New Tires

[Admiral Yi]

I've never bought a new set of tires before in my life.  The guys at the dealer want $616 to put on a set of Hangooks.  Operating on the premise that you can *always* get car work done cheaper at some place other than the dealer, I asked a drinking bud of mine who owns an auto body shop.  He said he can tires wholesale from tire places in town then would charge me $20 per to balance and mount.  Problem is he's leaving the brand up to me.  He gave me a web address: tirerack.com, where I can go and decide what I want.

How the fuck am I supposed to decide?

[DGuller]

Yeah, that's the way to do it.  Order on tirerack, and then have someone local mount and balance them.

As to how to choose the tires, figure out what type you want (all-season performance, for example).  Then find your wheel size specifications, load up a list of tires that fit it, and see which ones have the best feedback.  The sample size is usually huge on tirerack.

[derspiess]

We have a local or semi-local chain called Tire Discounters that tends to match or even beat what I'd pay by doing the tirerack.com thing, after you factor in all the costs.  They include a free alignment, do nitrogen inflation and lifetime rotation/balancing.

[Barrister]

I've never bought a new set of tires before in my life.  The guys at the dealer want $616 to put on a set of Hangooks.  Operating on the premise that you can *always* get car work done cheaper at some place other than the dealer, I asked a drinking bud of mine who owns an auto body shop.  He said he can tires wholesale from tire places in town then would charge me $20 per to balance and mount.  Problem is he's leaving the brand up to me.  He gave me a web address: tirerack.com, where I can go and decide what I want.

How the fuck am I supposed to decide?

Make sure you get the right size and speed rating, then pick the cheapest one (assuming you drive a nondescript vehicle).

[DGuller]

I definitely wouldn't just pick the cheapest one.  Bad tires can be very bad when you can least afford them to be bad (i.e. heavy rain or snow).  I'd pick the cheapest tires that would score adequately in all the important categories based on user feedback on TireRack.

[Admiral Yi]

Speed category??

I think I'll end up asking my dude to put Hankooks on.  I'll save c. $160 over the dealer offer, for the same tires.  And Hankooks were not *the* cheapest listed when I clicked the "most popular" button on tirerack.com.

[DGuller]

Speed category??

I think I'll end up asking my dude to put Hankooks on.  I'll save c. $160 over the dealer offer, for the same tires.  And Hankooks were not *the* cheapest listed when I clicked the "most popular" button on tirerack.com.

Speed category is a letter denoting maximum speed.  Tires can be H-rated, for example, which means you shouldn't excess 130 MPH on them.  I don't think you should choose your tires based on that.

As for Hankooks, I would strongly advise to check the reviews on the tires you were offered, to make sure that people reviewing them are happy with them.  I wouldn't be surprised if dealers offered to put the bottom of the barrel tires on your car.

[Eddie Teach]

$600 bucks sounds a bit much. Are you driving an SUV/pickup truck?

[Barrister]

Speed category??

I think I'll end up asking my dude to put Hankooks on.  I'll save c. $160 over the dealer offer, for the same tires.  And Hankooks were not *the* cheapest listed when I clicked the "most popular" button on tirerack.com.

Yeah - different tires are rated for different speeds, and it comes in different letetr categories.  Your owners manual would probably specify what kind of speed rating you need.

[DGuller]

$600 bucks sounds a bit much. Are you driving an SUV/pickup truck?

That sounds about right for a dealership, if the tires are crappy enough.  Figure about $75 per tire, multiply by 4, and then multiply by 2.

[Admiral Yi]

Guller:

The average rating on tirerack.com was 8.4, very comparable to the other "favorites." 

The only difference I could see was fewer warranty stars.

Pedro: Compact 4 door.  I think that's just inflated dealership pricing, jah?

[DGuller]

Guller:

The average rating on tirerack.com was 8.4, very comparable to the other "favorites." 

The only difference I could see was fewer warranty stars.

Pedro: Compact 4 door.  I think that's just inflated dealership pricing, jah?

That's excellent.  How much does each tire go for on TireRack?  Was I correct in my ~$75 estimate?

[Eddie Teach]

Very inflated. I've seen offers for full sets for as little as $200.

[Admiral Yi]

That's excellent.  How much does each tire go for on TireRack?  Was I correct in my ~$75 estimate?

92 I think.  The cheapest of the "most popular" was 84.

[mongers]

I think your essential problem is your spell-checker appears to be broken.   



Biketyres have all sorts of handling characteristics and no doubt it somewhat similar with different but similar sized car tyres. 

The big difference of course is with a car you can apply significantly more power to overcome some of a tyres basic characteristics like rolling resistance. Which isn't something you can do on a bike - ICE 1 - Legs 0.