Where Is The Best Place To Buy Tires

Discount Tire is a bit of a hybrid in the online/brick-and-mortar tire space. While you can purchase tires online, through its site Discount Tire Direct, you can have them drop-shipped to your local Discount Tire or America's Tire shop (the name is different depending on where in the country you live). You can also choose to shop in-store at a Discount Tire as well.

where is the best place to buy tires

Discount Tire says that if you're not satisfied with your purchase, it will do its best to make it right. If you've bought tires online and they turn out to be wrong, you can return them, but the language in the return policy is a bit strict for Discount Tire Direct. You have to repackage them correctly with the original packaging or you could forfeit your return.

Start your tire search by using Costco's tire selector tool where you can search for the right tires for your car with your year, make and model, license plate or size. You can also shop for wheels if you're in the market for them, though Costco only sells Velox wheels on its site. Once you've picked your tires, you choose a store to ship them to and have them installed and you make an appointment from there. The tires are then shipped to the Costco you've chosen and you can get them installed. Not every Costco has a tire center, so be sure to check online before heading to the store.

To buy tires at Sam's Club you use its online portal to choose the right tires for your needs. You can select tires based on your vehicle's year, make and model, or search by tire size. Once you choose the right tires, the search shows you where those tires might be available in your local area. If they aren't available you can order them and have them shipped to your local Sam's tire center where you can get them installed. Sam's Club says that once you order tires it will email you within three to five days to let you know when your tires arrive. Then you can schedule an installation appointment. Sam's Club does not offer mobile installation.

A wide variety of warranties are offered by Goodyear on its tires, too. Depending on the type of tire you buy these could include a limited treadwear warranty or a tire replacement limited warranty. Goodyear also offers a 30-day grace period to decide whether you want to return your tires or not -- whether you purchase them online or in one of its shops. The tire replacement warranty is not a road hazard warranty, however.

The company is slightly larger than Goodyear in that it has more than 2,200 stores across the country. Both Bridgestone and Firestone offer an online tire selector to help you find the right tires for your vehicle. You can shop by vehicle type, tire size, tire type or brand on both sites. You can also shop via special offers. Once you've chosen your tires, the site directs you to find those tires locally and set up an appointment with the shop you choose. When you choose this option, you'll notice that places like Costco show up as locations for installation (more on that below). While Bridgestone offers mobile installation (at no extra charge) in only one place in the country (Nashville), Firestone does not offer mobile installation through its site. You have to take your vehicle to one of its installers.

Big O and its affiliated retailers offer a variety of warranties on tires, including an impressive three-year repair or replacement road hazard warranty on Big O brand tires, and a 12-month/12,000-mile Nationwide Limited Repair Warranty. It also offers an upgraded Tire Protection Package for a cost based on the type of tires you buy. This covers your road hazards and replacement issues, the same way that NTB does. Big O also does not offer mobile installation.

Petersen advises that the best way to make the most of your tire shopping is to take the entire cost of both purchasing the tires and getting them installed into consideration. "It's not like a TV," he said. "You buy a tire and you still have to have someone put it on your car."

He also notes that the minimum advertised price, or MAP, is the lowest price that any resellers are permitted to sell tires at. If you find a discounted tire on sale, it's likely because those tires are older and being replaced by a newer model.

Ultimately, getting tires has become easier in the days of online shopping and delivery. With plenty of places to choose from, buying tires online can be an equally good choice as getting them at a tire shop as long as the tires you want and need are in stock. While prices can vary slightly, Petersen says, it pays more to haggle on prices for installation, warranties and other things. Tire prices are largely set in stone by the manufacturer, and installers rarely have any wiggle room to negotiate.

If you have a hard time finding tires, your best bet is to try online retailers like Tire Rack and have the tires drop-shipped to one of its local installers. If you need tires immediately, you might do better by hitting up a brick-and-mortar shop nearby -- but be sure to check inventory and its installation appointments online before heading out.

SimpleTire is pretty new to the game, but they are rapidly making a name for themselves. This company was created as a one-stop-shop for tires, in an effort to make the process as easy and hassle free as possible for their customers. On the SimpleTire site, you can get everything done, all at one time. Choose the tires you want, compare and contrast, schedule installation, have the tires sent to your chosen location and pay. The only thing left to do is arrive at your installation appointment. Very simple, as the name suggests. We like this company because they have a very intuitive website, which helps you make the best decision for your car. We also like SimpleTire because they have maintained a rare concept in online sales. They do not have an AI. When you contact SimpleTire online, or by phone, you will always be talking to a person. Always.

To find the best places to buy tires, I considered various popular online and in-store tire retailers and then weighed several factors in my own research. These factors included tire price, cost of installation, selection, free services and warranty information.

If you plan on having your tires installed at Walmart, know that installation will cost an additional $11 per tire if you bring in tires that you purchased elsewhere. And if you want the road hazard protection warranty, the cost of installation for tires purchased at Walmart is $25 each.

Based on this information, Walmart offers the cheapest installation, but if the total cost of your tires is cheaper at Costco than the total cost of tires and installation at Walmart, Costco may be your best bet.

Costco fills their tires with nitrogen instead of air to help with fuel economy. They also have a five-year road hazard warranty, which means if your tires are damaged, they will repair or replace them.

Each of the above directly impacts cost, and you want to ensure you select the right set of tires for your vehicle. For further information on what to look for, consult the Consumer Reports guide on how to find the best tires for your needs.

Those value-added services include free tire rotations, free balancing, free flat tire repair, free air pressure checks, and free replacements for covered tires due to workmanship issues or material defects.

Finding tires for sale that will keep you safe through any adverse weather conditions and all seasons is easy with the selection at Costco. Other tire shops find it hard to beat the prices at our warehouses, where you can get car, truck, trailer, golf, and even industrial-grade ATV tires.

A great place to start is our tires buying guide and Consumer Reports' own tire reviews. (Check our tire brand guides for Bridgestone, Continental,Cooper, Firestone, Goodyear, Michelin, Nitto, Pirelli, Toyo, and Yokohama.)

The information on Tire Rack is thorough, and arguably more objective than advice from whoever is staffing the counter at your local tire shop. But the process is best suited for those willing to learn about tires and do their own research. We found Tire Rack's prices to be comparable or slightly less than other retailers. Tire Rack does not add sales tax in all states, but shipping costs (around $75 for a set of four tires) offsets this.

Walmart, Costco, and Sears are some of the large retail chains that sell tires as well as the types of basic automotive services offered by most quick-lube type shops, including oil changes, chassis lubrication, battery installation, light bulb replacements, air and cabin filter changes, and wiper blade replacement.

Shopping online at Walmart.com, we were presented with 46 choices for our Honda Accord, and prices for online purchases were comparable to other outlets we checked. Walmart offers free shipping or free store pickup for many of its tires. Installation begins at $12 per tire ($5 more if you purchase tires elsewhere), and our local store quoted us $74 for a set of four tires including recycling fees and resetting the TPMS.

Dealerships may not seem to be the optimum place to go unless you are looking to replace your tires with the exact original equipment (OE) type found on your car. However, that is changing. For example, Honda told us that many of its dealers offer "Good-Better-Best" options, with a trio of tires chosen for a specific model. As confusing as tires can be, such simplified choices at the very least will ease the consumer's mental burden.

A general guideline on how often to replace your tires is that you should get new ones every 25,000 to 50,000 miles. This means that an individual driver who sticks close to home can go years before needing to buy tires, while the manager of a shipping fleet will need to buy new tires on a much more regular basis. Our team can help provide more personalized recommendations based on your particular needs, and we encourage you to reach out to us in order to consult our experts. 041b061a72