[Chris65LeMans]

Last year, I went to my local America's Tire to get some new shoes for the wife's car. We just needed 2. The guy tried his best to sell me 4 of them. He measured the back tires with his tool and said "see - the tool says there is only 1/32" of tread left." I had to tell him "I just watched you measure the tires, and it was more than that. Just the fronts."

When I left, the manager of the place was in a screaming match with another customer. I figured that, since this is a franchised store, I just found a "bad seed."

So, when it came time to replace the front tires in my daily driver, I drove a few extra miles to the America's Tire that I went to for years - they had been very honest.

My front tires were bald, but my rear tires were two years old. They guy tried his best to get me to replace them - even though there is well over a quarter inch of tread left. He showed me some stupid chart that they had that basically said you needed to replace your tires the instant they started wearing. I told him no deal - and then had him take the $20/tire "warranty" off that he put on without asking. While I was paying, I overheard the sales guy next to us. He was telling some guy who had to replace one tire that he had to replace the one on the other side, too so that they would "wear evenly." The poor sap bought it. (he was driving a 15 year old minivan, not some sports car.)

The short point of my long rant is that I've been buying tires for a long time, and never heard any of this crap before. I think I now see the wisdom of buying tires online.

[Tim john]

Agreed, I recently took a tractor tire for a leak repair. It was a tube tire and I asked for a patch repair and the pimply faced kid tried his very best to convince me I needed a new tire because the cost of a new tire was very close with all the labor involved...I paid the six bucks for the patch job and left. How stupid do these kids think we are.

Tim john---

[linden_gto]

Originally Posted by Chris65LeMans

Last year, I went to my local America's Tire to get some new shoes for the wife's car. We just needed 2. The guy tried his best to sell me 4 of them. He measured the back tires with his tool and said "see - the tool says there is only 1/32" of tread left." I had to tell him "I just watched you measure the tires, and it was more than that. Just the fronts."

When I left, the manager of the place was in a screaming match with another customer. I figured that, since this is a franchised store, I just found a "bad seed."

So, when it came time to replace the front tires in my daily driver, I drove a few extra miles to the America's Tire that I went to for years - they had been very honest.

My front tires were bald, but my rear tires were two years old. They guy tried his best to get me to replace them - even though there is well over a quarter inch of tread left. He showed me some stupid chart that they had that basically said you needed to replace your tires the instant they started wearing. I told him no deal - and then had him take the $20/tire "warranty" off that he put on without asking. While I was paying, I overheard the sales guy next to us. He was telling some guy who had to replace one tire that he had to replace the one on the other side, too so that they would "wear evenly." The poor sap bought it. (he was driving a 15 year old minivan, not some sports car.)

The short point of my long rant is that I've been buying tires for a long time, and never heard any of this crap before. I think I now see the wisdom of buying tires online.

i've run into places like that for years. like anything else, they want to sell product - they don't care by what means. every business that sells a consumable product pretty much functions in the same manner - these are toast. these are dangerous. you really need to replace these 3 week old tires already! ymmv.

[tigergto]

All these places set a goal (quota )for their employees plus they work on bonuses (commission). The more knowledgeable know they're being taken but many buy into it.

[mgarblik]

The only thing I can say that supports the two or 4 tire sales deal has to do with the rolling diameter of the tires. If you have for example 3 tires with 4/32" tread left and you replace 1 tire, it is possible the car will pull slightly. Also possible the ABS and Traction/stability codes will set because of inconsistent counts by the processor for wheel speed. Some of the older cars with early tire pressure monitor systems may also set codes. Especially if the car is FWD, and different tread depth tires are placed on the drive wheels, it will possibly wear out the side gears and spider gears in the differential because it will be working all the time, even when going straight. That's why the mini-spares always say no more than 50 MPH and for short distance only. So it is best to change tires in pairs based on drive axles if one is more than 50% worn.
Tire stores, brake stores, muffler shops and even dealers are always pushing the limits of honest and fair practice to "make their quota". Customer's need to be armed with some knowledge for sure.

[brut4s]

Last year I bought tires for my Truck about 3 weeks after buying them I had 1 go flat. I went to the store I bought them from and the salesman 1st said he couldn't find anything wrong with them, then the manager told me it was the wheels that they were corroded and needed to be replaced they will only get worse. I looked at him and said really you must think i'm a idiot those are factory wheels made by Alcoa never been scuffed and in perfect shape and you want me to buy some junk wheels to make a sale? I left that store and there have been no problems since.

[Chris65LeMans]

Originally Posted by Tim john

Agreed, I recently took a tractor tire for a leak repair. It was a tube tire and I asked for a patch repair and the pimply faced kid tried his very best to convince me I needed a new tire because the cost of a new tire was very close with all the labor involved...I paid the six bucks for the patch job and left. How stupid do these kids think we are.

Tim john---

Ah - the "let me do it the easier way" pitch.

A couple of years ago, I had some fresh cement laid near my driveway. This summer, a sprinkler pipe burst underneath it. My sprinkler guy was arguing that the easiest and cheapest way was to take a jackhammer to the cement - even though I had already told him I just had it installed. (so I knew what it cost.) He complained it would be "too hard" to just cap it off and run a new pipe about 70 feet around the section. I insisted, and he and two other guys knocked it out in two hours. Much easier to tear up the cement, indeed...

I'm in the sales business, and you'd be amazed at how much business I win from my competitors because I have slowly showed people that I'm not some scumbag who will tell them anything to make a buck.

[carbking]

I don't really think you can indict the entire industry by some bad apples.

A couple of years ago, had a tread separate on one tire. The one on the other side had maybe 35k miles, but still good tread. Asked the sales guy should I replace them both? He countered with "has the spare ever been on the ground?" (answer - no). He said he wouldn't worry about just replacing one, but if I were concerned about the difference in tread diameter, to put the spare on the ground and the left-over tire as the spare, and only buy one. Or, if I really wanted, of course he would sell me a pair. We did as he suggested - bought one new, and put the spare on the ground to match it.

I really like to deal with honest people.

Jon.

[goatman65]

I think cars have just become to hi-tech. So even a simple thing as changing or putting on the wrong tire will cause the computer to have fits. Having 'matched' tires probably is a concern now a days. Not like when we would run F 70 14 fronts and L 60 15 rears and the only concern was keeping the fender lip off the tire.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Just bought a pair of BFG Radial TA from JEGS, and Freeeeeee Shipppingggggggg

Mounted for $20 total. THAT was easy.

[GT182]

In this day and age there are many out there trying to pull the wool over your eyes and sell you things you don't need. Tires is only one of the many. If they can't dazzle you with brilliance, they'll baffle you with Bullsh!t. I've seen it many times over the years.

Remember how a garage would make you believe you needed new shocks? I do, and saw it first hand a couple of times.... by the AH I worked for at a garage. No.. I had no part of it and would not take part in it, he did it all on his own. But I got the word out about it.... and lost my job. And I felt good.

[Scott Thelander]

ahhhh .... yes tires and the sale of said product.....

So I developed a bad vibration at 55 in the motorhome a few years back....

Pulled into one of the large chain tire stores and found my left rear inner dually tire was flat ...

bummer ... found the nail ... they go to fix my yokahama geolander 215 ea

215 85 16 1 of the 6 I bought from them 4 summers earlier ... boss says
hey !! cant repair your tire ... why I ask ... its 11 years old he said..
I told him BS I just bought em in another town fro myou guys a couple years ago ..

he showed me the date on the tire ... told him you better check the rest of em
because I was sold 6-7 year old tires then by you guys...check my account !

sure enuf 3 of em were 11 years old ...3 of em were 5 ....

I left with 4 brand new tires on the rear ... thank goodness the 2 fronts were
2 of the 3 with the newer dates ...

so 2 new on the front and 2 new on inner rears ..... for free ... and the other 2 rebalanced

back on the road 3 hours later ....

so ALWAYS check the manufacture date code

or at least have them write the date of the tires on your invoice !!

Scott

[Lightfoot]

Only selling/installing new tires in pairs has been around for some time.
Wallyworld is big on that. Of course, they are the extreme in all things nanny state now. A few years ago I even noticed a poster in their auto service lobby that made a pitch for having the new tires (if buying just two) installed on the REAR of FWD cars for optimal safety. I guess people are just looping the ass end around all the time these days because they (still) don't know how to drive with FWD. That's so anal.
I've got 3/32 left on my rear tires and I'm still waiting for them to wear out. Haven't had the ass go around yet.

[dpoltzer]

I too am leaning toward buying the tires on line to avoid the whole tire store scam but what about install and balancing which leads to my question: Anyone bought one of those home shop bubble balancers and a tire pry bar to do the work your self? I did this as a kid with my dad and it worked pretty well. Wheel weights are cheap and I can have my son do the hard part. Just curious.

[92GTA]

I recently got lucky. I pulled up to a place for lunch about 5 weeks ago,, a guy comes over to my car speed walking to talk about it. He said he saw a picture I posted on the Pure Pontiac Power FB group just the day before. Turned out he was the manager of the tire place next door and had a 65/66 (I think?) Pontiac.

Anyway he seemed like a good fellow car guy. After I ate I went into the shop (America's Tire) and told him I was going to buy a set of BG 245/60/14 from Jegs but wanted to see what he could do for me. He gave me his card and a price including mounting/balance/disposal that was only $20 more a tire that getting them from Jegs with free shipping.

Fast forward 3 weeks and I need tires sooner that I thought because mine are leaking BAD through the dry rot cracks. I check online, and the Jegs price has gone up $10 a tire! So the next day I call the guy and he gets them ordered and they show up the next business day. All said, same original price he quoted me. He did mention he had to order them from some place other than he thought so he paid a bit more but said he would eat it.

Bottom line, he was a really good guy who was a man of his word and didn't try to sell me crap I didn't need, not even once. I really appreciated that as I'm super broke right now and only 5 weeks into a new job after being unemployed for 2.5 years and my 69 is my daily driver. I had to put $500 on a credit card and borrow another $100 just to get the tires.

Don't blame the industry, blame the bad people in it. Because there are some good ones left.

[Bob Dillon]

I've dealt with the America's Tire here in Gilroy for 20 years of more and never had any problem with them.

Once when a set of tires I bought from them had a separated belt, they called about two hours later and said it was going to take a little longer because upon inspection, they'd decided to replace the other 3 tires, as well, under warranty.

I guess tire store vary, as many other types of stores do.

[The Boss]

A few years ago I went to Costco to get tires for my F350 that were larger than the size on the door sticker and they refused to put them on the truck for me. As luck would have it I had my floor jack in the bed so I parked outside the bay and rolled them in one at a time.



Now I get them at Tire Rack & Nick in town puts them on for me.

[Txbobcat]

I bought 2 tires for the GTO and six months later two more for the front. When I told them to mount them on the front they told me they had to mount them on the back for better traction. I said the rear have less than 500 miles on them put them on the front. He said it is a law that they go on the rear. I said BS show me the law. He called the mgr who used the law thing as well. I said show me the law which he couldn't. He said tell you what we will put them on the rear and then you can back out and pull right back in and we will put them on the front. I said you aren't going to waste my time sell me the tires or I am leaving right now. They finally did as I asked. Thank you discount tire.

[67drake]

Tire shops/Auto Zone -no difference IMO
I've been buying all my tires on line for over 10 years.

[Phil Thompson]

My rant is not about a tire ripoff, just a rant. I live about 30 miles from a very large collector car tire co. In Chattanooga Tn. I call them to get a set of BF Goodrich TA radials and 15x7 rally wheels. My plan was to drive up purchase them and have them mounted and balanced. They do not mount and balance anymore plus they did not have the wheels in stock .I bought the tires , went back home ordered the wheels from summit got them overnight then had to pay $80.00 for mount and balance. About 6 months earlier I needed a set of 15x7 rally 1 wheels and 225/70 15 redline Goodrich radials for 65 GTO I was building , the wheels were backordered and they had 2 tires in Tn. and 2 in California. , I ordered the tires paid , paid shipping and summit had the wheels in stock with free shipping