mdfdsc300

I looked up a particular tire on their web page and got a price that was $7.00/tire cheaper than the local store. I called up the local store and they said that it comes out to be the same if you add in the shipping charges. While this is true, the local store will end up charging me sales tax on the entire purchase whereas if I ordered it through the internet, from the same company, I would not have to pay the $50 or so sales tax.
This may not be that significant, but $50 is the price of their free tire warranty where they will replace your tire with a new one for the life of that tire....$50 is $50....
Am I looking at this right? Why wouldn't you just buy the tires from Discount on the net, have them ship to your door, and bring them in to your local Discount Tire store and have them install it? Works out cheaper than if you bought it directly from the store??

hellasboy

i just bought some kumho ecsta supra 712's. through discountiredirect.com the tires would have cost me something like 580! SHIPPED. I went to discount tire co (the non-internet one, same company) and they told me 697$ mounted and balanced.

I asked the sales guy how much to only mount and balance if i buy the tires online... he said 60$ and asked why i don't buy the tires from him. i told him the price i can get it from the online site (580 shipped, no tax). the guy looked at me for a second, went into the puter and changed the price. so this friday im getting tires put on for 640.57$ total

Toan Nguyen

I think you're going to too much toruble over buying tires. Just go to your local store and get ones there, or do a search on your local clubs and see which ones are affiliated/sponsored by tire places. Join that club, and reap the discounts. I'm currently actively in 2 car clubs. One of the clubs does track, performance stuff whilst the other does eye-candy, electronics, gauges. Between both clubs I can get from 10-15% discounts. on anything I need.

I'm sure a little looking around wont hurt. Also car clubs are usually free to join. It's an enthusiast sport.

Cheers,

Toan.

DickLexus

I started using Costco. They can special order the tires I usually buy(michelin)and there prices are comparable to mail order. In addition, for 10 bucks a wheel you get M&B, road hazard and free rotation and balancing whenever you want. I got sick of having to argue with the chains in the area to match mail order prices.

****

lexlyf3

After readnig the different view points, they are all valid considering the point of view from which they are written, but they're is something that is missing.

As consumers, we tend to forget how corporations work. Even though it's the same company, same name.....a corporation that size has several different "cost centers." If you're not familiar, a cost center for all intents and purposes is a seperate division of the same corporation. This cost center makes it much easier for a large corporation to track both profit and loss within these different divisions of the company. I guess its a more precise method of accounting.

On one hand you have the retail operation of Discount Tire or whatever company it is....and then you have the internet company using the same name having the same product. The difference is that they're different revenue projections for each and they go about this in seperate ways between the retail & internet operations.

Another thing to consider is that the overhead is a lot different between these 2 sales points, which create the different pricing. What these corp's hope is that you don't gripe enough to care or do something about it. You can approach a manager in the retail outfit, but generally your concerns will fall on deaf ears. Remember that these cost centers also have budgets, for which if they receive in their yearly paychecks if met.

You now what......I lost my train of thought..I can't stop thinking about my Dyn's & RF Symmetry.....

Ahhh..........on cloud 9

lexlyf3

One question I have is how to take advantage of the warranty? So let's say you buy a tire on-line with road hazzard coverage, you put 'em on,
you drive,
you blow out a tire due to road construction debris, drywall screws & the like.....
IF you've purchased the tires from an on-line oufit....how the hell do you go about exchanging them?

Do you have to use the mail to ship the tire & then they ship you one back?

I'm really confused??!! Maybe I should stick to intakes & Supercharger set-ups!!!!

M.

GlobeCLK

iTrader: (5)

usually TireRack has the best prices on tires, considering it's a web-based company and no actual storefront or showroom is needed.

What I would do is to go to America Tire Co., since they beat any price, including TireRack. Then you just order from ATC, and be charged the TireRack price, and don't pay shipping! But maybe you do have to pay tax, but hey you do get the free balance if you get tires from ATC.

The Ikon

I'ne used www.DiscountTireDirect.com for a few years and I've been very pleased... Here's an example at Big 10 Tire in Jackson/Pearl Ms they have Kuhmo Estra Supra in 18" for $206.00 each and at DTD the same tire is $129.00 + 12.00 road hazzard... (Planning on some 18" soon)

As for the RHW just call them up tell you had a mishap and they will send out a new tire for 10$ for the u.p.s. charge... Good deal....