they simply are not safe compared to name brand tires. Emergency stopping distances or lane change maneuvers, wet or dry, are scary things to compromise. Here are some second tier tires that can be very very good alternatives to cheap tires: GT Radial, Nexen, Nokian, Barum, BFGoodrich, Cooper, Falken, Firestone, Fulda, General, Giti, Hoosier, Kleber, Kumho, Marangoni, Maxxis, Metzeler, Mickey Thompson, Nankang, Nitto, Optimo, Semperit, Toyo, Uniroyal, Vredestein and Yokohama. Good luck!

 

[TomYoung]

I'd be significantly more concerned about Chinese/ Thailand/ Turkish made third rate tires than the Wal Mart installer.

A friend in the 1980s that led one of the highest end body shops in the nation, stated the painters at Earl Schieb "i'll paint any car any color for $99 USD" were the best automotive painters, as that is all they did 40 hours a week, spray cars. When one paints cars exclusively for 40 hours a week, they often get very good at that one thing.

I’d probably be okay with Linglong or Lexani tires. Also, I can assure you that those Earl Scheib jobs were absolute bottom of the barrel.

 

[Oldwolf]

You can kiss those tires goodbye after your first burnout.

 

[z71bill]

One thing I like about battery/tires coming from Walmart is if you travel a lot you can always find a Walmart over some one off store or small chain of stores. I've done batteries from Walmart but tires I've been pretty exclusive to Discount Tire for at least 27 years which has a decent network of stores in the directions I travel. Maybe someday I'll save a few bucks and give Walmart a go on tires.

DT will price match Walmart - no reason to buy a name brand tire from Walmart because DT most likely also carries it.

I will get the low Walmart price - but the DT will install them for $5-$15 less than WM.