Big Tire chain or Mom and Pop Tire Shop

Preference? Anything either option does better than the other? Things to look out for?

 

Discount tire is hard to beat

 

Do they have stores that install, or do they just ship to independent affiliates?

 

I have tried

Firestone
Tire Rack
Cassidy Tires
Sears
Mom and Pop
Craigslist

Discount Tire is the best of the best.

 

Discount, got my 4 Ridge Grapplers 295/70/18's and they beat any other price out there

 

Discount Tire is my usual and get the local Toyota dealership to install them. You can usually buy a set and get rebates off of tires if you take time and wait for a holiday sale.

 

DCT- can't beat their price and they will price match. Lifetime tire rotation and balance and road hazard. If they can't repair my tire, I get a new one.
Holiday Sale!!! always a lower price!

 

I tried the "Big Tire Shop" once. They sold me tires with a 50k warranty that didn't even last 25k miles yet I had them do every 5k rotation. Seriously, they were near bald at 23k miles. All they were willing to warrant was the remaining life of the tires, give me 50% off a new set, but charge full price for labor - which I get, that's what the warranty states - but come on...obviously these tires you sold me were crap! Go a little beyond the bare minimum for me and give me a damn discount on labor too! I would rather have 25k left on my old tires than shell out more $$ for new tires. When I tried to explain this to the manager he acted like I wanted free tires - which I didn't. He was short and rude to me so I left with my car told them to cram their warranty.

Since then I have bought my tires from TireBuyer.com (working on my 3rd set) and have them installed by a mom and pop place. You save a ton of $$ on the tires but pay more for shipping, install, etc. I still feel like I come out on top and I can control the situation. If you have a local firestone or midas that you trust (I don't) you can get them shipped for free to those shops and installed for pre-negotiated prices (like $60).

 

Last experience with my local Discount tire was nothing less than 5 star stellar. Gave me a mileage prorate on a new set of Michelins as I did achieve the mileage advertised on the pervious set. Essentially giving me one free new tire out of the four, also reccoemd the Michelin $60 mail in rebate. All wheel installs hand torqued to 100#.
Went back and ordered my Blackrhino wheels, during a holiday sale an additional $160 rebate on wheels $70 off of retail price. This install also went excellent w/white glove treatment which I expected having purchased (5) brand new wheels. I guess everyone has their experiences, mine have all been excellent with DCT.

Walmart, Midas, Goodyear, Firestone, Billy Bobs, Timmys Tires...will NEVER touch my wheels or tires. FWIW..

 

This alone is worth it's weight in gold. You don't even need an appt. Just stop by and ask for the rotation.

 

They price match if they are higher which normally they aren't but the service is superb.

 

Spot on Sean, could not agree more.

 

I'll also add that I've bought many sets from them. 2 sets for my Lightning, one for my Ranger and rims, one set for a Superduty, 5-6 other ones for cars over the years. The only two times I haven't bought from DT was my Coopers SST's on the Tundra because the dealer actually matched there price and had free rotation, the same for my wifes Camry.

 

Thanks so much for the insight. Discount Tire seems to be the answer. They do not appear to have any brick and mortar locations in PA though. When you factor in cost to mount and balance, I am not really seeing a savings over Mom and Pop in my area - who I'd prefer to give the business for the entire transaction (assuming they also get a cut on the tire sale itself).

 

I bought my Cooper ST Maxx tires at a mom and pop type shop. Their service is fine, free 10,000km rotations etc. The price was about $100 more than if I bought them online and installed them myself so that was a wash. One thing I'm not a big fan of though is they don't have lifts. All the use are floor jacks. When I got my tires rotated, they had my truck up on 4 floor jacks with all the tires off as they moved them around. No jack stands, no supports. Didn't seem either very safe (their problem) or smart. What if a jack failed or got bumped and my truck came down on the hub??

My winters will be bought from a chain store and installed on wheels I provide. I'll likely be doing the swap over myself as getting a vehicle in for that is next to impossible this time of year.

 

Your Mom and Pop doesn't have a lift? WTF. My Mom and Pop has several lifts!

 

Yeah, that's what I said when I first went there. They're popular in town, so they likely haven't had any incidents. They're pretty casual there too. I've hung out in the bay chatting with the guys putting my wheels on, they don't make you sit in a waiting room if you don't want to.

It just makes me a little nervous see my truck in the air with no tires and nothing but 4 floor jacks supporting it...

 

Agreed. I probably would trust them for inspections and routine stuff...

that didn't otherwise require a lift...

 

Yeah, I won't be buying tires or having them do much install stuff anymore due to that. They do fine work, I just can't get around the floor jack issue. LOL.

 

My local Cooper dealer wanted almost $1000 for 275/70/18 AT3s, mounted, balanced, out the door. I can get them online for $780 shipped, and it sure as heck isn't going to cost $220 to get them mounted and balanced.

I've always bought online and had a shop in town put them on.

 

Discount Tire has always been good to my wife and myself. Never try to upsell or add this service and that service, just what tires do you want, ok cool, and boom.

You can also try DiscountTiresDirect.com.

Discount tires at wholesale prices, more or less.

 

Another vote for Discount Tire. They recently replaced a tire for me under warranty when it was unclear whether there was a defect with the tire or some sort of road damage. It would have cost $430 without warranty, I got the tire and mounting and balancing of 2 tores for $120.

They have always taken great care of my family and myself. They will match any price out there. Definitely can't beat their service and pricing.

 

Unfortunately Discount Tire does not have any brick and mortar stores within at least 75 miles of me. Which makes sense since I've never heard of them before and have purchased many sets of tires over the last 20 years. TireDirect.com seems to be on par with TireRack pricing. And when I factor in shipping and install charges, and the hassle of coordinating all of it, it is basically a wash - I think I am going to my Mom and Pop and keeping the stream of commerce local. Thanks for all the replies!!!

 

I bought the 295/70-18 RG's from a small, local shop. I'd had that size priced anywhere from $286-360 each from about a dozen shops. Bought em from the local place for $297/tire with mounting and balancing included.

 

got my tires on Amazon 35's for under $1000 fucking tires run great.... WINNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I just checked on Amazon. BFG KO2s are cheaper than Tire Rack. Prime freee shipping, is less than $1000. Amazon is an amazing thing.

 

Makes you wonder how much tires cost wholesale. I am willing to pay more for an expert install, balance and alignment. And a real person to go back to if I have a shimmy above 62 mph.

 

to bad you don't live in Tucson I would of had my boy install mount and balance for under $80 bucks at discount tire!!!!!

 

It's about $100 to install here in Philly suburbs. Not terrible. I'd rather give the total biz to the little guy. Hopefully they make $20 a pop off the tire, then $100 on the install. Better pad their revenue than the margins at online tire behemoths (tirerack, Amazon, discount direct).

 

Yeah it does. The guy I bought mine from generally beats out nearly every tire shop in my hometown, he's going for economy of scale it seems like. Plus he seems to know his stuff pretty well.