Buying tires on the web.....

Hey,

Has anyone used Onlinetires.com?

Are they any good?

Any other recommendations?

TIA,

Rog

i just bought a set from discount tire direct. they were a great deal with a $100 off coupon, it put goodyears in the chinese tire range. when they showed up they had 2 year old date already though, on 70k mile tires. that concerned me, and i put that on their survey. the next day i had a call from them looking to make it right for me, all i really wanted was for them to put the production date up if the tires have been shelved for a while.

I have purchased 3 sets of tires through onlinetires.com. Cheap and quick shipping. I have never had to return anything so I don't know how that goes. I did have a backorder issue that they were slow to inform me of once, but that was because the vendor discontinued a high demand tire and a hundred other folks were buying them up that week.

I give them a thumbs up.

I always do tirerack.com and have had great luck.

I've used Tire Rack a fair number of times, but that's partially because they have a warehouse in Reno...

Avoid Ebay tires, stick with tire rack\discount tire. The set I bought off ebay were retreads, despite the auction specifically stating that they weren't.

I've used Tire Rack and Discount tire direct. They are good vendors, but Tire Rack is top notch.

I have used Vulcan tires a few times, only good things to say.

Paul

Nothing but good things to say about Vulcan and the Tirerack. I've only bought one set of tires in person in the last 15 years. Really have to watch the date codes from anyone other than Tire rack from what I hear. A friend got a wicked ticket in Germany as his snowtires were out of date that he had just purchased from 1010tires.com.

Folks,

Never heard of the date code issue before. Is that a State or Federal regulation? How do you check it on a tire?

Rog

There are no laws in the US that govern how long a tire is good for, AFAIK.

However...

Years ago I bought tires from a Goodyear store. When they failed several years later I tried to get some warranty compensation. Turned out they were already a couple years old when I bought them and the warranty was from the date of manufacture. From then on I've always checked the date code on any set of tires I've purchased. A Firestone dealer tried to sell me some old tires. I told him about the date issue and at first he denied it affected the warranty. Then I walked him through the wording of the warranty and he finally admitted that it did.

I buy all my tires through Discount Tires (and I buy a lot of tires, including race tires) and I've yet to get an old tire from them.

You can Google how to read the date codes.

After the "DOT"on the side wall is a number. I will tell you where it was made and the week and year. All you need is a code reader. Sites like The Tire Rack explain it all.

I've personally found discount tire to be the best price after you factor in shipping and mounting...

I have used both http://www.treadzone.com/ and http://www.treaddepot.com/ and have good experiences with both.

Teh E36 M3 wrote: I always do tirerack.com and have had great luck.

Always my default.

Bonus points for tirerack.com, they now include roadhazard for free on their passenger car tires. I've also used tirebuyer.com in the past as they ship free.

+1 on tire rack. Discount is good for brands that TR doesn't carry.

I have bought from Tire Rack many times including tires and rims. I link to TR via the shop I go to and them have them shipped there. Nothing but great experiences.

I've bought a dozen or more sets from TR. Always delivered within 48 hours. Always the correct order. Prices are competitive and they are nice enough to mail you any applicable rebates (I had one for $50 and one for $60 on my last order of a single set of tires), and they even send invoice copies for the rebates.

Good customer service too.

Overall, I could probably find tires a tiny bit cheaper someplace if I looked hard enough, but TR 's great website and overall convenience and reliability makes it worth it to pay a little bit more.

Guys,

Bought 2 sets of tires in the past month on the web:

215/70-16 General Grabbers for the Wife's Element. Spent about $480 read to go. Figure I saved about $125 over the local retail tire stores. Used Tirebuyer.com.

185/70-14 Kumhos for the Civic. Spent about $275. Saved about $75 over the local stores. Used Onlinetires.com.

Thanks for the advice.

Rog

keep in mind, that while it's great to save a little money by buying on line at the expense of the brick and mortar local store … eventually the local will go out of business … you just might actually need them some day …

having said that, I DO buy on line sometimes … my local guy will tell me to do so …he, either can't get the tires I'm after of the price difference is so great that he can't compete … but he does get most of my business …. race tires are the exception

In reply to wbjones: I'd love to support local, but (in Atl. Canada at least) they're all terrible. In my experience anyway. No selection, won't order, Chinese tires for Brand name prices, brand names at exorbitant prices, and pretty much zero knowledge. End up having to either online, Crappy Tire, or Costco.

Actually my preferred independent local store is also a TR dealer so the snow tires that are going on the 996 today come from TR, but they also have other suppliers. And more importantly, they also have a clue, which is why I'm making a 1 1/2h roundtrip from work to get tires fitted even though I pass several tire stores on the way to work.

I've used Tire Rack and Discount Tire Direct, but also used Mr Wheel Deal who beat them all.

My family and I have all had good exp with discount tire direct, plus they are usually cheaper.