I am on my 3rd Suburban in the last 13 years. Each one I have run Michelin Defender LTX M/S tires.

In the past, sometimes I would go with Costco, sometimes I would go with Tire Kingdom.

Costco has these currently for about $1,400 out the door, everything included except alignment since Costco does not do alignments.

I called Tire Kingdom yesterday. Even though they are listed on their website and can be ordered, the guy told me that in store he cannot get the M/S, only the M/S2. Which is a high load tire rated for electric trucks and SUV's. And as such is about $100 more per tire. I used to also like Tire Kingdom because they had a one year, three year or five year program where you got unlimited alignments, tire rotation, etc. I always bought the three year because that is about how long a pair of tires would last me. But Tire Kingdom is now owned by someone else and now a single alignment is about the price of the old three year program.

Do any of the other national chains offer a program like Tire Kingdom used to have?

Or should I just go with Costco and then get an alignment whenever it is needed?

What about the ease factor? What’s easiest, not worrying about a $50 difference in price?

I like the Michelin Defender. I may just end up at ‘Simple Tire’ on eBay, then pick my installer.

TireRack is easy too.

One thing we like about Costco is that they appear to be a lot more consistent from store to store.

We have access to three Costco's. Except for who carries what merchandise,
All seem to be reading out of the same manual.

We get our tires done at Sam’s club; cheaper than any local competition and comes with road hazard protection (pro-rated for wear of course) and free rotations. They have a large selection of tire choices online that you order and set up an appointment for after they arrive if they don’t have them in the building.

I called Tire Discounters and told them what Sam’s was offering on our Michelins and they matched that but added $50 for the alignment.
We went with Tire Discounters.
I wish Sam’s and Costco would do alignments. Such a pain to take it two places.

I buy tires from places that offer a reasonably priced road hazard policy, since I usually have at least one tire out of a set ruined by running over some kind of sharp object left in the road.
I don’t know if any of the dealers you’re considering offer road hazard insurance.

I have to recommend Sam's Club for tires. They just replaced my tires under warranty for a year old set that was showing signs of cracking on the sidewall. I've never seen anything like it on a garage kept vehicle that gets driven every few days. Their tech processed my warranty claim and installed the new set of 4 tires for like 40 something bucks total (for labor).

I prefer Tire Rack/Discount Tire. They're now owned by the same company and Tire Race also does some of the best tire testing on the internet. At the very least, it's worth checking out their reviews before buying tires.

Defender MS2 last year on our Expedition last year ran us around $1300 at Discount Tire.
275/55-20 size
And that was with a Michelin rebate.

From my house DT is a bit more convenient than Costco. And I'm not on my wife's Costco acct [she splits it with her brother].

Make sure the tires you buy are "fresh". I work with a GM dealer who gives me good prices and sends back anything over 6 months old. We don't drive a couple of our vehicles very much and have had tires from other suppliers show up that are two years old. That is two years off the use of those tires before they age out.

Unless your vehicle spends a significant amount of time away from a Costco, then no you don’t need to look anywhere else. I use WalMart for my truck and minivan because there’s always one close by on the 1,600 miles between here and our house in Michigan. Discount Tire, Sams Club and Costco, are two hours or more from our house up there. For the vehicles that stay in Florida, Sams Club ten minutes away is fine.

I should probably start another thread, but I had an alignment done once in the last 25 years and 900,000 miles of driving. That was the S2000 because it eats rear tires.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
..... and they matched that but added $50 for the alignment.
We went with Tire Discounters.
I wish Sam’s and Costco would do alignments. Such a pain to take it two places.

Does your car *need* an alignment?

'Discount Tire' if there in your area

Costco prices are good, but it's a pain in the ass to get in for rotation and balance down the road. I bought tires for my wife's SUV from Costco and regret it. I schedule an appt weeks in advance and still end up sitting there at least two hours.

I normally buy from Les Schwab. Their prices are generally higher, but they have stores all over the west and I can usually pull in without an appointment and be done in an hour.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SIG228,

BJ's beats Costco on price, if that's your factor.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
..... and they matched that but added $50 for the alignment.
We went with Tire Discounters.
I wish Sam’s and Costco would do alignments. Such a pain to take it two places.

Does your car *need* an alignment?

It is almost always in your best interest to get an alignment when replacing tires.

Discount Tires will probably match or beat anybody else's price. If you're traveling and need service, there are a lot more Discount Tire locations than Costco locations. Be sure to ask for their military / veteran discount, if you're eligible.

My last set of Michelin tires came from my local Ford dealer. They were about $50 less than Discount Tire and I drove 40 miles round trip to the dealer instead of 150 miles to the nearest DT.

It's worth getting a price. Ford dealers are pretty aggressive on tires.

Just put new tires on my wife's Subaru Ascent.

Priced out Costco and the dealer. The dealers tire prices were less than Costco but the installation and fees were a little more. After reading about how long it takes Costco to install and do rotations, etc. I decided to just pay the extra $100 and get it done at the dealer and did the alignment at the same time, so only needed one appointment,

I wish Discount did alignments so I didn’t have to go elsewhere. Got my last set at Costco. They were a couple days behind on labor.