The best place to buy tires: A Comprehensive Guide

Rick’s tips on the best place to buy tires

Choosing the right place to buy tires for your car is essential for ensuring quality, safety, and value. With a plethora of options available, from online retailers to local shops, making the right choice can be daunting. This guide aims to help you navigate the tire-buying landscape by highlighting the best place to buy tires for your car.

Explore the various tire buying options

• Wholesale clubs— Wholesale clubs carry name-brand tires, but in a limited assortment
• Independent tire stores— Usually only carry certain brands and often promote private label brands to make a higher profit
• National chain and franchise tire stores— Carry the most brands and can quickly get you the exact tire you need
• Car dealer— Sell tires as a sideline and carry a small selection
• Online sellers— Offer the lowest prices, but you’ll have to find a local installer

The advantages of buying tires from a national tire chain

• National tire chains really know tires because it’s their primary business— They know which tires are best for your particular car because they sell tires all day. And, they know how to “read” tires, so they can get you back on track if they spot a problem early on.

• They usually carry the largest selection of brands and models— So they can get you the exact size, make, and model tire you need. And, since they don’t do auto repair, they won’t pressure you into buying other services. In most cases they’ll match or beat other stores’ prices. My favorite tire stores are Discount Tires, Americas Tires, and Big O Tires.

Tire stores like Firestone and Goodyear are also good choices, even though they offer repair services. The only downside is that they tend to push their own brands. That’s not a bad thing because Firestone, Goodyear, and Bridgestone are top-quality brands. But you’ll pay more for other brands because they’ll have to order them from another source.

The only downside to buying from a tire store that only sells tires is that it’s slightly inconvenient because you have to take your car to a different shop for all other services.

Should you buy tires from the car dealer?

I’m not a big fan of buying tires from the car dealer. First, tires aren’t their primary business. They only sell tires so they can get you back in the door every 5,000 miles and charge for tire rotation. Once you’re in the door for a tire rotation, they can hit up up for additional services. They carry a limited selection of brands, sizes, and models. You’ll usually pay more than the same tire at a national chain.

But the biggest reason I don’t like buying tires from the dealer is because they really don’t know tires very well—it’s just not their specialty. Tires tell a story if you know how to read the tread wear patterns. I’ve found that dealers are clueless when diagnosing tires as the cause of steering and handling issues. Their technicians tend to suspect mechanical components as the source of these problems before they even consider the tires.

I’ve seen well-respected car dealers talk customers into expensive repairs to correct thumping noises, steering pulls, and squeals in turns. After spending money on those repairs, the problems remained, and when finally diagnosed, the problem turned out to be a tire defect that could have been spotted easily by a trained tire technician.

Should you buy tires from a local independently owned repair shop?

If you go to an independent repair shop and trust their work, by all means, buy tires from them. You’ll probably pay a bit more since these shops aren’t able to buy tires as cheaply as the big chains. On the other hand, they value your business and want to keep you as a customer, so it’s worth paying a bit more.

Should you buy tires online from Tirerack.com?

Tirerack.com is one of the few online sellers that I know and trust. They are the single most authoritative source on tire performance. They independently test tires on their own tracks. They independently rate tires. They include owner feedback on how the tires performed over their life. They have an extensive library of tire information. Even if you decide not to buy from them, at least use them to narrow your choices for brand and model.

Now, should you buy from them? Well, kinda. When they first started in business you’d order tires and they’d ship them to your home. You had to find a shop to mount them. That’s changed. Now, Tirerack.com has made arrangements with local shops to receive the tire shipment and mount and balance your tires. If you don’t need tires installed today and Tirerack.com has an installer in your area, you can feel confident buying from them.

Should you buy tires from chain or franchise repair shops like NTB, PepBoys, Midas, etc?

Again, this is just my opinion, but just like car dealers, I think these shops are really more interested in selling repair services. Selling tires and offering free tire rotation is just a way to keep you coming back for more inspections and more “recommended” services.

In addition, many of these stores sell “store brand” tires. Those are tires made by major tire companies but “private labeled” for the chain. If you buy a private labeled tire and the tire fails due to a factory defect when you’re on a trip, you won’t be able to get it replaced under warranty. I really dislike private labeled tire brands, and I’ve found that they’re really no cheaper than a name brand tire. So why buy them?

Should you buy tires from a wholesale club like Costco or Sam’s Club?

My second least favorite place to buy tires is from a wholesale club. First, even if you’re buying a name-brand tire, chances are the tire model isn’t the exact same tire you’d get if you bought the tire from a tire store. Tire manufacturers often sell an altered version of a tire model to these wholesale clubs. The model usually contains a suffix letter to denote its slightly different. They do that, so you can’t compare apples to apples. Is there a difference in the tires you buy at a wholesale club? Yes. I’ve interviewed several engineers at tire manufacturers, and they all confirm that the altered tire models are made with slightly cheaper materials than the same model sold to retail tire shops.

You also have a limited selection of brands and models from a wholesale club. On the other hand, you’re paying a bit less. So the question remains: is it worth it? Well, if you’re talking strictly price, yes. But there’s another consideration.

Mounting and rotating tires isn’t rocket science. Regarding technician training, tire techs are on the lowest rung, right next to lube techs. In fact, it’s pretty hard to do it wrong, except for one step—tightening the lug nuts when they place the wheel back on your car. That’s critical because if they over-tighten the lug nuts, the excessive torque can break the studs, and uneven torque from not using a torque wrench can cause brake pedal pulsation problems. If they don’t tighten the lug nut enough, they can loosen, and the wheel can fall off.

A typical torque stick used with an impact wrench

There are two ways to torque lug nuts: with a torque wrench and with Torque sticks. Torque sticks are designed to tighten lug nuts to a certain tightness range, after which the tech is supposed to perform a final torque with a calibrated torque wrench. I’ve watched wholesale club techs use torque sticks but not follow up with a torque wrench. To me, that’s a deal breaker because a torque stick isn’t accurate enough, especially if it’s used with an electric impact wrench.

It’s important to finish off torque stick tightening with a hand torque wrench

If you notice brake pedal pulsation within a few thousand miles after getting new tires, it’s because the shop didn’t properly torque the lug nuts so they’re all at the same torque. Good luck getting a wholesale club to take responsibility for that. If you’d like to learn more about lug nut torque and brake pedal pulsation, read this post.

What’s the bottom line for the best place to buy tires?

Buy from a tire store or an independent repair shop that you trust. Skip the car dealer and chain-operated repair shops where tires are a sideline.

©, 2016 Rick Muscoplat

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