Where to get Goodyear F1 GS-D3 tires?

i've had good experiences with

(same as discounttire.com) they have your goodyear eagle f1 gs-ds 205/45/16 and though the tires are listed at $150 each once you add them to your cart and enter your zip code for shipping calculations they end up costing only $540 ($135 each) delivered and i think there is also an additional $50 mail in rebate. tirerack wants $595 (and up depending on where they are shipped from) for the same tires.

I can vouch for both the grip AND the treadwear as being excellent! I drive what I would call aggressively on the street and these tires are more grippy than you really need, in my opinion. What I mean is, if you like to play at the edges of adhesion as I do, it puts those limits at pretty high speeds for public roads. That's a great thing if you just like to stay stuck to the pavement all the time. You pretty much will. On the treadwear side, I believe this is why the tire is somewhat pricey, it gives grip AND treadwear. IIRC the tires are rated at 280 treadwear and while I know that our lovely govt regulators have not required that these #'s be completely comparable (they are used as much for marketing by some mfr's), these tires really do wear well for a performance tire. I'm now at about 35k with this set and approaching (~at) the treadwear bars. They are still fine, I've just got to pay attention in the wet as they go away. I've been considering something with a higher treadwear rating and a cheaper price so that I can get even more bang (miles) for my buck AND be able to slide around just a bit more. Any ideas for me? With the kind of life of the Goodyears, I may just go with them again.

Chris

99BBB

"Christopher Muto" wrote in message news:oc6dnb5-IutKlbTVnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com...

Tirerack only has one of them, and when I e-mailed them to ask about availability they gave no indication that they would ever be able to get any more. I should have bought a set last fall when Tire Rack had them in stock. :/

Discount tire shows them as special order items that are "usually available in 2-3 days". I'll give Discount Tire a try. I'm half expecting them to tell me they can't get them either...

I sometimes do, but I'll give up some play opportunities to avoid ending up wrapped around a tree on a rainy night. I've always read that they were about the best rain tire you could get. I'll also pay a little more if it means I can get one more summer out of them -- buying tires is a big hassle.

The sites appear to be similar superficially, but there are two significant differences:

Pricing.

The F1's are $135 each at

and $160 each at discounttire.com

Ship To.

At discounttire.com, they'll only ship to a Discout Tire retail store, and you have to pay them for mounting and balancing (I assume they don't care whether you actually let them mount the tires, but you have to pay for it.)

At

they'll ship to anywhere you want. After some bad experiences with big chain shops (Tires Plus), I'm a little paranoid about who I let mess with my car.

That adds up to about a $150 difference between discounttire.com and discounttiredirect.com. I wasn't paying close attention and went first to discounttire.com and was a bit annoyed that you were offered a much better deal that I was. :)

There's a 10% discount for buying online. At

I don't see anyway to buy other than online, so presenting the pricing that way seems a bit odd.

I would have happily paid a little extra at TR because of the good experiences I've had with them in the past, but they didn't have the tires in stock and were unwilling/unable to order them.

Oh, yeah! I've had some problems but I do like the fact that Discount Tire uses a torque wrench to install tires (I'd personally prefer a torque wench but that's a whole different subject....)

I also like this:

"Just drive up to a service bay at any Discount Tire store and ask to have your air checked. We are glad to do this as a public service, regardless of where you bought your tires."

"If you do only one thing to ensure your safety with regard to tires, check the air pressure monthly and always before a long trip. Here is a proposal to make this as fast and simple as possible: let us do it for you. We will do it quickly, and we will do it for free."

Yup, just got a voicemail message from Discount Tire. They're out of stock and Goodyear won't quote them a delivery date. Rats.