How do you get 'fresh' tires at Costco?

[spk2000]

If it is that important to you ask them to show you the tires prior to installation. If you don't like the date code then tell them you want different ones. If they don't want to honor this then go somewhere else. Typically Costco is very customer oriented and will bend over backwards to make the customer happy.

On a side note I don't buy tires or have them installed at Costco anymore and know others who have had similar poor installation. Might just be our local Costco though.

 

[2010Civic]

Originally Posted by userfriendly
The build date is the year and week of manufacture. For example 1426 would be the last week of June 2014.
Unless you're buying an odd ball size, for reasons members have already posted, Costco tires are going to be as fresh as anywhere.

Where one needs to be careful about build dates is buying used tires, or ones from discount racks at places like Canadian Tire.
No matter how good the deal is, you don't want to buy 5 year old new tires, or 10 year used ones.

Often on motor homes, boat trailers etc, tires will age out long before they wear out.

Watch your spare tires too. You could have a brand new 15 year old tire that could fail in a few miles.


You have it backwards. The first 2 digits are the week and the last 2 are the year.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted by sloinker
Judging by the crowds at all the Costco's that I have been to and the overwhelming amount of stuff the employees have to do to keep up with the basic demands of their jobs, it doesn't surprise me that you are being brushed off. I believe the managers aren't too concerned with a few scattered tire/battery buyers taking their business elsewhere over a tire date that is perfectly reasonable and probably far fresher than anywhere else you could go.


Yeah, EVERYBODY wants to buy a "discount tire" but get caviar service.

Like gasoline, though, the cheaper place goes through stock faster, so the odds of getting fresh are better.

I've done very well with mail order tires, which I presume are drop shipped from the manufacturer.

Roll the dice and live your life. Unless the tires were stacked 3 feet from the furnace (ozone) they're doing fine in their preservative wax.

 

[Carmudgeon]

If we're talking about seeking optimums…

My Costco stacks their tire stock high, on their sides, and next to the windows where they get a good tan.

The volume they do probably results in enough stock turnover so that they don't remain that way forever, but that's still not the best way to store tires.

I've bought tires from Costco in the past, but it's been a while since there has been any compelling reasons to do so, over options.

The pricing is competitive, but not appreciably better (whether stock, or special order), others offer similar benefits (free rotations, balances, pressure checks), and any sort of service requires a long wait (which they want you to spend in the store buying other stuff), unless during off-peak times.

Their battery pricing and hassle-free warranty is good, though, if they stock your application. But for tires, there are many more fish in the sea.

 

[heynow]

Originally Posted by pitzel
Originally Posted by heynow
Originally Posted by MoneyJohn
I would prefer tires not to be less than 6 months old.



Why would you only want tires older than 6 months of age?


If he's going to keep them on the vehicle for 10 years because he doesn't drive much....the fresher the better.


In that case he would probably want them to not be MORE than 6 months old

 

[D1dad]

Are fresh tires better? I guess I don't get the demand here and am glad I don't work in retail.

 

[UncleDave]

Yes- in certain application age is paramount to insurance - some motorhome places require 7 year changeouts on front tires.

The odder the tire the more chances of getting oldies....

If you are buying motorhome tires and dont ask the question - Ive seen nice guy huckleberries get stuck with 3 year old stock.

UD

 

[AZjeff]

Originally Posted by pitzel
Originally Posted by heynow
Originally Posted by MoneyJohn
I would prefer tires not to be less than 6 months old.



Why would you only want tires older than 6 months of age?


If he's going to keep them on the vehicle for 10 years because he doesn't drive much....the fresher the better.


Read what MoneyJohn wrote. If you don't get it read it again. Good catch pitzel.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by D1dad
Are fresh tires better? I guess I don't get the demand here and am glad I don't work in retail.


Tires age just like everything else. The standard metric is that you should get rid of tires older than 6 years. So if you buy tires that are already a year old, you've only got 5 years left on them instead of 6. Of course there's a debate whether it should be 6 years or 10 years, some of it might depend on the state you're in and whether it's hot or not. A cooler state maybe you can go longer, but the shortest anyone recommends is 6 years and the longest is about 10 years. If you're getting a tire good for 60-80k and don't drive that much, then you might end up replacing the tires before they're worn out due to age. Most people don't though but in theory older tires aren't as safe as the rubber breaks down and the belts can rust or degrade just from age and you can't see the belts just looking at the tire.

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by UncleDave
Yes- in certain application age is paramount to insurance - some motorhome places require 7 year changeouts on front tires.

Just like how it's illegal to put a retread on the front axles of a bus(even a 15-passenger van is considered a bus in the eyes of DOT/DMV). I'm sure the Goodyear G159 debacle put some heat on the RV industry when it came to tire safety as well.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by Carmudgeon
I've bought tires from Costco in the past, but it's been a while since there has been any compelling reasons to do so, over options.

The pricing is competitive, but not appreciably better (whether stock, or special order), others offer similar benefits (free rotations, balances, pressure checks), and any sort of service requires a long wait (which they want you to spend in the store buying other stuff), unless during off-peak times.

Their battery pricing and hassle-free warranty is good, though, if they stock your application. But for tires, there are many more fish in the sea.


They usually have the best price after you factor in all that you get. Most places don't include the free road hazard and while some places give you free rotation, they might not include balancing. They also do appointments and they're pretty good about it at least at my store so there's no long waits.

I just checked my tires, they were about 5 months old on two of them and the other two were within 10 weeks of when I had them installed. They didn't have them in stock so they had to order them. Mine are only 45k tires as they're Z rated so I don't expect them to last more than 5 years or so. Therefore the 5 month old tires didn't bother me.

 

[CapriRacer]

Allow me to clear up some misconceptions.

First, tires do age in storage, but much, much more slowly than when in service. For practical purposes you can ignore the date of manufacture, if you know the installation date.

I have seen data that says that properly stored 3 year old tires are indistinguishable from freshly made tires. In the tire industry, it is believed that even 6 year old tires can be sold as new, but I know of no data to support that (except for the 3 year old data)

When it comes to the ethics of retail sales, if the customer wants tires within a range of manufacture (say no older than 1 year), then that should be brought up BEFORE the sale takes place, not after the tires are pulled from the shelves, and certainly not after the vehicle is at the house. In this case, the OP wanted tires within 6 months and he said it up front - GOOD!!.

The sales guy said he couldn't do that. At that point the negotiations were over. The choices were 1) to go somewhere else, or 2) accept the conditions at Costco. It is not ethical to try to find away around the conditions.

Lastly, tire aging depends on ambient temperature. Tires age much faster in Phoenix, than they do in Minneapolis. The best way I can describe this is that if you live in AZ, TX, NV, CA, and FL, 6 years is the limit, and if you live in WI, ID, ND, MN, and MT , the limit is 10 years - and states in between are …. ah ….. in between.

 

[edyvw]

Every time I got tires in Costco I would order them online. Never I got tire that was older than 6 weeks.

 

[Luftmasse]

Originally Posted by edyvw
Every time I got tires in Costco I would order them online. Never I got tire that was older than 6 weeks.


Interesting.. Figure if they already have it in stock at Warehouse, why bother shipping another set?

 

[wdn]

My experience with Costco is if you order tire online and ship to the store they are always
I got my last set from Costco for $70 off plus free installation a savings of $130. The recently upped the install price from $60 a set to $80, but still offer half off on install.

Sams' Club offers a lot more tire brands and models than Costco. Their online selection is large. All their other free services and guarantees are just as good as Costco's. I know there are fewer Sam's stores but where I live we have both.

Costco rotates which brand is on sale but if you are not picky on any given day either Michelin, Goodyear or Bridgestone is on sale. If you are picky the tire guy can tell you when to come back later, so your brand will be on sale that day they seem to know.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by painfx
Originally Posted by edyvw
Every time I got tires in Costco I would order them online. Never I got tire that was older than 6 weeks.


Interesting.. Figure if they already have it in stock at Warehouse, why bother shipping another set?

Bcs, I was assuming shipping means fresher date. I was never wrong. Every time I ordered online, it would mean shipping from manufacturer.
Why they do it that way IDK, but I like it.

 

[HonorAndHonesty]

Originally Posted by SeaJay
I get it, we all want tires that rolled off of the factory floor yesterday, were delivered this morning and installed on our cars this afternoon.

And yes, seven or more year old tires (or some age like that) tend to go bad. But, we all generally put enough miles per year that after 5 or 6 years the tires are worn and we replace.

My guess is that most tires sold aren't much more than a year old from date of manufacture, if that. We are overthinking all of this.


Not true for all, I bought a set of new Michelin tires for our van back in 2011 at tire rack and they were well over 2 years old, I wasn't the happiest with this but it is what it was. 2014 they were almost 6 years old with plenty of life left, and by 2015 they were developing age cracking. I finally replaced them in 2018 at almost 10 years old with half tread left and large amounts of cracking.

These were tires they had in stock, apparently for a long time.

So the new set of tires I got at Indy Tire and I told them I couldn't accept anything over 1 year old, they obviously can't pick and choose from the warehouse so they let me know when they came in and the guy checked and they were 3 months old, it worked out well.

If I buy a premium set of tires I would prefer to get the most time out of them, we dont drive that vehicle more than 8k a year, many times less than that.

 

[Joe1]

Originally Posted by CapriRacer
properly stored


How does one know if old tires were "properly stored"?

I often see tires displayed on racks outside of service garages where they are exposed to the elements day after day. I'd never purchase tires from a business that engages in that practice.

Old tires to me indicates poor inventory management somewhere in the supply chain at the manufacturer, distributor, or dealer level.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by Joe1
Originally Posted by CapriRacer
properly stored


How does one know if old tires were "properly stored"?

I often see tires displayed on racks outside of service garages where they are exposed to the elements day after day. I'd never purchase tires from a business that engages in that practice.

Old tires to me indicates poor inventory management somewhere in the supply chain at the manufacturer, distributor, or dealer level.


Well in that case you go by the manufacturing date. It's the same as if the tires were mounted on a car that was parked outside. Mine is parked outside all the time as I don't have a garage. The racks are outside just as an advertisement tool.

 

[CNT]

This is not from Costco, but the concept of new "fresh tires"...

I bought 4 Uniroyal Tiger Paws from Fleet Farm few months ago. Those were on "clearance" (assuming because Uniroyal now have new designs of Tiger Paws tires). So, I am guessing those tires I have now (still off rims, brand new, stickers still on, sitting in cold garage) are at least year old. My question is... is there something I should buy to spray on or inside the tires to keep it "fresh", like Armor All? Or I just leave it alone, planning to put 'em on the rims soon (next month)?