Good places to buy tires?

[spk2000]

My local Walmart was getting many complaints in tire center for the long delays and they always blame no shows or high turnover. Manager decided to make appointments and has been working quite well. I don't mind spending 1 hour at Walmart. I hate when they tell me 1 hour and 4 hours later still haven't touched it.

Also you can order almost any tire online at Walmart.com and even have it shipped to them. They do take returns very easy when I accidentally ordered the wrong size.

 

[Rat407]

Must be a local thing because the Sam's club here takes appointments.

 

[spk2000]

Originally Posted by Gebo
Independent Tire dealers. They want you to come back and will work with you if you aren't happy or need warranty work.



Not always true. Paul's Tire in Carrollton, KY refused to do anything for me when they recommended a set of Mastercraft Tires for my car. Tires wore out in about 10,000 miles and were rated for 50,000. Paul himself said no one else has ever complained about them and I must have an alignment issue. I bought some new Michelin's and they lasted 80,000 miles no alignment. Got the Michelin's at Walmart and never went back to Paul's. I also let everyone know in case they have a need to go there. Here is my story about them.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted by spk2000



Not always true. Paul's Tire in Carrollton, KY refused to do anything for me when they recommended a set of Mastercraft Tires for my car. Tires wore out in about 10,000 miles and were rated for 50,000. Paul himself said no one else has ever complained about them and I must have an alignment issue. I bought some new Michelin's and they lasted 80,000 miles no alignment. Got the Michelin's at Walmart and never went back to Paul's. I also let everyone know in case they have a need to go there. Here is my story about them.


That's unreal that this tire shop wouldn't do ANYTHING for you with those mastercrafts. Didn't they have some sort of 40-50K miles tread life warranty on them? 10K miles isn't even enough for them to say you didn't rotate them enough, etc. I'd be ticked off with that place as well. It's not like Mastercrafts are inexpensive.

 

[Paul_Siu]

Good does not mean you get wine being served while you wait or what I term non-essential service. What I want is the actual job done properly at a reasonable price. The tire should be mounted properly, balanced, all lug nuts tightened and TPM setup properly. So far most places can do that properly.

Then it's the aftermarket service. What happens when I have a problem later. This may be due to TPM sensor reporting an issue. What does the vendor do when I return and ask for it to be fixed. In the case of Sam's club, I also brought it back after it was hit by a nail on the sidewall. The warranty kicked in and I get at least partial credit in the new tire. If I brought it back for the free rotation, do they give me a hard time, etc.

So far, I find that I do not have issue with the Sam's club. The work is fine. They rotate the tire without a fuss. One thing to watch out for is if your Sam's club membership lapse, the warranty stops working. This happened when there was a mixed up with the membership renewal which was not the auto-department's fault. It did however prevent me from getting it service.

The biggest issue with Sam's club at my location is that there's usually 2 mechanic and they handle both the front desk and the back. If you show up, you may have to wait like half an hour and a long line to get your car registered, then you find out that you are 12 on the list and will need to wait several hours. Sam's club often tell me that I can shop while I wait, but shopping for 4 hours is not going to work.

Paul

 

[Dave9]

Originally Posted by ejes
I have tried all the regular dealers; Sam's, WalMart, Big-O, etc., but nothing beats a REPUTABLE local, independent tire shop in my opinion. I have been buying tires from and having tire service performed at a local family run shop for about 10 years now. They take care of return customers who they recognize way better that the nationally owned chains. My shop's prices are competitive and often times better, but I don't mind paying a little bit more for less hassle when dealing with a warranty issue or getting a patch job.

**I shop online for the tire I want and give them a call. They can always get the tire I want in two days or less and usually price match the online price for me.


I bet they don't. I bet you pay so much more that I could just buy a new tire and still have money left over.

There's no way around it. Maintaining a physical store means paying a lease, and employees, etc. The overhead is not paid by the tooth fairy leaving quarters under their pillow, MUST NECESSARILY be paid by customers. It is literally impossible to match online tire prices at any local shop if you buy wisely.

At the same time, I like supporting the local guys, similar to how I don't want Amazon to put every local store out of business, so as always if you value a business, patronize them to keep them going.

 

[pandus13]

Originally Posted by Paul_Siu
Good does not mean you get wine being served while you wait or what I term non-essential service. What I want is the actual job done properly at a reasonable price. The tire should be mounted properly, balanced, all lug nuts tightened and TPM setup properly. So far most places can do that properly.

Then it's the aftermarket service. What happens when I have a problem later. This may be due to TPM sensor reporting an issue. What does the vendor do when I return and ask for it to be fixed. In the case of Sam's club, I also brought it back after it was hit by a nail on the sidewall. The warranty kicked in and I get at least partial credit in the new tire. If I brought it back for the free rotation, do they give me a hard time, etc.

So far, I find that I do not have issue with the Sam's club. The work is fine. They rotate the tire without a fuss. One thing to watch out for is if your Sam's club membership lapse, the warranty stops working. This happened when there was a mixed up with the membership renewal which was not the auto-department's fault. It did however prevent me from getting it service.

The biggest issue with Sam's club at my location is that there's usually 2 mechanic and they handle both the front desk and the back. If you show up, you may have to wait like half an hour and a long line to get your car registered, then you find out that you are 12 on the list and will need to wait several hours. Sam's club often tell me that I can shop while I wait, but shopping for 4 hours is not going to work.

Paul

I run a "tire shops near schaumburg il" on google.

since you pay membership at sam's, but don't like the local store, I would guess you don't use costco, so that's out.

I also see a discount tire on higgins rd with golf rd. if not another one in Roselle.

A pepboys, ntb, goodyear.... etc etc

Also you can check the closer Suburban tire. I used one in Streamwood, but closer to 9-10 years ago.

I personally used the discount tire in arlington heights last year and there where OK. But you have closer location choices.

there is a flash sale discount tire runs for Today and Tomorrow (open their store credit card and pay 0% for 6 months if paid in full, $100, $50, $60 off selected tires)

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by Newreet
For a long time I've been a satisfied customer at TireRack.com. They have a great selection, competitive prices, ratings, nice web site, and coordinate with other places for mounting/balancing.


Well I guess it's good to hear someone buys from them. I just use their website for info but you can always get a better deal at the local store. I think the only reason I used them before in the past was because they carried a tire that the local store didn't. But I didn't really spend much time looking around to different stores. Now I'm not that picky, the standard Michelin or Continental is good enough, I don't go that crazy searching for the best tire. And all the local stores carry it. And the local store prices like Costco beats tirerack. Their price per tire is slightly cheaper than tirerack, but once you factor in the mounting, balancing, road hazard charge, it's all cheaper plus warranty coverage is from Costco, have fun with a warranty issue with an online store. Plus no shop will give you free balancing/rotation on tires you bring in. Pretty much all other tire stores around here will price match too

 

[UG_Passat]

I go America's Tire (Discount Tire). If they don't have the tire I want, I go Simpletire.com since they tend to have competitive prices...

My winter tires: America's tire has Nokian WR G4 SUV.
My new 3-season tires I just ordered, America's tire doesn't carry Nokian Entyre C/S, so I ordered from SimpleTire

 

[Skippy722]

I narrow down to the tire I want, then price it out at various places. Of course, convenience plays a part of that, I'll pay a little more if it saves me 20+ minutes.

 

[DuckRyder]

I buy them form Tire Rack or my friends at the dealer, then have my friends at the dealer put them on.

Tire Rack is usually competitive, sometimes my friends at the dealer say they can't buy them for what Tire Rack sells them for (EX Michelins) plus TR now includes shipping and road hazard. I don't really care about free rotates as I do that, They rarely if ever need balancing after the installation.

I did have a couple warranty issues with TR and they weren't any bigger hassle than they would have been locally...

Discount Tire / Americas tire does not use Road Force balancers and I do sometimes get flat repairs or a tire replaced there when traveling... They almost always vibrate after DT works on them then when I get home and have time to take it to my dealer I find out they botched the balance and in one case it have 75lbs of force variation... Now flat repairs are free so its tough to complain too much about that, but still it doesn't motivate me to have them do paid work.

 

[ejes]

Originally Posted by Dave9
Originally Posted by ejes
I have tried all the regular dealers; Sam's, WalMart, Big-O, etc., but nothing beats a REPUTABLE local, independent tire shop in my opinion. I have been buying tires from and having tire service performed at a local family run shop for about 10 years now. They take care of return customers who they recognize way better that the nationally owned chains. My shop's prices are competitive and often times better, but I don't mind paying a little bit more for less hassle when dealing with a warranty issue or getting a patch job.

**I shop online for the tire I want and give them a call. They can always get the tire I want in two days or less and usually price match the online price for me.


I bet they don't. I bet you pay so much more that I could just buy a new tire and still have money left over.

.


Don't really care what you think. Been buying work tires and personal tires for 35 years; I have the receipts to prove otherwise. This shop has always matched or done better than the TireRack price I show him on my phone. This isn't a shop that just does a dozen sets a day. They have 2 shops in town and every bay is busy M-Sat; they push a large volume. Customers drive 60 miles from Kansas City and 30 miles from Lawrence just to get tires installed there. Guess they're just as crazy especially considering the gas they burn here and back just for tires...

 

[Toros]

I buy from Tire Rack. They are hands down the best for prices. I save $40 and pay no sales tax as I pick my order up at their warehouse in Delaware and forego delivery. It's a 30 minute drive for me. Have my mechanic mount and balance.