Tire rack vs. Discount tire?????

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"Discount" is "Americas" in LA because another local chain also called "Discount" was already established, very confusing to the public. Anyway, I have used all three and I will use Tirerack again. I dont like haggling with salespeople in order to get a good price.

If warranty service was my primary consideration, I would go to Sears. They are most everywhere and open on Sunday. My father has always been treated extremely well there.
 
I believe that the TIRE RACK website is the place to begin in doing a search for new tires. Second, the manufacturers website. Then, purchase through DISCOUNT TIRE for service.

Example: I recently purchased an '01 1500 DODGE Ram. I had a long look at the TR site, and paid special attention to customer comments in the review section. I covered each of the three tire brands chosen (from dozens at the beginning) from every single point TR makes available.

I then went to the manufacturer websites and did the same. Some, like MICHELIN, offered a search function to make tire recommendations per specific vehicle, and this was used to again search, study and consider the tire choices at the TR site.

Once a single tire was chosen, and the complete costs of ordering from TR (plus local mount/balance) was calculated, I put in a call to DISCOUNT. As always (over the past 4-5 years) their quote was within a percentage I found acceptable.

And that accceptability rides on this: a great shop full of well-trained men with good attitudes, appreciative of a customer interested in all aspects of tire balance, mount, wear, etc.
All my questions are answered. Plus, they are trained in the use of the HUNTER GSP-9700 Road Force Balancer which is the final piece of the "percentage acceptable".

Someday, this may not hold. The outstanding manager may move too far away; the shop may decline in service, etc. (I pass more than six closer DT locations to drive to this one). That may tip the balance. But, as DT has national service, the balance remains in their favor for the time.

On someone elses car (who is less involved in it), for my parents car, for a car I am selling, then TR would be hard to beat.
 
quote:

Originally posted by TheTanSedan:
I believe that the TIRE RACK website is the place to begin in doing a search for new tires. Second, the manufacturers website. Then, purchase through DISCOUNT TIRE for service.


TanSedan, I agree. Americas Tire (California name for same chain) has given me excellent service and prices within a hairs of Tire Rack's once shipping and mounting are added.

In addition to America Tires normal good service, I bought some tires for my Corvette several months ago. I didn't like what the tires (Kumho 712s) did to the cars handling so took them back after a bit over a week. Americas gave me a full refund against some better tires with absolutely no hassle.
 
DT does not have national coverage in the US. I used to live in VA - no DT nearby.

http://dt.know-where.com/DiscountTire/


As far as TR - they have a list of recommended installers who 'theoreticly' were verified by TR and meet their standards, and are supposed to do a good job in mounting/balancing.

But I agree, if you have a place that you trust, and especially has someone who knows how to use the Hunter machine, then it's a no-brainer. The after-sales support is also important. If there's something wrong with your new tires, with DT it's easy to replace/exchange. With TR - you have to ship the stuff back and wait for new stuff to come in. That's additional hassle.
 
It helps to do your homework. I went to Discount Tire and ordered a pair of tires. Even after factoring in the extras, they quoted $40 higher than if I got it shipped from their warehouse. After I pointed this out they "recalculated" the proper price and got my business.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Kestas:
It helps to do your homework. I went to Discount Tire and ordered a pair of tires. Even after factoring in the extras, they quoted $40 higher than if I got it shipped from their warehouse. After I pointed this out they "recalculated" the proper price and got my business.

That just goes to show, you never know how good your price is unless you make a point of knowing. It's always worth checking.

I always check tire rack first, if the will save me 15% over Americas or have somthing I can't get at Americas. So far, the price has always been awash for the tires I have wanted.

The only time I have used TR was when Americas couldn't get the tires I wanted. My experiance with TR was very good. The Tires were delivered by a big brown truck 24 hours after I ordered them on line. Having a reliable tire store where I can deal with them face to face is worth up to 15% for me, but so far the difference in price for me has been close to 0.

It's really nice to have two good choices.
 
Another option is to go through the local Ford dealer. They aren't always the cheapest off of the get go, but if you show them a tire rack printout that includes freight they'll match it. I don't know if the GM dealers are doing this, but I know the Ford dealers are, and at the local dealership, mounting and balancing is cheaper with tire purchase than if you bring in your own tires.

This also gives you a place to go for warranty that mail order doesn't
 
I like Costco. They are the first tire store I ever saw that uses a torque wrench to tighten the lug nuts (as opposed to the impact wrench). Plus the free rotations and balancing is great.
 
DISCOUNT uses an air gun to remove, and to start lug nuts, but then finishes with a hand wrench with a pre-calibrated socket (so to speak), so that my 90# vehicle is correct as is my 115# vehicle.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Quattro Pete:



But I agree, if you have a place that you trust, and especially has someone who knows how to use the Hunter machine, then it's a no-brainer. The after-sales support is also important. If there's something wrong with your new tires, with DT it's easy to replace/exchange. With TR - you have to ship the stuff back and wait for new stuff to come in. That's additional hassle.


This is the exact reason I bought tires locally last week instead of online for my personal truck. I had decided on the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 and after printing out Tire Rack's price, my local Firestone store actually beat it. Include a $55 rebate for a set of 4 tires purchased and my net cost was $71.25 each in 275/60-17.

If I have any in-warranty problems, no need to dismount the tire and ship it off. Firestone's warranty is good at any Firestone/Bridgestone dealer as well as Tires Plus.
 
Relative to the "Match mounting":

This is a common and well known way of getting the best out of a set of tires and wheels.

I suspect it was either done badly or the wheels were supposed to have hub rings to fit your particular vehicle.

Most aftermarket wheels have a "universal" fit to the hub and the ring is used to center the wheel on the hub. Otherwise the lug nuts center the wheel and that's not a good way to do that!
 
quote:

Originally posted by Pablo:
After shopping both on the web - it appears "Discount" tire is more expensive than Tire Rack. And I'm not talk just $1 difference - sometimes $12-15 for the same tire!

Are you factoring in the shipping charges and tax?
At first tirerack looks really cheap, until you add the $10 or whatever per tire for shipping. For 4 wheels, the prices come out fairly close.

I have a problem with discounttiredirect. When I bought my wheels, $2k worth- michelin tires at $280 each and rims at $250 each, I splurged and got there stupid ride match system balancing. Here's what they say:
The ride match system simulates a "road test" that senses the vibrations generated by the wheel and tire. The source of these disturbances is something that cannot be sensed during wheel balancing. When the system detects a problem, it prompts the technician to diagnose and correct the problem. The result improves ride quality, performance and wear.

What that really means is instead of the wheel as a whole being perfectly balanced, it's imbalanced to account for other forces they assume are going to be present. For the 1st 3 months, I swapped my news wheels with the factory ones trying to figure out the source of the vibration I was getting over 30mph. On the highway, it was horrible. Finally took the new wheels I got from DTD to pep boys, had the guy balance them all the traditional way and had them check the current balance. They were grossly out of balance. So now the car rides about 90% as good as on the factory rims/goodyears. I still wonder if the rims and/or tires from DTD my have some sort of imbalance that can't be corrected, or maybe the goodyears are just a more quiet tire, but the car will ride smooth and stable at high speed so I leave it alone. DTD didn't want to hear nothing from me about the problems I had, and I had to eat $40 for a new balancing which I should not have. The idiot that thought up the ride match system should hang... after i get my $40 back.
 
Pablo:

Of course, if you had your own tire mounting apparatus and wheel balancer (check the Harbor Freight catalog) you could mount and balance your own tires. I think I paid around $100 total for these two tools; they have paid for themselves many, many times over.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Mike242GT:
Pablo:

Of course, if you had your own tire mounting apparatus and wheel balancer (check the Harbor Freight catalog) you could mount and balance your own tires. I think I paid around $100 total for these two tools; they have paid for themselves many, many times over.


Please tell us more.

How long does it take to change a passenger car tire with the HF changer? Is there much of a learning curve to get proficient at it?

Have you had any tires that you weren't able to balance well enough with the static balancer?
 
1 FMF - yes I am including shipping.

However - I just got off the phone. The local discount will match Tire Rack - whoo hoo!!
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They have to order them from Texas - Friday or Monday.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Pablo:
1 FMF - yes I am including shipping.

However - I just got off the phone. The local discount will match Tire Rack - whoo hoo!!
grin.gif
smile.gif



That's nice to know. I didn't know local Discounts would negotiate. So far mine has been as good as Tire Rack once mounting and shipping were included, but now I know not to give up on the local Discount (Americas) if their prices do come in a bit high.

My first experiance with Yoki tire was the Avid S/T I put on my S-15 truck afew months ago. No wear results yet, but they are an excellent tire, particularly for a low price. Very good wet/dry traction, quiet, good handling and quick steering response. They are only S rated, so probably not for you.

If they cost twice what they did cost, I would be happy with their performance so far and I'm picky about tire performance.
 
Now my goat has been got.....Discount still doesn't have my tires yet....erg....they said Fri - or Monday at the latest. Tues PM and still no tires.

Now they say they need to come from Ohio, not Texas! Say Whaaat?
 
After body slamming Discount tire here....the phone rings about 20 minutes later.....the guy was goofy and the tire were there since Monday (duh) so down to Bellingham and back with new tire.

So far they are way better than the Conti's!!
 
quote:

Originally posted by andrews:
I wouldn't let a Walmart "tech" within a seven mile perimeter of any of my vehicles....including tires. One time they couldn't even handle an oil change I had them do on a rental car. They didn't screw the filter down tight enough and used an improper amount of oil.

why were you getting the oil changed on a rental car?
 
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