Hi All,
Well I bit the bullet and bought a set of 4 new tires today for my Town & Country from the local Firestone dealer. They had a $50 off a set of 4 sale going, and they also gave me another 5% off as a price match against Costco's Michelins. (Costco had the lowest price of anyone I surveyed for a comparable tire) Here's the breakdown:
Tire: Bridgestone Turanza EL400T 205/70R15 80,000 mile warranty. Manufacture date according to DOT code: June of
2007. 1 ply polyester, 2 ply steel. 1 ply polyester sidewall. Tread depth: 12/32 UTQG treadwear rating 640Pricing:
Unit price: 96.99 Sale discount: $50 for 4 (-12.50)
5% price match (-4.23) (5% of 84.49)subtotal: $80.26 per tire (better than tirerack.com with shipping for the same tire)
Additions to price (per tire):
wheel balance weights: $2.99 wheel balance labor: $8.00 valve stem: $3.00 tire disposal fee: $3.00
subtotal: $16.99 per tire
Road Hazard: $14.55
grand total: $449.12 (includes $1.92 shop supplies)
Firestone does sell a "lifetime" balance - but the manager of the shop told me that as long as I brought the van back to them they would rebalance on request for free. The lifetime balance warranty was only if I wanted to take it to other Firestone shops. I didn't purchase it.
Likely, if one tire went really badly out of balance it would have to be pulled and checked under the Road Hazard warranty so balancing would probably be covered there.
Warranty info:
Mfgs 80K warranty: (tire defects NOT caused by road hazards)
An interesting note on the manufacturer's warranty - the little tire spec booklet for the EL400 showed the tire carried a 70K mile warranty - but the current Bridgestone website and the invoice show an 80K warranty. I suspect that the manufacturer upped the warranty period when they discontinued the Turanza LS - which had a higher UTQG rating. Free tire replacement period is 3 years from date of purchase OR 4 years from date of manufacture OR before wearing down to 2/32 of an inch. Pro-rate replacement period is within 5 years of date of purchase or 6 years from date of manufacture or before wearing down to 2/32. Exclusions are road hazard, continued use while flat, improper repair, ozone cracking after 4 years, uneven wear between tires, use while over or under inflated, worn or misaligned suspension, use of tire sealant (fix a flat) tire chain damage, failure to rotate tires, chemical damage (ie: Armor All, etc). (there are several other exclusions that are customer-inflicted-damage type stuff)
Firestones warranty (Road Hazard)
No time limit - coverage all the way down to 3/32 of tread left. Any failure, ie: road hazard, OR any manufacturers defect. If tire is repairable they repair it (ie: free flat repair) If it is not repairable they will REPLACE it - no prorate.
The exclusions are similar to the manufacturers, (with the obvious exception of road hazard) the only two significant additions are tires damaged in a collision are NOT covered, nor are tires damaged by vandalism. I guess they figure since your insurance company is going to be paying out, they won't. This does make it interesting though if you run over a curb and destroy a tire - as a curb isn't "in" the road. ;-)
Now, compared against Costco's sale next week for the 80,000 mile Michelin X-Radial of $86.99 per tire, mounted and balanced, it was higher. But, that price doesen't include the mandatory Costco membership fee of $35 in order to buy the tires. The Bridgestones, mounted, without road hazard warranty totaled 390.92 The Costco Michelin X-Radials would total $382.96 including the Costco membership cost, and including the tire sale that's starting next week, with a road hazard warranty that is basically worthless if the tire isn't repairable (credit towards a new tire purchase at non-sale prices doesen't count for anything with me) and no ability to buy a better warranty. Not to mention that for the Costco warranties (both road hazard and mileage) to remain effective, you MUST rebalance per their schedule at their shop - all free of course, but to get in the door you have to maintain your $35 a year Costco membership.
It seemed to me that $58 for replacement coverage warranty for a set of tires that cost $400 was probably a good idea. Espically as these are going on my wife's van. (Hey, I'm not saying I'm a better driver, but I've never picked up a road hazard that made a tire unrepairable, she has, and she's also bent a steel rim on another car :-)
The other really important thing to me was tire noise. The Toyo's that were on the van when we bought it have always been noisy to the point that on long drives such as to the beach or whatever, my wife and I were constantly saying "say again" to each other. But I noticed already on the drive home from Firestone, where I wasn't even getting above 40mph, how much quieter the new tires are.
I know this post was a bit on the long side, hopefully it will help someone who is planning on doing a tire purchase. The Firestone sales runs through tomorrow, and the Costco sale starts Monday. I will, from the looks of it, have to buy a second set of 4 tires for my other van very soon since those are also worn out - and I am planning on getting the X-Radials from Costco for those. Mainly for the price, and for the treadwear UTQG rating - I'm mainly commuting highway miles in that van when I'm not riding my CB750K and need all the fuel economy I can get - but more importantly, with the price of oil hitting 100 a barrel last Wednesday, it's pretty obvious that expensive commodity items like tires are going to jump in price later this year.
Ted