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Let's talk TireRack


99StockGT

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So I'm sure there are more than a few of us who have purchased tires or wheel/tire combos from TireRack my question is what do you do once you receive them? Do you have them shipped to your home or a shop? Do you find yourself saving a considerable sum of money going through TR + shipping versus buying from a local?

 

Full disclosure, we are recently in the TireRack wholesale/installer program just curious how much their referral for install will be a revenue source for us. Personally whenever I have bought tires I've done so at a shop who provided the tires and all services, or been at a shop that I can just take care of the mounting/balance/etc myself.

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I'm not really a typical tire buyer, but I had them send my order to an NTB once and installed there, which was fine. But that NTB went out of business, so that's off the table now. More recently I just have them sent to me, and take them to my shop of choice.
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I've found that the locals save around half to 3/4 of the shipping cost on my recent purchases. I still ordered from Tirerack due to a homie hookup that saved me shipping entirely.

 

Side note: I have access to installing tires personally.

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Responses are certainly going where I expected them to, no one uses the "Installer Network" just orders the tires and takes them to whatever shop/friend they are used to working with. Now do we take that with a grain of salt because this is CR and we are all "enthusiasts".. ;)
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Responses are certainly going where I expected them to, no one uses the "Installer Network" just orders the tires and takes them to whatever shop/friend they are used to working with. Now do we take that with a grain of salt because this is CR and we are all "enthusiasts".. ;)

 

Not sure of the demographics and where you get your customers but I would imagine the local domestic folks that aren't enthusiasts would likely use you for sure.

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Get them shipped to my house, take them to work with me. I use ebay for tires a lot too. The couple times now that I've bought snow tires on steelies, I just bolted them on in the driveway, they came with lug nuts and everything.
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Purchase them and have them shipped to my house where we mount them our self. Its really nice having your own tire mounter and balance because if the wheel gets messed up the only person to blame is yourself.
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Not sure of the demographics and where you get your customers but I would imagine the local domestic folks that aren't enthusiasts would likely use you for sure.

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That's why we are doing "market research" with you fine people of CR :) Our customer base ranges from the mom in a minivan to the delivery driver in an F650 diesel to lowered tuner rides and muscle cars, you never know what you're going to see in here on a daily basis. While tires aren't a huge portion of our business, knowing whether or not something will be a valuable revenue stream in the future is key to growth. So here we are :) Thanks for the input so far gents!

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Last time I bought wheels/tires I got the wheels from discounttiredirect.com whose customer service was incredible and included a set of heavy duty lug nuts free, and those were shipped to my dealer. Tires I got from TR and had them shipped to the dealer. Install was free for a homie hookup.

 

Now that I'm out of the car biz, I'd probably research prices there and then see if a local/CR hookup could match/beat/get close enough to keep the business local.

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Last time I bought wheels/tires I got the wheels from discounttiredirect.com whose customer service was incredible and included a set of heavy duty lug nuts free, and those were shipped to my dealer. Tires I got from TR and had them shipped to the dealer. Install was free for a homie hookup.

 

Now that I'm out of the car biz, I'd probably research prices there and then see if a local/CR hookup could match/beat/get close enough to keep the business local.

 

Ok this brings up a point I wanted to talk about. Let's say you don't have a homie hookup, what do you find is your most important search criteria? Price? Distance from you? Customer reviews? Photos of shop/equipment?

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Ok this brings up a point I wanted to talk about. Let's say you don't have a homie hookup, what do you find is your most important search criteria? Price? Distance from you? Customer reviews? Photos of shop/equipment?

 

Most important to me is a shop that will give me a quality balance and not fuck up my wheels. Then distance/time involved with going there, then price. I'm not spending 3 hours to drive across town and wait to save $30 vs a place around the corner that charges more. That said, tire M&B prices have gotten hilariously out of control lately. $90 to M&B, LOLOLOLOL wtf even?!?

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Almost everyone I know just goes to their local tire shop to have tires put on. For years I've tried different things to save a few bucks but it's bit me in the ass more often than not. Discount tire out here really pisses me off, NTB is always too expensive, and wal mart is well.....wal mart so I search for money savers and it never works out. I'm done with the saving $50 thing though and am going pure convenience from here on out. We have 3 vehicles plus a camper and my duramax goes through mud tires like shit through a goose so I'm tire shopping about every other year for something. I start dreading it about a year before it happens so it seems like I'm constantly tire shopping.
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I'm not really a typical tire buyer, but I had them send my order to an NTB once and installed there, which was fine. But that NTB went out of business, so that's off the table now. More recently I just have them sent to me, and take them to my shop of choice.

I'm the same, I get them sent to me and take them where I want.

I've never had a local person be able to match or beat tire rack, shipping and my installation person for price.

this for sure, most places charge more per tire and also pass on their shipping so it ends up costing more.

Most important to me is a shop that will give me a quality balance and not fuck up my wheels. Then distance/time involved with going there, then price. I'm not spending 3 hours to drive across town and wait to save $30 vs a place around the corner that charges more. That said, tire M&B prices have gotten hilariously out of control lately. $90 to M&B, LOLOLOLOL wtf even?!?

Most important to me is them not fucking up ANYTHING. Most chain places are going to fuck up so i'd pay more for the trust factor.

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Discount tire Polaris gave us 83 dollars a tire back when we replaced all 4 on the Odyssey,so a set of Michelins were $360 out the door ( instead of $760 retail )

 

I do not understand the logic as the tires were at wear bars other than"we give you back a percentage towards your new set" or something like that but was a nice surprise to hear that.

 

Back on topic it seems like a exercise in frustration to buy from tire rack and then go to install them somewhere else,I have done it in the past but you can almost get any tire you want 1 stop shop.

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They have tires others cant get in the 200tw category. I order them and have them shipped to my local authorized installer.

 

THIS. Or the 40 TW category, even.

 

I have a pretty good working relationship with the guys at the Hilliard Discount Tire, since I take so much business over there, and they all geek out when they get to mount up race slicks for a change.

 

9 times out of 10, if there is a tire I want, they can find a way to get it directly, so I haven't used Tire Rack in a while.

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So I'm sure there are more than a few of us who have purchased tires or wheel/tire combos from TireRack my question is what do you do once you receive them? Do you have them shipped to your home or a shop? Do you find yourself saving a considerable sum of money going through TR + shipping versus buying from a local?

 

Full disclosure, we are recently in the TireRack wholesale/installer program just curious how much their referral for install will be a revenue source for us. Personally whenever I have bought tires I've done so at a shop who provided the tires and all services, or been at a shop that I can just take care of the mounting/balance/etc myself.

 

I have access to the lower-priced part of TR and I bring the price to DT for a match and VOILA! tires magically installed for a whole lot less locally.

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They have tires others cant get in the 200tw category. I order them and have them shipped to my local authorized installer.

 

So your "local authorized installer" is a shop that's listed through the TireRack site or someone you have done business with previously?

 

For your racecar/autox folks how do you handle your wheel and tire purchases and installations?

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I think it's definitely the quality/price of tires that matter as well...Derek @ BestOne always treats me well as I struggle for the cheapest cheapest cheapest deal for tires that aren't sh!t. I got cheap whitewalls for the LeBaron and my Lincoln Continental, and Derek was solid from sale through implementation to servicing.

 

In Florida, I got new Kumho 600-treadwear tires from TireRack sent to a local installer who set us up well, and cheaply. Knowing the price for local installers right through TireRack's website is helpful. I also like the clearance sales, but even with inside help I find you have to jump on them before they get sold out very, very quickly.

 

Now, my CTS-V and Odyssey need tires, and I'm more inclined to get better/name-brad tires. I find that TireRack is just such a slick site from a research standpoint.

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