Tire prices on the rise

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Has anyone noticed that tire prices have really gone up? For the past year or so I've been looking at Michelins LTX suv tires and they are up about $50 per tire. Ealier in the year Costco had them around $200 per tire. Now they are $250 and Tire Rack etc has them for $300. Some are even out of stock. When I asked about a reason, I was told Covid. I wonder if that is about the flu or the fact that the workers are getting so much money to stay at home with the extra unemployment etc.
 
I stated on this forum before that there is inflation coming and it will no doubt get worse! Why? In part, because of the large Covid payments the government has made to private citizens that are not backed up by production. It is a trillion dollars just run off the "printing presses." Now remember, oil is priced in dollars. So oil prices go up as the dollar gets weaker. Today, the Euro was over $1.20. Not too may months ago, it was below $1.10. So you can expect to see oil prices go up as well as anything made from oil....fuel, rubber (tires), plastics, fibers, etc. And yes, some of this is due to production issues and demand but there is an overarching theme of inflation starting to take shape. And if the government sends out more $1200-$2000 checks, you can expect inflation to really take off.
 
Probably all of the above.

Uncle Sam drops an extra $3 T of computer generated money into the economy.

Production of all manner of goods is down.

Imported goods are likely skewed heavily towards PPE and similar. Are there not stories of ships anchored off shore awaiting open berths to dock?

Not sure how much oil prices work into it. Probably some of it. But more likely it's a shortage of product and/or inflation due to fiat money created out of thin air playing the biggest role in price increases.
 
The question is, though, are miles driven down enough to cut demand? Who is going to accurately predict tire needs in the amount of time it takes to command a production and distribution run?

I bet there'll be a surge in demand of "something" as the economy opens back up and the supply chain struggles to keep up. I can't imagine "what", though, with any precision. (If I could, I'd be a commodities trader!) I know I'm sitting on cash, not spending it, staying inside, and bet there are lots like me. There will probably be vacations, but I only go somewhere if I "get a deal", so might sit out. Flipside is if people drive instead of flying or cruising... many facets.

I am sitting on a nice stash of eight new prius-sized tires, LOL. Will mount them before they age out.
 
The question is, though, are miles driven down enough to cut demand? Who is going to accurately predict tire needs in the amount of time it takes to command a production and distribution run?

I bet there'll be a surge in demand of "something" as the economy opens back up and the supply chain struggles to keep up. I can't imagine "what", though, with any precision. (If I could, I'd be a commodities trader!) I know I'm sitting on cash, not spending it, staying inside, and bet there are lots like me. There will probably be vacations, but I only go somewhere if I "get a deal", so might sit out. Flipside is if people drive instead of flying or cruising... many facets.

I am sitting on a nice stash of eight new prius-sized tires, LOL. Will mount them before they age out.
I recently bought a low mileage set of p245/75/16 sized takeoffs on CRAIGSLIST which do me fine, most of these new truck owners want to upsize to bigger AT macho tires and I get thier takeoffs relatively cheap with no taxes, depending on the size/type of tires scanning CRAIGSLIST or classifieds can pay off as opposed to buying new.
 
Must be a big tire to have been $200 in the first place.

For the smaller sizes that would be $100 or so, or even less than that, I haven't noticed a real increase at all, maybe a few dollars, but nothing extreme, and certainly not $50 :eek:
 
The question is, though, are miles driven down enough to cut demand? Who is going to accurately predict tire needs in the amount of time it takes to command a production and distribution run?

I bet there'll be a surge in demand of "something" as the economy opens back up and the supply chain struggles to keep up. I can't imagine "what", though, with any precision. (If I could, I'd be a commodities trader!) I know I'm sitting on cash, not spending it, staying inside, and bet there are lots like me. There will probably be vacations, but I only go somewhere if I "get a deal", so might sit out. Flipside is if people drive instead of flying or cruising... many facets.

I am sitting on a nice stash of eight new prius-sized tires, LOL. Will mount them before they age out.

My first thought is demand vs available supply. Demand could be down over previous years and supply down even more, driving prices up, not down.

I drove more in 2020 than I'd driven the past couple of years before.

My wife drove less as her school closed up in March and other than a few days to hand out Chromebooks and the occasional backpack distribution for kids with food security concerns, she stayed home.

Once the 2020-2021 school year started, they went with K-3 Virtual on Mondays, one track of Tu-Th and the other track on W-F so they had half the kids in the school at once.

So she was WFH every Monday until mid-January when they finally brought all the kids back (if the parents wanted) M-F. So she drove about 2/3rds of what she normally drives in a year in 2020.

This year is going to be close to "normal" use at about 20k miles.

But those are just anecdotes. Our overall usage was about the same. But I had more, not less miles, while she had the opposite.
 
Probably just the usual variations. Correlation does not imply causation. I just looked up the price of tires on Costco. I think I got them 3-4 years ago. Price is about the same, about $20-$30 over what they were 3-4 years ago. Their discount is slightly less, back then $70 back on Michelin and 1 cent installation, now just a basic $150 off, I think before that worked out to $160 off.
 
I'll shy away from the causes of increasing tire prices but if you want to avoid getting gouged, here's my suggestion. Look to lower tier tires as replacements. For example, I recently bought a set of Nankang 235/45/18 for $69 each. Had qualms about quality but I am gobsmacked. They are church mouse quiet and very forgiving of my clumsy driver inputs. Tires are like opinions and some other things, everybody has one.

That's mine.

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Well, OPEC did cut production of oil, so just that alone would help...

I’s going to be a combo of many of the things above. One of the biggest ? Tires sales, and production are way down. That tends to happen when much of the general population goes nowhere...

Was blessed that both my jobs were close before the. ‘Bug”-but that could change should my current furlough ends up as a termination. Even though we are doing fine-money is watched carefully, and we spend very little. Unsure times are coming, and it is best to be prepared.....
 
I think a lot of this recently has to do with, "hey, can we use that excuse?"
^this
Lots of orgs increasing prices just because they can "justify" it. Also keep in mind that taxing imports is probably the worse decision ever...we now pay more and govt collects extra tax $ on items that we buy. No wonder the govt can still function without the corporate tax dollars. Just sayin...
 
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^this
Lots of orgs increasing prices just because they can "justify" it. Also keep in mind that taxing imports is probably the worse decision ever...we now pay more and govt collects extra tax $ on items that we buy. No wonder the govt can still function without the corporate tax dollars. Just sayin...
That's a good point I forgot about. With tariffs up on imported goods AND so many tires being manufactured off-shore, prices will rise.


Just another factor in why prices are rising. Tariffs are paid by consumers, not those producing the goods.
 
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