Buying tires online vs Direct store purchasing
 

Are there any advantages to either one?

My Mazda3 needs tires and Im thinking about going the online route because of the prices. Then I started to wonder if there was any difference in price? They still need to mount/balance the tires wether you order or buy directly from the store.

Most tire stores like Discount Tire will match Tire Rack prices.

:agree: just go to them, tell em its cheaper on tire-rack and they will price match it with shipping included. So if the tire is 100 each, and shipping is 40 dollars, they will offer 110 per tire.

Exactly. Went to Discount Tire, matched Tire Rack prices.

Game. Set. Match.

Cool, thanks guys!

How much do they charge for mounting and balancing?
Do they add tax?

I have been doing TireRack and having the Acura dealer install, but it'd be easier at Discount Tire if they come close to the total cost.

I think it's like 10 dollars a tire and local sales tax plus local disposal fees...

Good to know about Discount Tire.

I've bought from Tire Rack and had the tires shipped several times without incident.

I don't remember what that mount/balance was, but it was fair and not outrageous.

My issue on tax is that TireRack is in South Bend, Indiana, so since they're in state I have to pay tax. :yuck:

Otherwise, that would have been taken into consideration.

Around here most tire places wont price match tirerack and those that do started to adopt they will only price match what they have in stock (which is never the tire im looking for) and still charge you mounting and balancing if you buy from them. Its always cheaper for me to get them from the Tire Rack. I can order Monday morning from them and have them at the latest wed by noon often tues

I haven't found a local place that will match online prices, no need to really. Just call up you local places and find out their price, then compare that to your online final price(including shipping) plus about 70-80 dollars for mounting. I have gone the online route for the last 5 years, the local shops can't come close.

I just got them off tire rack and had them shipped to the tire place. they arrived within one day of ordering, too

I do this as well, I don't trust the local "tire places" to handle my rims with care. Just did it the other day, Pohanka charged $108.

I love getting them from the tire rack. And even being overseas, it costs me $20 a tire for shipping..... But I would try to get a price match living in the US.

:nod: and generally offer a discount on mount and balance.

That's why I go to Ptuning in Manassas. They have equipment that doesn't scratch your wheels.

I've always gotten my tires online at discounttiredirect. They beat any price I find on the internet and offer free shipping. I've bought like 6 sets of tires from them and they hook me up with any even bigger discount cuz I'm a returning customer.

Ptuning is a good place. They have modded the crap out of some cars that I autocross with, which do really well.

I use Acura West and they have free Starbucks coffee/espresso/cappuccino's and WiFi so it's pretty easy wait.

good to know thanks

Pohanka has the free coffee, bottle water and soda's. When I went in there in other morning to get my car back, they also had donuts, bigger than softball size donuts, I wish I was hungry then.

i order from tirerack and have them delivered to me. then i will call the dealer and haggle them on mounting and balancing. i got lexus down to 15 dollars to mount and balance and program each rim.

that reminds me i need two new front tires for my rims, i wore out the inner shoulder. 18K on general exclaims i can't complain.

For my car I order from tirerack/discount tire direct whichever is cheaper and then have installed at the dealer. The dealer is actually cheaper than any of the local tire places. For my wife's car and my explorer I order online and then have installed at NTB.

I've got a guy that mounts/balances/disposes of old tires for $25 so I always order from Tire rack. I took 5 cars to him this season so far.

Back in NY my uncle has a shop, I used to mount and balance my own tires :tongue: he didn't charge me a dime. Lowest price I could find in Charlotte is $15 per wheel.

surprisingly wal-mart is one of the cheapest and pretty good at balancing. I go to the one in york and it costs $40 to mount and balance all 4 tires. Valve stems are a bit more, prob $10 for all 4 .

They have done a decent job everytime i have gone in. I bought a set of 4 avid h4 from jack williams and had them balanced 6 times and each time it shook like hell. I took it to wally world and it was done right the 1st time.

This is what I have found, as well. I've used Tire Rack 3 times now with no issues.

I used to have them installed at local shop, but the last time I had my snows swapped on, I checked at the dealer and it was cheaper to go there. So I'll continue to do that from now on.

I actually forgot about wal-mart. I did have my last set of tires for my explorer installed at the one in york. I initially wrote them off because my explorer rattled and shook all the way home. A few weeks later I took it to NTB for a re balance and they said they found two of the tires were out of balance. Sure enough on the way home it still shook and rattled. I have had them rebalanced twice since then still not much different. I really think one or more of the tires are out of round.

Thanks for reminding me about walmart though

Once you guys have price compared to your local stores, check out treadepot.. They have rock bottom prices on some sets & they price match.. plus they're a vendor here! My coworker was looking for a specific set of tires for his Tahoe. The tire had a 700 tread rating and it was an outstanding tire but no one had it for less than $180 / tire.. he found out about treadepot and bought them for ~$100 / tire.. :thumbsup:

Me too. So I buy from TireRack or discount tire direct (free shipping).

I find that if you are buying wheels & tires, the Tire Rack is the way to go. But when you need replacement tires, I find that it is better to get a number of quotes and establish a good relationship with a local tire dealer in order to get a competative price for relacement tires.
I find that by the time you order the tires and go to one of Tire Racks appoved installers it ends up costing the same as going to a local tire dealerr. At least that is what I have found to be true in Connecticut.

Never knew that.

I need to get a couple of new tires for the CR-V. But I have no idea what's a good tire for a SUV.

Great Tire/good reveiws!

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....el=Grabber+HTS

Is your guy my guy?

:tomato:

If your guy is the owner of Notorious Motorsports in Waukesha, then yes. :tomato:

I never even considered walmart, I live less than a mile from there. I will be going there with my next set.

When i bought my new WORK wheels i was looking at the Falken FR series and tirerack.com did not have these. I then checked out Vulcan Tire and saw they were cheaper than Discount Tire. Not only did Discount Tire price match, they also added in the Road Side Assistance and switched over sensors from my old wheels all for the price of the 1 tire i was quoted from Vulcan which included shipment.

:stupid:
I got prices from Tire Rack, Discount Tire, etc. for Yoko Advan S4s that, with mounting, balancing and taxes, ended up being about a $50 savings over the guy next door to my office-- but I didn't need to drive 20 miles or wait an hour like I would have had to do with the approved installer/tire center.

Oh, and the balancing was spot-on.

If you live in CA, onlinetires.com's prices are much lower than TireRack and Discount Tire will match them.

However, policies vary from franchise to franchise. Some Discount Tires purposely charge more for mounting/balancing if you have them match Tire Rack.

Also, sometimes they will saying that if you pricematch, you will not qualify for any rebates. For instance, when I bought my friend's RE760 Sports, we had discount tire pricematch, and we had a $100 rebate on top of that, saving us about $200 total. However, the assistant manager made a big stink as to how we could not double dip. But now that I think about it, if I had just had the shop pricematch, there's no way they could've denied the rebate anyway since the money would come from corporate.

I went to a place in San Rafael CA - they matched tireracks price plus gave me the fuel rebate with the Bridgestones and included mount/balance in the price. It was pretty sweet.