Who knew tires could be so confusing, Help?

SandrA9810

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Jul 24, 2005
Messages
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We went over to Sears for an oil change and a price look up for tires on the car. There's several rebates out there, making some of the premium brands more affordable. But I really don't know what to do.

The front passenger tire is wearing away on the outside and causing alignment issues. All the tires are 6-8 years old, one or two seem to have a bit of dry rot on them. I know it's age, comes with the territory.

At first I was thinking of just replacing the two front tires, and keeping the best two on the rear. Then getting an alignment done. Of course, rebates only come with a purchase of all four tires.

Here's the rebate list
$160 - Double your rebate promotion on Goodyear ($80 any where else than Sears)
$70 - Michelin
$40 - Coopertire


The Goodyear Assurance Tire
80,000 mile warranty
$628 total
$160 rebate
One tire review site, has lots of reviews about the tires being loud. But not many other bad things about the tire.

The Michelin HydroEdge Tire
80,000 mile warranty
$580 total
$70 rebate
Pretty good reviews, a few dousies here and there about it, but over all good.
Although most top reviews pointed to the Michelin Harmony tire as a good overall tire.

The Cooper Response Touring Tire
60,000 mile warranty
$420 total
$40 rebate
Couldn't really find a large review of this tire. But most seem to be decent reviews. Good handling, quiet, but a couple said that they lost of a couple MPG (which I don't think we'll see a difference).

The Guardsman Plus Tire
50,000 mile warranty
$383 total
no rebate
Cheapest of the tires available at Sears, says it's a private label brand made by Bridgestone. Basically, it's a tire, and nothing special about it.

Another local tire place we went to couldn't match the Sears price for the higher end tires. They suggested a Kuhmo tire, which there's too many bad reviews for it. It's a Korean company that just came to the US about 3 years ago. They're high mileage rated (100,000), but I guess that's based on testing in Korea where their average speed on the highway is only 40mph (or something a lot lower than the US)... not the crazy speeds we have here.

The weather here isn't too crazy. The summers are warm (95-100) on the hot days, but winter is the only rainy season. And it's nothing like the rain/thunderstorms in Florida. There's no snow, although I do plan to take a trip to Yosemite this winter for a day (but will check the road conditions before heading out).


All the quotes are complete prices, with alignment, balancing, disposal fee, and all that other stuff. The labor charges are a bit higher than the tire store down the street, but their tire prices are a bit higher. I'm also too annoyed with Pep Boys after getting my brakes done to go back there again for work. Spent 12hrs in the waiting room over 3 days for them to finally get it right.


I don't know if we should stick to the plan of just two tires and an alignment, or go for all fours just to be done with it. If we do go with all four tires, do I go with the higher mileage rating?? We've put 11,000 miles on it in about 10 months.
 
Get all 4 tires replaced and get the alignment done at the same time.

Do any of the businesses provide free lifetime rotation for their customers?

If so, at least a semi annual rotation will really help extend the life of your new tires. Kauffman Tire in our region does..............and we use the service a lot.

For additonal research info, go to tirerack.com.
 
Do you have a Costco membership? I always get mine there. You order on line and they will be delivered to the store for free. You just show up and they put them on. I got new tires for my Honda CR-V this past spring for $400. They put out coupons for certain tires often as well.
 
My DH swears by reading reviews on TireRack.com

If the tires are 6+ years old, I would replace all 4 and get the rebate.
 

You also look at the tread wear rating of the tires. The higher the number, the better the tire.

Also be careful with Costco prices. I thought I would get the best deal from them but after some phones calls I realized that I wasn't.

In July, I was purchasing four tires for my SUV. I chose a set at Costco that had a very high tread wear rating. They were Michelin's and coincidentally costco was offering $70 off if you purchased four Michelin tires. Before I pulled the trigger to order the tires, I decided to call a few local places and at the place closest to my house I was able to get the same exact tires (which they special ordered for me so I know they weren't sitting around) for $400 cheaper than Costco wanted PLUS I got a $70 gift card rebate from Michelin.

I was shocked that Costco did not have a better price. That just goes to show you how high the mark-up must be on tires.
 
+1 for tirerack.com reviews. Keep in mind the comments are made by users, and be sure to check out the testing as well as reviews.

Personally, I watch the mileage ratings with some skepticism as higher mileage tires often sacrifice ride comfort for wear. It's a balance between the two IMHO - I'll take a lower rating for mileage for a tire that rides nicer.

Also a +1 for replacing all tires if they're much over 5 years old. At least around here, that is where you'll start seeing the material crack from exposure to the elements. I've got two winter tires I need to replace this fall because they're developing cracks - the tread is fine, but the material itself is deteriorating to the point where I don't think they're safe to use.
 
Some things to consider are the age of the vehicle the tires will be going on, how long you expect to keep the vehicle, does the service facility offer lifetime alignment? I would stay far away from Sears.
 
The local tire store offers free rotation for life. I'm still a bit skeptical of them, even though online reviews are pretty good. My bf's grandmother went there for a brake change. She went back two more times because of squealing from the brakes (so three sets of pads were put on), she finally went back to the dealership for work to be done. Some how I got wrangled into going with her and my bf back to the store to get a refund of the brake job. They did give the refund, but they manager kept saying she should've given them one more chance... as if 3 chances aren't enough?

I've actually had no issues with Sears and their work. It's every where else I've gone to try to go a little bit cheaper and I wind up pissed off and frustrated. The car is a 98 with 77,000 miles on it. The previous owner only did about 6,000 miles a year on it, and now we're racking up the miles on it.

I've never heard of any store doing a lifetime alignment, does that actually exist?
 
I would not spend a lot on tires for a 15 year old vehicle. Don't buy anything better than a mid range rating and check out the cost for the road hazzard warranty, it will add to the cost. When buying 4 new tires, you should receive a free alignment. There are plenty of repair stations that are nationwide, Sears has a reputation for extra charges and not the best skilled labor.
 
I would buy all 4 tires, just because of their age. Michelin is always a good brand, but I usually go with Cooper on my own car. It sounds like all the first 3 options you listed are really good, I would pass on the off-brand tire. They are NOT actually made by Bridgestone.

Sears is a fine place to buy tires, but I would not let them align my car. Sears, and all the chain places as far as I'm concerned, don't line cars up properly. (BTW, the alignment is causing the tire problems, the tires can't cause an alignment problem) Most of the chain places *barely* set the toe adjustment on the car, they don't so all the proper adjustments (caster and camber need to be addressed also)

So, bottom line, my 2 cents:
*research the tires on tire rack (they don't sell Cooper though)
*buy the tires from Sears (or tire rack if it's cheaper)
*find a GOOD alignment shop. Ask friends, family, anyone with a car. A real alignment, in NY, should cost around $70 compared with $30-40 at the other places. Adjust for your market.

And if it makes my 2 cents worth more (maybe a nickle)... I own a repair shop. Good luck, but if your current tires lasted 6 years, don't worry about it too much.
 
I think it's worth a few extra cents.

Guess it's time to pull out the AAA book and find a private shop (or just get the alignment done at the private shop). Maybe the Cooper tires would be a decent choice. Do you have any preference on which tire though? I know they seems to range from 60-100 a piece.
 
The front passenger tire is wearing away on the outside and causing alignment issues. All the tires are 6-8 years old, one or two seem to have a bit of dry rot on them. I know it's age, comes with the territory.

I'm no expert on this sort of thing, but I don't think tires wearing cause alignment issues. I think alignment issues cause irregular tire wear. It also sounds like you don't rotate your tires regularly. Bad idea and sure to cause early failure.

I drive too much to ever let my tires get to the dry rot stage, but I would definitely replace them all if you are seeing evidence of that. As suggested above, try to buy from someone who will do free rotation (but even if you pay for it, it isn't usually ALL that expensive) and get an alignment.

Sheila
 
The tires were on the car when we got it at the beginning of the year. I think the alignment issue came with some road work that's being done. At the end of it, there's a bump up back to the original road (it's about a mile long section of road). I always forgot about it, I think I hit it three times, now I just avoid it at all costs. I would usually get lucky at the other end of it, because that's where I'd make a left and would be stopped by the light.


I found a repair shop nearby (family owned kind of place), alignment is $60 and the labor is only $83 for all four tire balancing, disposable, and all that stuff. So we'll buy the tires at Sears and do the work there.
 
You aren't really giving enough information to give you a good suggestion... like what is important to you... how they handle... how long they last... how loud they are.

The Goodyears sounds like a pair my wife got on our Honda a few years ago... I wouldn't get those things again if they were given to us, very loud excessive road noise... Frankly once you get past 40,000 mile tires you start getting into tires that are in my opinion too hard and very hard tires last but they don't grip very well so you can slide in the rain, and they tend to be very loud.

I usually use tirerack.com but only because I like very soft sport tires and it makes sense to get them cheap and then pay for someone to install them when they get in. You might want to make sure of the cost to get them install before you consider buying tires off the internet. I have heard of some people that have had to pay something like $20 a tire to get them installed, If you have a walmart near by they usually do it for closer to $10 a tire.

But before you get the tires find out what is wrong with your car's front end. Excessive wear on only 1 tire is usually more than just an alignment issue... you might find that if it is very expensive that you are only able to buy 2 tires after the repair. I've rarely felt that rebates were every really worth it... I wouldn't be swayed by them as much as the bottom line cost. Remember that when you do the rebates you are still going to be paying taxes on the full amount and that the rebate checks don't come very quick. The one time I did one for some Michelins I had to contact them 2 times before the check ever showed up... took almost 4 months to get my rebate which at the time was $100.... so don't think you'll get the money quickly.
 















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