I just spent $700+ on two tires. 600 miles later, one of them has a two inch cut across the crown. These replaced two others, one with a five inch crown cut and one with a three inch sidewall cut.

I hate it when the USFS does their annual "road grading". All they do is pull rocks out of the ditches to spread across the potholes. Every year, tires cut down by rocks.

Just bought four tires for the pickup. $1050 out the door. Toyo Open Country ATII tires. These are expensive, but I will have them for 10 years, so buying cheap tires for the truck just extends the pain.

I buy from Les Schwab. They have my commercial account for the semi truck, so they always treat me right. They sold the Toyos for $40 less/each than anybody else. Their service is top notch.

Perhaps I'm an odd duck, but I love buying new tires. They look good, smell good, and perform good compared to old, worn tires.

What really helps me (not) are the reviews on Tire Rack. One guy says, "These tires are great. Got 80,000 miles out of them. Best tire ever!" The next review of the same tire says, "These tires are crap. They wore out in 20,000 miles. I'll never buy this brand again! "

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
I have had good luck at my local ford dealer and good prices......boat tires are the worst though.....90% of them are replaced with 90% of their tread on them because they're dry rotted.

Same here, local Ford dealer beat out tirerack & Discount Tire when our Flex needed tires; and it got a 4 wheel alignment.
Saving a bit of money & the much improved driving/handling/grip performance is awesome.

I just put tires on my tiny little car. Has a bastard size so they had to be ordered. One of the four had a bad belt. Reordered. New tire came in. Bad belt. Third time was the charm.
Firestone.
Just under 500 bucks for 4 for a tiny little car!
Free rotation! Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
What really helps me (not) are the reviews on Tire Rack. One guy says, "These tires are great. Got 80,000 miles out of them. Best tire ever!" The next review of the same tire says, "These tires are crap. They wore out in 20,000 miles. I'll never buy this brand again! "

Yep, their reviews are crap. The reviews are typically for a different cars over a wide range of uses. Unless I find the guy/gal that has the same car as me, in the same area with the same driving habits, I would put very little weight in their reviews.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
What really helps me (not) are the reviews on Tire Rack. One guy says, "These tires are great. Got 80,000 miles out of them. Best tire ever!" The next review of the same tire says, "These tires are crap. They wore out in 20,000 miles. I'll never buy this brand again! "

Yep, their reviews are crap. The reviews are typically for a different cars over a wide range of uses. Unless I find the guy/gal that has the same car as me, in the same area with the same driving habits, I would put very little weight in their reviews.

And that's what forums like this are for.
Better peer group to get some solid recommendations from.

My daily driver (86 Olds Cutlass) used to take what were the least expensive tire size you could buy, the good old 205 70R14. Now it's not only a somewhat expensive size due to the low volume sold it's also darned near impossible to find in stock. The final insult is I really liked Bridgestone Blizzaks on the rear for winter driving But Bridgestone stopped building the Blizzak in that size.

Spent over an hour today looking for a 16 x 7 inch rim with a 5 x 4.75 bolt pattern and zero offset and finally found that Cragar has a steel wheel in that size for 80 bucks at Summit Racing. Will probably order 2 this week so I can then put some 225 60R16 Blizzaks on the rear. In a month or so I'll get two more for the front put some all season Kelly's on the front. Then next spring I'll pop for two more wheels and tires to preserve the Blizzaks for the next few winters.

So, in a somewhat small way I feel all of your pain. I am also quite thankful I never got hooked on the Truck/SUV habit because single tire for those beasts cost about what I'll end up paying for all 6 wheels and tires.

Tabitha blew a tire just outside of Meridian, MS two weeks ago.

There was no tires to fit her car at any tire store available for several days. After a couple of very kind kids stopped to help her, she limped her car into Newton, MS on the doughnut and visited her mother at the nursing home. Her mother's room mate has a son that just so happened to run the ONLY tire store in this tiny little town.

She told him to do her right no questions asked.

He put 4 NEW 16" Toyo tires on her car for $200 out the door.

I drove to Mississippi Friday to go get a trailer and Tabitha's mother's things from her apartment in Hattiesburg and dropped by the tire store. It was this run down garage with I swear Cooter working there. His Southern drawl was thicker than mine and I could barely understand him.

I shook his hand and thanked him for not taking advantage of her. He said that he has been in business for so long because he is a man of honor. He was a Vietnam veteran and was in the Marines. He told me that treating people right has made him a rich man. His mama ordered him to help someone in dire need and he did just that.

Great story. I used to live in Meridian, even got married there. Our wedding photographer was from Newton, so I know the area.

We drove through in August on the way to the WW2 museum in New Orleans. Vehicle problems on the road can be a pain.

I hate buying tires, but for a different reason. I'm very picky about how my truck handles and feels. Seems like even when I buy the same tires I liked last year, they feel completely different.

This last new set feels completely different than the tires I loved before, but those tires barely lasted 35,000 miles. I'm not paying $160 a tire for 35,000 miles.

These new tires have "broken in" some now, and feel OK.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
What really helps me (not) are the reviews on Tire Rack. One guy says, "These tires are great. Got 80,000 miles out of them. Best tire ever!" The next review of the same tire says, "These tires are crap. They wore out in 20,000 miles. I'll never buy this brand again! "

Yep, their reviews are crap. The reviews are typically for a different cars over a wide range of uses. Unless I find the guy/gal that has the same car as me, in the same area with the same driving habits, I would put very little weight in their reviews.

I agree about the reviews and don't bother reading them, but the rankings I pay attention to. Once you have who knows how many drivers reporting and ranking based on 10s of millions of miles driven, I figure it all averages out pretty much correctly.

I drive 40K a year and have always driven a sedan (mostly Altimas) in a "spirited" manner. Got used to replacing tires between 35-40K, so a little more often than once a year - maybe every 10-11 months or so.

Since I got my Cherokee, I haven't had that problem. I took delivery a little more than 27 months and 90K miles ago and I'm on the factory tires and brakes.

They're both due for replacement. The brakes & rotors are easy (especially since I'll do them myself). The tires are going to run me $900 installed, give or take.

Not bad for more than two years worth of tire, though.

-Rob

Buying tires can be sort of un-nerving...

I wonder if it would help if you covered the tires during the non-use periods to eliminate any UV / sun damage.

Also we used to hyper-inflate tires on cars that were going into winter storage [Porsches] for 6 months during our winter.

My sense is you may be able to pull extra quality time re your tire investment if you did some preventative maintenance.

JoeSig

quote:

Originally posted by JoeSig:
Buying tires can be sort of un-nerving...

I wonder if it would help if you covered the tires during the non-use periods to eliminate any UV / sun damage.

Also we used to hyper-inflate tires on cars that were going into winter storage [Porsches] for 6 months during our winter.

My sense is you may be able to pull extra quality time re your tire investment if you did some preventative maintenance.

JoeSig

I was thinking a thorough application of 303 Aerospace would prevent a lot of his off-season dry rot.

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:

quote:

Originally posted by JoeSig:
Buying tires can be sort of un-nerving...

I wonder if it would help if you covered the tires during the non-use periods to eliminate any UV / sun damage.

Also we used to hyper-inflate tires on cars that were going into winter storage [Porsches] for 6 months during our winter.

My sense is you may be able to pull extra quality time re your tire investment if you did some preventative maintenance.

JoeSig

I was thinking a thorough application of 303 Aerospace would prevent a lot of his off-season dry rot.

-Rob

303 is great. It's what I use on my boat interior. Armorall is not good.

When buying tires be sure and check the date of manufacture. Code is next to DOT. A lot of tires on sale come from the back of warehouses where they have been sitting for years. Never buy a tire over 2 years old.

quote:

Originally posted by JoeSig:
Buying tires can be sort of un-nerving...

I wonder if it would help if you covered the tires during the non-use periods to eliminate any UV / sun damage.

Also we used to hyper-inflate tires on cars that were going into winter storage [Porsches] for 6 months during our winter.

My sense is you may be able to pull extra quality time re your tire investment if you did some preventative maintenance.

JoeSig

They were 14 years old. I've had the trailer for 4 of those. The tread blocks rather than the sidewalls were breaking apart. Where the tite contacted the concrete all winter was especially noticeable.

The next boat (in a couple years) won't be trailerable so I don't expect to replace them again.

Jeez guys, Count your blessings! I just put tires on my coach $600 x 8 just for the rubber. Do that every 6 to 7 years.....

Always liked Blizaaks. But this past Wednesday went with the Yohohama Faux Blizaaks for almost 40% less than the real thing. I just can not wrap my head around a $1K tire bill, for a normal vehicle.

If I was driving a 1 ton 4x4, OK. Or a Corvette with 20 inch ultra performance rubber, OK. But not on a regular old Honda Pilot.

Check out OEM type rubber for a few of the common performance cars. The 20" Goodyear, F1 Run Flats, for my Camaro run about $350 each!
I bought a set of new ones, on oem rims last January from a kid who immediately replaced his tires with new rims and bigger tires. Which gave me a set of spare summer tires and rims to run some all seasons for cold weather. I paid $800. Gotta love dumb kids with more cash than brains.