Does buying from Tire Rack make sense any more?

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I started a simiar thread a few months ago.never made sense to me unless you could not get the tires you want locally. You pay more when you add in shipping and having them mounted and balanced locally
 
Originally Posted By: dparm
If you live close to them (Chicago area), it's worth the trip to buy in person.

How? You'll end up paying sales tax instead of shipping, so it's a wash. On top of that, you'll waste time and gas money driving out there.
 
I bought snow tires last year from Tire Rack, partially b/c of my own procrastination, but still saved a few bucks versus local & elsewhere online.

I had been waiting to score a Black Friday sale from Sears, and my order was stopped (the snows I wanted were supposedly sold out across all of Sears, and I learned had been since last season). DTD was much higher for the Xi3s than Tire Rack, and did not have any General Arctics in stock, so it was buy local or TR. I still saved a bit versus local on the quoted price ($5-$10 a tire). But avoided tax (8.125% here) + $2.50 a tire environmental fee + online cash back (FatWallet/Ebates). That equated to about another $80.

Based on the Memorial Day "sale" at DTD, I'm not too positive about finding a deal there in the future.
 
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Originally Posted By: Miller88
TR doesn't seem to be a good deal unless you're buying premium tires.

For cheap / everyday tires, seems that the best value are the Chinese tires from small local chains or something from Tread Depot / Tires Easy / Discounttiredirect.

Last set of tires I bought in a store were the Winterfarce tires back in 2011. I have bought 2 or 3 sets online since then. Still cheaper to buy ,ship and bring somewhere to have mounted up.


^This. Over the past few years TR appears to have expanded their wholesale operation. So although you may find them slightly cheaper at X, there's a chance that X sourced your tires from TR.

I've had good experience with TR. Saved about $150 on my last set. I'm lucky since TR has a warehouse in my state.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Discount Tire opened a store here, so it's buh bye Tire Rack for me.
"Buh bye".
lol.gif


About right though. DT will match or beat TR's shipped no tax price, so little reason to buy from TR for me. They also will match or beat their online sister company DTD's no tax price which includes shipping.

See Tread Depot (online division of Kaufmann tire) mentioned often, but they charge tax in NC, so not usually the lowest price here. But, DT will match them too if they are the lowest price.

TR is great for tire research and price comparison, but unless one can get TR's tires installed with all the things that go with it like lifetime balance and rotation for significantly less than local b&m tire stores, indy or otherwise, doesn't make much sense.
 
There are more online tire sellers than TR and some may be closer for cheaper shipping. Living in NY order snow tires from Ohio they came in 24 hours . Also like that they were only 1 month old on date of manufacture.

Also Bought Firestone Destination LE2 from tirebuyer.com at a good price, last year.

I want fresh tires out of the mold and not something sitting on a shelf for years.
 
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Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: dparm
If you live close to them (Chicago area), it's worth the trip to buy in person.

How? You'll end up paying sales tax instead of shipping, so it's a wash. On top of that, you'll waste time and gas money driving out there.




It's just a cool facility and I like visiting. :)
 
Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: dparm
If you live close to them (Chicago area), it's worth the trip to buy in person.

How? You'll end up paying sales tax instead of shipping, so it's a wash. On top of that, you'll waste time and gas money driving out there.




It's just a cool facility and I like visiting. :)


If you purchase tires in person at their facility, do they still include mounting and balancing for free or is that only if you also buy new wheels?
 
My last tire purchase was with TR. It was so much cheaper than what was available locally, it was a no-brainer. I also got better tires. Locally, a shop I go to keeps pushing this "Fuzion" brand, which is apparently made from Gummi Bears (they wear out with less than 20K) and also won't seal properly to the wheel. It was great to FINALLY get some tires that hold air!
 
Originally Posted By: earlyre
Originally Posted By: y_p_w
I remember years ago I crunched the numbers and figured that I was saving a reasonable amount buying from Tire Rack, even accounting for the shipping and higher costs of installation.

However, the shipping costs seem to be higher than I remember. A set of 4 used to ship for about $25. Now I'm getting a quote of $60. The prices also don't seem to low enough to offset the shipping (even if sales tax is accounted for), especially when lots of tire shops will price match. Add to that included road hazard warranties, lifetime rotations/balancing, etc from purchasing/installing at the same place.

I suppose buying something like a full mounted set might make sense. I thought they didn't charge extra for the mounting/balancing.


they "used to" ship for $25, how long ago was that?
how big were the tires? (were the past ones 15's, and the new ones 20's, etc)
how much has the Dollar Devalued in the time since then?

15" back then. My current car rides on 16". The last time I bought from TR might have been around 2002. Still - a lot of retail these days have heavily discounted shipping or even free shipping. And for me, it would be coming to Northern California from their warehouse near Reno. I just checked for the same size tires, and the quote was $53.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
I started a simiar thread a few months ago.never made sense to me unless you could not get the tires you want locally. You pay more when you add in shipping and having them mounted and balanced locally

Last time I bought from them I got a price less than $30 each compared to a local tire shop. Shipping was pretty cheap back then and of course there was sales tax. But now the gap is smaller and not enough for me to justify spending more.

And I did hear that TR does a lot of wholesale business. I suppose that's where they make a lot of their money, ad where they subsidize their extensive website. Even if one buys elsewhere, there's a chance that a tire purchase went through TR.
 
It makes alot more sense if you are purchasing wheels too..

free road force mount and balance.

I try to give DTD most of my business but sometimes they dont carry the tire I want.
 
seems what you want to buy is a balanced tire assembly.
thats what you buy from a local retailer, buying different places for tire then balancing sets u up for the tire is bad/ ship it back by the balancing company.

I like costco
 
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but didn't want to start a new thread for this and it's related to online tires.

When Discount Tire Direct price matches, does the buyer still qualify for additional rebates DTD might be running? For example, a tire priced $100 at TreadDepot (and $50 shipping for 4 tires) versus $150 at DTD (free shipping).

Tread Depot total price $450.
DTD total price is $600.

If DTD runs one of the $30 DTD rebate with DTD CC and $100 DTD rebate for July 4th does that come off of the matched price ($450 minus $130 in rebates) or is it factored into the price match?
 
Still get rebates on top of pricematch if they are manufacturer rebates.

You cant get the instant savings off of the pricatch too, but the other you can.
 
it depends on what tires you want and if you can get them at local shops, I have had a few times that Tire rack was the same price or a little over a local shop, but they could get the the tires faster.
 
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