Dang! Them There Tires Are Expensive!

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Dang! Them There Tires Are Expensive!

By JLP | June 27, 2006

Well, my Rendezvous is now over 4 years old and in need of new tires. I just priced some mid-range Goodyear Assurance ComfortTred for $115 each. According to the tire store’s website, the total price is going to be $550.61, which includes 4 tires, disposal fee (stupid), installation (I don’t like puttin’ on my own tires), and sales tax. It is expensive but what am I to do? I have to have tires.

Topics: Budgeting, Cars, Miscellaneous |

Comments to “Dang! Them There Tires Are Expensive!”

Personal Finance Blogger Says:
June 27th, 2006 at 5:59 am

You could always just go lease a new vehicle…

Seriously though, have you tried Costco or Sams? They usually have some pretty good tire deals. Even if no better than the prices you have, you’re averaging less than $150 per year for tires, that isn’t bad.

One word of caution. I wouldn’t skimp on tires. They are one of the most important pieces of safety equipment on your vehicle.

Vlad Says:
June 27th, 2006 at 9:22 am

I always shop Discount Tire, Costco and Sams. They are cheaper then all other places I am aware of. My wife’s bmw requires expensive sports wheels, and I opt for Kumho, it’s a Korean brand which has served us very well, and saved us quite a bit–we are on the third set, I believe. On my SUV I go for Michelin. While they cost more, they overlast the competition in my experience on my vehicle, including tires which are advertised with the same warranty by Goodyear and others. The OEM tires were Goodyear, and my Michelins last 30% longer, so price comparison becomes much less relevant. Plus I know I get good traction, and less squealing when I turn or jack-rabbit accelerate. (For those of you queasy about supporting Jacque’s company, I believe my set was made in a factory in Ardmore, Oklahoma.) We’ve gotten all Kumho’s at Discount Tire, whereas the Michielin at Sams.

Due to some reasons I may bring up another time, the next set will not come from Sams.

Ok, I’m done rambling.

JLP Says:
June 27th, 2006 at 9:40 am

I just scheduled an appointment with Discount Tire. I have used them for years and have yet to have a problem with them. I’m going to go with the Goodyear tires I mentioned in the post.

My uncle used to own a tire shop and he told my dad that the tires at places like Wal Mart are of a cheaper quality (hence the cheaper price) than the tires you get at a tire store. My dad thought he was full of it but he later found this to be true.

Keith Cash Says:
June 27th, 2006 at 10:19 am

I was in the Wholesale tire business for 8 years. I might suggest to get the insurance with the Tires about 22$ per tire. I will fix for free if they tear up by running over something.

It has saved me in the past. GO Michelin. Good luck.

P Says:
June 27th, 2006 at 10:49 am

I agree the Michelins work very well

mapgirl Says:
June 27th, 2006 at 11:09 am

Disposal fees are silly, but not so silly. Have you ever seen a mountain of tires on fire? It’s horrible. If the fee is going to pay for environmentally responsible disposal, I’d rather pay it than have all that rubber burning, and not in a good, fun, adrenaline-pumping kind of way. It’s pretty sad to see clouds of black smoke rising into the sky and know that it’s going to give me an asthma attack if I don’t take shelter indoors, not to mention the carcinogens that are probably being released from burning kevlar radials, etc.

What’s the solution? Drive less, of course. (This from a gal who drove about 200 miles this weekend in a rental car.)

savvy saver Says:
June 27th, 2006 at 12:33 pm

I’m with mapgirl - disposal fees aren’t silly. I much prefer tires to be recycled into shoes, rather than dumped in a landfill or burned.

scott Says:
June 27th, 2006 at 1:08 pm

Check online for your county / city for where they have garbage / debris disposal. If its anywhere near where you drive, check out how much it costs to dispose the tires with them yourself. If its worth the difference, tell the tire installers that you will dispose of them yourself. I did that and they put the tires in large plastic bags in the car (and the person I asked to do this didn’t make a fuss about it at all). I took the tires to the disposal station (right on the way to work) and saved $2 per tire.

Anonymous Says:
June 28th, 2006 at 12:06 pm

Hello,

I have some insight to the tire industry, and thought I’d share a few of the drivers behind the costs - all the major manufacturers have been raising prices the past few years, due in large part to:

- North American manufacturing (high legacy & union costs, etc)
- Tires are petroleum products - so you’ve got the double-whammy of oil that actually goes into the product on top of now-increased distribution costs
- Natural rubber spot prices are volatile at best; volatile and high at worst.

Add to that the higher rim diameter/lower profile product that are populare nowadays, which are more difficult to make, but of course typically command higher margins - and you’ve got a large part of the reason behind the increased prices.

Of course, there are ways to “beat” the game - manufacturers often take advantage of molding the exact same constructed tire into different final products or brands - so, you might pay $150 for a top-of-the-line Michelin, where the same tire (construction-wise) is sold under a different (cheaper) brand name with a slightly different tread pattern, for $75-$100 or so. Specifically, at least for now, Goodyear makes “Goodyear, Dunlop, Kelly, Lee, Hallmark, Monarch and Star brands, as well as several private-brand tire lines” (http://www.goodyear.com/media/pr/pr_2000/22149ti.html). You can bet that when possible, for example, they will just take the same “green” (built, un-molded) tire, and mold it into Goodyear and Monarch brands, or something similar. Of course, it’s not always possible - but it goes on plenty.

True, some tires made even by the same manufacturer are bona-fidely cheaper, but that’s reflected in their characteristics - if you compare the base characteristics - particularly UTQG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTQG) - you can reasonably compare apples-to-apples, even if it’s a premium-to-cheaper comparison.

For any given manufacturer, even if they’re not the same “un-molded” tire, they pretty much all come from the same factory(s) anyway - with the same quality assurance, the same machine, and the same personnel - so if you find out which “off-brands” the manufacturer makes, you can reasonably safely bet that a tire with the same size, speed rating, UTQG, etc, is likely of the same quality, even if sold under different brand names.

And, as noted earlier, they MAY even be the EXACT same tire “under the hood”, just molded differently with diffent sidewall markings & tread patterns - If all the other base characteristics (size, etc) are the same, and if you compare the DOT codes (more on that below) on the sidewall, and find that they’re made at the same manufacturing location - ESPECIALLY if they were made within the same DOT week - good odds that they’re the exact same tire “under the hood”, but were just pressed into two different tread patterns, brands, etc.

“U.S. DOT Tire Identification Number
This begins with the letters “DOT” and indicates that the tire meets all federal standards. The next two numbers or letters are the plant code where it was manufactured, and the last four numbers represent the week and year the tire was built. For example, the numbers 3197 means the 31st week of 1997. The other numbers are marketing codes used at the manufacturer’s discretion. This information is used to contact consumers if a tire defect requires a recall.”
- http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/TireSafety/ridesonit/brochure.html#dotcode

Anyway. Probably more than you ever wanted to know about tires, but hopefully it’s of some use.

Jeff Says:
June 30th, 2006 at 3:03 pm

I feel your pain…..

I had to replace 4 - 20″ Goodyear RSAs on my wife’s Infiniti FX last winter……tires lasted only 19000 miles in local mild, soccer mom driving….total cost $1150.00 including balancing, mounting and tax!!!

Dwayne Says:
August 30th, 2006 at 1:16 pm

WHY would you put 20″ tires on ANYTHING except for looks, then complain about the costs? I just don’t understand nor can I for any empathy either….

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Dang! Them There Tires Are Expensive!