How to buy tires for your car (letter to a friend asking for advice)

That last bit depends on the car. Tires with a low sidewall aspect ratio can cost a fortune because they need extra reinforcements. Mix a low sidewall aspect ratio with a heavy car and you're looking at prices starting at $250 per tire. Most tire shops will try to sell such tires with a lower load capacity and say they're giving you a good deal, but underrated tires won't handle well or last long.

There's also sport versus cruising and everything in between. A sport tire may be so superior in performance that it grips better in the rain than a cruising tire grips on dry pavement. The downside is noise, a harsh ride, and rapid wear. Cruising tires are comfortable and long lasting but not great performers.

Why?

Which size...?

Why?

That's nonsensical.

How much longer than between tire sets would you suggest for alignments...? -----

- gpsman

Problem is the cheapest local installer is going to be using torque sticks and are apt to overtorque everything and bend up your rotors. They are also apt to find lots of other things wrong and wind up sticking the customer for the cost of an alignment (which more often than not is actually a misalignment).

So it's good to at least beware of these things.

--scott

This should be obvious - buying a car from some dumbass who put on the wrong tires, you don't want to propagate that. They might be all four different size retreads, you know?

The size for the car. Usually they list all the combinations that came with the model, sometimes they might be off. Some cars these days have 3 different sized wheels available from the manufacturer.

This appears to be trying to maximize safety for the young 'un. Probably way over-generalized.

I agree, but I do the same thing. These are internet opinions, it takes some skill to judge them.

This is a tough question. I've put 20K on the new beetle I bought used five years ago, which had apparently OEM replacements with I guess 5 or 10K on them. No alignment has been necessary, even though there is obvious off-road damage from the previous little-old-lady- driving-on-Sunday and I've had trouble with bent A-Arms. This has surprised me. I'm unsure if I'll do an alignment when I get a new set.

I would think getting an alignment with a new set makes sense, but I didn't with the Chrysler, no apparent issues 15K miles later. I think I've done this several times now with cars up to 200K.

It seems it depends on the car and circumstances. The roads around where I live are crap, too.

jg

Be sure and print everything, it seems there are sometimes different prices between franchise and corporate web sites. There are also sometimes marketing sites with outdated information that look similar to the real sites, trying to get referral fees or something.

jg

So why "compare" them...?

That isn't clear.

Ya think...?

Right. Knowledge/skill of which I think we can safely assume the recipient has none.

Especially if you can't "read" a tire.

The roads are crap everywhere, so you must drive like me, which almost no one does. -----

- gpsman

Yah, I'm the guy in the Bug who thinks he's James Dean in the Spyder ;-)

jg

But not too much skill. When you see the reviewer has put 100 miles on the tires and says they are "Awesome!" just ignore that. Not much different than wading through product reviews on Amazon. I trust my take on enough good Tirerack reviews much more than a tire rating from Consumers Report. They still around? You just need enough reviews for a tire on your car type. I don't bother reading reviews where the tire is on a car substantially different than the car I want them for. Don't recall if the OP said look up reviews by tire size, but that's useless. Has to be by make/model.. You do have "tire nuts" writing some decent reviews there. I've trusted some of them enough to buy based on their reviews, and was satisfied with the result. I've found the biggest problem is when there aren't enough believable reviews for my car, or the tire model is discontinued.

I never align because I put new tires on, unless there are wear or tracking issues. But it seems how it's worked out the last couple times is when it was time for front end maintenance like struts, or tie rod ends, it was time for new tires too. So I did it all at within a week, tires and alignment last.

I agree with both of your comments, I would also add that unless this is a car that a) never sees snow, EVER or b) has a set of dedicated winter tires to exclude anything that has "summer" in the description (or doesn't have "all-season.")

Sounds like you actually have a pretty good handle on it, and I would definitely try to price match with a good local independent shop before just ordering from tire rack - it works out the same in the end but you build a good relationship with the shop that way. It's an easy sale for them if you walk in already knowing what two or three models, sizes, etc. of tires you're thinking are acceptable.

Finally, I've had excellent luck with Michelin tires and find them to be a little more expensive but wear a lot longer than other mfgrs. comparable tires, while still having good traction. Whether the premium is worth it really depends on how long friend's daughter anticipates keeping the car.

nate

I've finally found a shop that I trust to install tires on my car - if any of you are near DIA I can tell you where to go. (no, I'm not being a smartass )

nate

Yeah, I've got to say the Discount Tire warranty for the wife's car has paid for itself, her being able to deal with it instead of being dependent on me if nothing else. 3 times in two months at one point IIRC. Tire guys are a long way from brain surgeons, so having decent policies, procedures and locations makes a difference.

I'm normally bitching and moaning about warranties.

I have generally too, though on Chrysler 300M they were noisy as hell and I eventually went with whatever Tire Rack recommended as the quietest (don't remember what now, funny how easier it is to remember the screwups).

Usually auto dealers are to be avoided, but I have seen them actually have decent tire deals (rarely, but I have). I speculate because they buy a bunch for their trade-ins, perhaps also to upsell other services.

jg

My method of getting tires: Look at the door sticker and tires to find tire size. Go online to Discount Tire and NTB to see what they have on sale and if they are at the local stores. Call the store and confirm they have them and how long of a waiting line. Go to store (take reading material) and have them put on. Drive away happy one hour later. The entire process takes me about one hour and twenty minutes.

Your method: Way too much unnecessary movement and hassle. What country do you live in?

What do you do if a new tire is bad? The tire store will blame you or the installer.

What do you do for free tire rotation and balance as the tires wear?

What do you do if tire gets destroyed?

I go down the road to a large independent tire place that sells Cooper. I have them put on and get out. Cooper is all they have.

Years ago there was a mail-order tire place in WVA. They used to have a tire installation inside a department store in Pittsburgh. They had good deals. Next thingI know they are NTB. Never went to NTB. There are three independent tire discounter near me. It's hard to find better deals overall. Don't know what I'll do when I have to replace my truck tires. They are low slung big rimmed. Gona cost.

Greg

EVERYTHING jgar said was on the money!

Thanks.

I understand 'what' you're saying ... but ...

The problem is trying to simplify how to get four round black ones her daughter's car - and - well - it just seemed senseless to try to have her judge which installer to use when there's really no way to tell which installer is better than any other installer.

Is there a way to tell which installer is better than another?

I just got tirerack tires shipped to a "recommended installer", Midas, and, guess what?

Midas charged me 10% more than their advertised price for the installation on TireRack.

So, I signed the estimate and then called Tire Rack who called Midas who then lowered the price after an hour of phone calls.

But just for me (by adjusting the labor rate).

The only problem with that is that the NEXT person who goes into Midas is not going to get that price so they're still fleecing people (bait and switch).

Silicon Valley.

I've never had a "bad" tire but if it were bad, I'd call TireRack and complain. I'm sure they have a procedure (although I confess I don't know what it is).

Depends on what went bad. If it has a nail in it, then they should blame me. If it wore prematurely, then they have to look at how the other three tires wore to see if it was the alignment. If it delaminated or developed a bulge in the sidewall, well then, I would think they'd make good on it.

You know. I must confess. I bought tires a few times from Costco when they had the free rotation and, well, I just NEVER took it to them for that free rotation. I just did it myself. Much more convenient than waiting in line for hours for something that takes less time (with 4 good jack stands) than it takes to drive to the place.

I would buy another tire using the exact same process only I'd match the tire to the other three. I'm not sure why this question was asked.

But, back to the intent: These are all good questions which a mother and her daughter might need to worry about ... so I take them as good advice. But they don't answer what we can tell that mother and daughter directly by way of algorithm.

But that's the Midas way, or should I say, the Midas Touch!

I've avoided going to Midas the past 25 years because of their shady practices. Friends don't let friends go to Midas.

- Peter

Obviously not, as even a good one may go bad. And obviously, the feelings that women have that they are being taken advantage of come from some truth (really, taking advantage of suckers is gender-blind, and surely some macho guys overestimate their own ability to judge). Part of the reason I got a good deal on my bug was the little old lady felt the vendors were taking advantage of a little old lady. Perhaps they were, but there were things that simply needed to be fixed. I felt the same way getting those things fixed even understanding the issues as a car guy.

All you can really do is ask your friends who've they had reasonable dealings with recently, there's no deterministic algorithm. And then you risk the fact that your friends might be bat-shit crazy. With yelp and similar, there's the additional sock-puppet risk.

When I was in car clubs there were usually people who worked in the biz who could direct you towards the good guys. That's not feasible for the general public, though perhaps everyone knows a car guy that can help. I can say there was one group that was got uncomfortable when they realized a member was subtly ripping them all off.

Years ago when I was auto-crossing, I got to know my local Goodyear dealer well, really liked him, and gave him a lot of business. Then he got some roid-raged weightlifter guy as a manager, I couldn't deal with it, so went elsewhere. Eventually that guy left and I went back. With that set of tires, the ABS light came on as I left, and they told me it would go out in a few miles (true in some cases). Well it didn't go out, turned out the installer had cut the ABS sensors. So they had to replace them, the manager showed me the invoice, parts alone certainly wiped out any profit they might have made. While I felt they tried to make good both by fixing it and fessin' up, really, this is brakes we're talking about, they lost my business. So it goes.

My wife is a psychologist, and doesn't want me to go to one place because one of her patients works there. There's another place I avoid because a former tenant works there, he bolted and left me to deal with junk truck and engines. lol

jg