Often you will see the national brands have a buy 3 and get one free sale. This sounds incredible, but look at the price of the tire. Why pay more for a piece of rubber that gets you from point A to point B? Unless if you race, want a “nice looking” set of tires, or other needs for a specific tire then keep them cheap.
Simply Put:
Car tires can be anywhere from $100 or more at the local tire shops and that is markup by some shops. When it comes time to get a set of tires, buy online and have Walmart or a cheap shop put the tires on. This will save you a ton of money!
Simple explanation:
Tires can be bought from many locations that will cost you no more than $70 per tire. Especially if you buy from a scrap yard! They may be used, but they often have a complete readout of the tread depth and can see what they need to about the walls of the tire. They’ll be anywhere from $10 a tire to maybe $100. This is the single cheapest way, other than stealing them but we don’t advise the latter.
Whether you are going to order from Amazon, Walmart, or even a discount tire store, you’re going to save money and have a set of reliable tires.
Simply warranties:
So the myth on warranty is that if the tire tread wears out before the mileage that they give, then the company will give you a pro-rated refund. Meaning that if your tires are rated for 50k and cost $100 a tire, if you make it 25k miles and they are useless, you may be eligible to get $50 and this all depends on the company and circumstances. This doesn’t cover if you have a popped tire or you always drive on gravel or other similar circumstances. Warranties aren’t always helpful as they sound to be.
Simple places that are overpriced:
Avoid the following for the health of your budget.
- The dealerships
- Jiffy Lube
- National brands (not always the most expensive)
- Straight from the manufacturer
To save the most money you can rotate your own tires, but mounting takes some special tools to make it easy.
Simple buying process steps:
- Go to your local shop and get a quote on if you need tread or not. There is also the penny trick.
- Look on your tires (the little letters and numbers) and see the size. It looks something like: P215/65R15 or similar. This is an example.
- Get to online searching using that number from step 2 and find the best price that you like.
- Shop for the cost to “Mount” the tires. This is important as that is them removing the rubber from your rim and putting the new rubber on. This is often cheap and your local store may do this.
SUB NOTE:
Cheap places to Mount tires are:
- Walmart
- Costco
- Local Ma and Pa shops
- Discount tire shops
- Occasionally a scrap yard may help
Simple buying process cont.
- As a way to see how much you can save, talk to your normal trusted national brand and see what the cheapest brand they offer and the total cost. Compare to the tires you found.
- Proceed as you see fit. Sometimes a little footwork can save you hundreds of dollars!
Simple conclusion:
There is no real math because every situation is different though the cars may be the same. One person may prefer to shop from a local store whereas some strictly believe that the dealership is the only place that will touch their car. The dealership will undoubtedly cost you the most money as they are in the business of making money! Believe it or not. Other players like Jiffy Lube are just generally certified so they can touch every section of the car.
Anyways we hope you enjoyed the read and let us know if you have any!
Simple Money 