Tire Prices.....sticker shock!

[NismoMax80]

bought my last 2 sets on eBay.

Nexens for my summer 20s.... awesome

Just got Toyo Proxes 4s for the 18s in the winter. 1/2 the price of junk stock RSAs.

 

[Sayjac]

Originally Posted By: y_p_w
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Quote:
especially when on economy cars and cars where the people definitely CANNOT afford the parts

Don't forget those idiots need to have large wheels and tires to look good. I cringe all the time when I see a $1500 import car with 18 or 19 inch wheels/tires.

How about some of the Chrysler 300 series with 20 inch wheels?
But, I'll bet the ride is very smooth. NOT! Gotta love the huge wheels with low profile tires.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: C606
Try buying tires for a Corvette at $400 for the front and $500 for the rear; ZP


Sorry, that's no big deal. You knew when buying THAT car that it was a performance vehicle with short-wearing, big, expensive tires.

Definitely a different animal buying $500 tires for a $60k performance car, vs. buying $130 tires for a $15k wagon. The ratio of pruchase price to tire price may verge on similar, but they are different beasts, with different intentions and different economies of use.

 

[Buffman]

Originally Posted By: bepperb
I love tire rack. But in my case, Sams or Costco are much cheaper, especially when you consider the warranty (and ease of it's use) and installation/shipping charges.

I have bought from TireRack, and loved it, but IMO the discount chains can give you a better deal, at least if you have a mainstream tire size.


Agreed, TR isn't the end all best tire solution, but most of my pricing comes from them because they are cheaper. I don't mess around with having tires shipped. I either go down to their wharehouse and have the tires installed, or I get local place to match tirerack's price installed per tire, and they order the tires from their distributor (which a lot of the time is tirerack), and then there is no shipping fee.

I don't run mainstream tire sizes though (255/45/17s, 285/40/17s) on the RMS. The subaru got a great deal on 80K Michelin X-radials from Sam's when they had the instant rebate.

 

[ccdhowell]

Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
And I thought I got bit when I replaced the tires on my semi tractor? I got 10 Bridgestone tires for my semi at about $350 a tire. Made the last set of steers go for about 130,000 miles and the drives lasted for around 350,000 miles. Bet no one can get their car, suv, or pickup tires to go that long. Pricing seems way out of line for the smaller tires, considering what semi truck tires are required to do on a daily basis far exceeds any pickup or suv, yet the price differential doesn't match up with performance.


I had no idea tires lasted that long on semi trucks. I would think drive tires wouldn't last as long as steering tires either; they also bear the weight of the trailer.

 

[sciphi]

I'm helping my little brother get new tires for his minivan. He was shocked it would be nearly $300 for the lowest-priced Dunlops on TireRack. I don't know how much he thought new tires would cost. I told him that this was a very good deal on a very well reviewed tire, and he likely would not do better at a local tire shop without serious legwork.

My fiancee was similarly shocked when she found out how much tires for her car would be. Fortunately we have a few years before worrying about tires for that car!

 

[javacontour]

Just to revive this. I bought ONE tire yesterday. Replacing a Sams Club BFG tire with the same tire. Back on 12/11/05 a set of four, out the door was $270.50. So that works out to be $67.63/tire including all the charges and taxes. The tires themselves were $52.04 each before taxes and fees.

Yesterday, same tire, about 4 years and 66K miles later is $80.33 out the door.

The installation/road hazard/lifetime rotation went from $9.00/tire to $15 and the tire went from $52.04 to $58.26

So from my very limited perspective, I don't think tires themselves have gone up all that much. Half of the increase was the price of the tire, the other half was the increased cost of install.

I had to buy only one because I had replaced a tire in January due to road damage and the road hazard helped. I sure got more than $15 in value. (Actually, I paid $9 on that tire.) I picked the worst of the three oldest and had it replaced. Technically it could have gone to 70K, but I wanted at least two newer tires on there before winter.

The previous replacement tire went on the rear in January because I wanted to minimize the wear and wear out my older tires faster.

Yesterday, the fronts went to the rear and the two newer tires went up front. I still have about 4/32nds on the tires rotated to the rear. Not bad for a 70K rated tire. I'll likely get the full 70K out of half the tires. Not bad at all for a FWD car that is not driven gently.

I like this Sams Club as they don't give you the line about new tires on the rear. They realize that you are eventually going to rotate them anyway.

So I'll see if I can go another 10K miles as is, and then replace the rear tires. If it gets too squirrely in the rain or snow, I'll replace the other two that are following along.

Newer cars are taking larger sizes which is driving the prices up. I think tires have gone up due to higher oil prices, etc. But the 11.9% increase I observed in the same tire over 4 years isn't too outrageous. It works out to be about 2.9% increase annually, or right in line with inflation.

 

[javacontour]

I dug out the work sheet from the 1/11/09 tire replacement and I got $21.85 in road hazard value on the damaged tire.

So that more than paid for the $9 install of that tire and the then $9.50/tire install/rotate/valve stem roadhazard, etc on the new one, and the state tire fee.

And I got to drive on the damaged tire for almost 57K miles.

I bought the tires back in 2005 with 175079 miles on my car.

In January, the car had 231717 and yesterday I had 241535 on the ticker.

So the Sams Club deal isn't a bad deal if you shop there anyway.

 

[daves87rs]

Not bad....

 

[The Critic]

I'm trying to find a set of good, name brand tires for a Prius in size 185/65-15. Most tires that fit this category cost between $400 to $450, installed.

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
I'm trying to find a set of good, name brand tires for a Prius in size 185/65-15. Most tires that fit this category cost between $400 to $450, installed.


Why not look at the BFG Touring T/A Pro tire at Sams? It looks like they are about $78/tire, so that's probably just under the $400 depending on your fees and tax rate.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
I'm trying to find a set of good, name brand tires for a Prius in size 185/65-15. Most tires that fit this category cost between $400 to $450, installed.


That should be easy to accomplish. Here's 5 possibilities.

General Altimax
Pirelli P4 Four Seasons
Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum
BFG Traction T/A
Yoko Avid TRZ

 

[The Critic]

Thanks.

The problem is that this vehicle is equipped with TPMS. Around here, the cost of mounting/balancing/TPMS rebuild per tire is about $30.

I've found a set of Cooper CS4 Touring for $350 installed. The other choices that you mentioned cannot be purchased for under $400 locally.

 

[ZZman]

Just bought a set of Hankook Optimo H727's. Not a bad price at $75.00 a tire for a 100,000 tire. Gets a good rating in a certain consumer magazine also.