Buying Tires... Thoughts/Advice
 

The tread on my front tires has worn off to the point that I find my car (2007 Mazda3, I sport, 2.0L) swevering. Given that I place some minimalistic value on my life, I've decided that buying new tires seems like an intelligent decision to make. :D Problem is, I know fuck-all about tires - and figures this was a good place to start.

I walked in to the Sears auto guys near me - they quoted me ~$330 (with taxes and install) for 2 Bridgestone HP550B tires. There are a bunch of tires places located nearby that i could probably call, but I'm curious if you guys have any thoughts on tires brands (is this a "you get what you pay for" thing or more of a "monster cable" type deal?) / places to trust / price points - really anything so I don't go in like a blithering idiot. If you have my car (Terpkristin, you have one don't you) and experience buying tires, that would be golden.

I buy online and bring them somewhere for install.

Tire Rack - Your performance experts for tires and wheels. Times I've gone there they blew local retailers out of the water on price. Seems like good information too.

Interesting - I never would have thought of tires as something you can buy online!!

Isn't the shipping cost crazy??

After all was said and done I usually saved a couple hundred, shipping including. Only pain in the ass part was fitting them in the car.

wow - interesting. i'll keep that in mind for the future.

Discount Tire, Custom Wheels, Truck & Car Rims | Discount Tire has treated me well in the past. Quick, efficient and reasonable pricing.

TireRack is good in theory, but at the end of the day (shipping, and installation costs by a 3rd party), it's tough to save money. It's great if you're looking for a special tire or something of that nature, but if you're just going for standard tires, I think you're better off shopping around locally.

Yeah, check the prices, can't hurt. I was buying Pirelli's for the Mustang through them. And I think BF Goodrich for the Wrangler.

Yeah, I can't pretend I know anything about brands. Treat me like your 16 year old kid sister - what is the bare minimum I should know? I'm going to pay for installation at Sears or wherever, I just want to not be a complete idiot about it. Thx,

Dola, really happy to buy it locally. Within 5 miles of me are

- a Sears Auto Center
- a Firestone
- a Wheel Works
- a costco auto center (50 bucks for membership, but that's fine)

Ie, I'm literally starting from scratch here.

What you should do is do all your research online thru tirerack (there's a ton of opinions on there). Once you narrow it down, use the price on there to negotiate with the big shops in your area.

It seems as though every town has a real good mom and pop type tire shop, but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble trying to find out what that shop is in your town. Out of the options you list above, I'd go with Firestone.

You want to get good tires. Everything is riding on your purchase.

If it is not Pirelli, Michelin, Goodyear, Continental or Bridgestone it is not getting fitted to my car.

I have driven a number of cars with cheap no name brands, and the difference is scary, especially if you are driving something with a bit of power or in the rain.

I don't know what the market is like in the UK, but I usually save about 25% buying tires online, and that includes the fitting costs.

Another vote for Discount Tire. They are awesome.

330 sounds right for the tires for that car. Last year, I failed my safety inspection and had to replace all 4 stock tires on my '07 3 hatchback. It came to about $800 for the tires and installation, if I remember right (though I was at a place that I couldn't shop around and needed the tires then, so I definitely was in no way to get a good price, I had to deal with what they had). I got some Goodyear tires with a 60k mile warranty (since at the time, my car had less than 40k miles on it, I was pissed I needed 4 new tires--but not surprised, I knew my tires had gotten squirrelly and the treads were low).

The trick with that car is that they have the 17" rim which kind of forces you to get the "sport" tires, you end up paying more for them. I don't recall what the stock tire speed rating is, but I know on my old Protege5, it was a fairly high speed rating. You can save money by dropping the speed rating, but you only want to have the speed differential between the tires to be like 1 (maybe 2?) levels different--or so I've been told.

Edit to add: these are the tires I bought. Looks like the warranty is only 50k. Still, I like 'em. Tire Products - Discount Tire Direct (Goodyear Eagle GT)

/tk

Holy crap- wow tires have a huge variation. I mean, I got a complete set of Michelin Hydroedges on my 2005 Corolla a couple of years ago for about $400. And those are 90K pretty much top-of-the-line tires (at the time, I was going to be driving for 40K+ per year in bad midwestern weather) and that's for 4 of them.

At the time, I could have gotten crappy ones for like $60 apiece, so I could get 4 tires for a comparable set of 2 (as it doesn't sound like you guys are talking about top of the line tires) on a similarly sized car that you guys are talking about.

SI

The tires that he's looking for are most likely low profile. Those cause you to get raped at the store. I had to get some 16" tires for my Saab, and they were almost 400 for 4 mounted. And that was bottom of the line. Whereas on my Malibu(the deceased cow car), I could get 4 for a lot cheaper(something like 300).

May just be friends experiences and bitterness towards the company in general, but I would never go to Sears tire. Unless the deal was too good to pass up. They're running friends and family on the 6th of june, but I don't know how much you'd end up saving on the tires if you get them done that day. I think maybe 10%.

If you have an AmEx Costco members is basically free...

Not sure how much I know about tires, but with my experience on our trucks (again not sure how relevent this is to you situation)

- You get what you pay for. I average about 80k miles on Michelins, we got 50-60k on goodyear and firestones and when i tried some guardians from sears (their house brand) I had to replace them after 20k miles. Now we run only Michelins
- Sears locally price matches internet sites for the tire so long as I pay for their mount and balance and buy the road hazard (10% but its totally free replacement for like 2 years....where we are on construction sites daily it is worth it, again you maybe not so much)
- I only buy tires in 4s now...and rotate the hell out of them. That gets me about 25% increased tread wear and the guys say they ride better...With 2 new and 2 old you really dont ever want to rotate the best away from the front, and it just perpetuates a cycle id rather not.

My dad works at Goodyear, so I buy through him for the discount, but I also have a sportscar and buy performance tires.

I would suggest discount tire. They had the lowest price when I did my extensive search for low profile 18" tires for my g6. I ended up getting 4 Michelin HydroEdge's for 620 not including a 75 dollar mail in rebate. I believe they are running a 70 dollar rebate special at the moment.

Ideally you want your best tires on the back of the car, no matter which wheels are driven. It is much easier to control understeer than oversteer.

Tire Tech Information - Where to Install New Pairs of Tires?

Ill have to disagree....as long as you aare only steering with your front wheels, Id prefer to have grip on my steering axle regarless of where my drive axle is...

But I guess that is subjective to some point??