What about all those “extra” charges? $2.00/ea for valve stems? Mine are fine, thanks. $12-16 for balancing? Sure, its necessary, but its also a 5 minute job. That means you are paying over $120/hr for that little procedure. Shit, if I wanted to pay that much, I’d have my damn lawyer do it for me!
I am lucky*, as I live near a Tire Rack distribution center (and can pick them up and save shipping) and can mount my own tires.
Try some Kuhmo tires. I have found they last longer than most and are cheaper than many.
Well, I went up in price. It was important to me to have good tires. On the bright side, all the extra charges were included in the price of a four tire set.
On the not so bright side, they did a four wheel alignment where, oddly enough, the front left that absolutely nailed the two foot long six inch deep pothole at 75 mph on I-86 in New York was the only one that was not out of alignment. Uh-huh.
But, back on the bright side, I spent enough money that they threw in a needed oil change without trying to sell me brakes, or a coolant flush.
OK, I’m curious. How long do wheelchair tires last? I assume they come in different sizes just as car tires do. Are they super-expensive, and has the price gone up lately?
I read it. Tires cost more than they used to cost. So sad, but that’s the way life goes. Sometimes prices increase rapidly, sometimes gradually. But over time, everything always ends up costing more. Tires are no exception to the rule.
Ah, I see, it’s a comprehension problem, not a literacy problem. It’s nice that we have another moron on the board. We’ve been running short lately.
If you weren’t a moron, you would have noticed that I accepted (unhappily) the price increase, but that the tires I wanted weren’t available at any price.
Sorry Frank, I owe you an apology. I wasn’t responding to your OP, but to the people going back and forth blaming the price increases on China or Obama or whatever. I should have made that more clear. Other people were arguing about the price increase and the cause, and I was poking fun at that.
Without getting to meta, the prices of EVERYTHING has gone up. But I’m also thinking the name brand prices have always been kinda inflated for what you get.
I recently put a set of all season’s on the STi. Kumhos for right at $500 installed.
Costco wanted $750 for Bridgestones…and that’s just about all they sell.
it used to be, for Corvettes, you could buy tires at the (roughly) $125, $180, and $250 per tire price. BF Goodrich were always a percentage more expensive because they were O.E.M. and catered to the ‘Just put on there what the factory did’ crowd.
Tires in the $125 range were CRUMMY. They didn’t handle, didn’t give good feedback, cupped, and wore out quickly. $180 range tires were a good compromise, giving up perhaps 10% ultimate performance over the Perellis and Michelin tires that added a good $300 to a full set of tires when everything was said and done.
FWIW, the last set of tires on the STi were Snow and Ice tires that worked GREAT the 3 days a year that the roads really REALLY sucked. The other 362 days, they were AWFUL. Loud, squirmy, yuk.
Yes, you should have, by quoting the people you were responding to. Anyway . . .
I think it’s quite clear that the tire price issue is due to a rubber shortage. Tariffs, and inflation, and whatever, may make it worse, but none of them are the core cause.
(I’ll add here that making synthetic rubber with an ingredient that is also subject to supply and price issues doesn’t gain a whole hell of a lot.)
Indeed. Please forgive me for my posting transgressions. I promise to be a better Doper from here on out! I really have no issue with your pitting at all, and what you’re going through is definitely frustrating.
Also, I did a nifty little essay on the life of Rubber Tappers in south and central america… I learned a lot about how hard their life is. It’s amazing that we even get rubber for the price that we do. Needless to say, their lives are difficult and a lot of them make crap for what they do considering how valuable the rubber they collect is.
I would suggest that Hyundai buyers not fall into this for one second. I like the car–a lot–and enjoy it; it’s a good quality car. But they put shit tires on it. In hindsight, I’d have taken the car from the dealership straight to a tire store and sold the tires to RickJay.
I appreciate all of the quandary that is being expressed. So here’s my 2 cents:
It’s really annoying when people espouse a “free market” then blame it on the government when prices of their favorite commodity rise. Then they will scream when the government isn’t protecting American jobs or interests. Anyway, enough on that. Just vote for Bachman who promises $2 gallon gas and then live in misery.
Back to tires:
Anectode:
I bought a 2007 Lexus RX 400h. It was delivered equipped with Michelin tires. While rotating them I noticed that the tires were manufactured in the USA. All of the Michelin factories in the USA are east of the Mississippi (at least they were at that time). All Lexus hybrids were assembled in Japan. That means that those tires were somehow manufactured in the USA, shipped to Japan and installed. That means they had to probably go through the Panama canal. Michelin does have factories in Asia. Those tires lasted almost 50k miles. Great tires!
I replaced those tires with some “equivalent” Cooper tires. Those tires started to break down before 15,000 miles. Same vehicle. What a disaster.
I purchased a 2010 Lexus RX 450h. It was delivered with Dunlop tires. At 25K those tires were garbage. Needless to say, I replaced them with Michelins. We’ll see how that goes.
Again, this is anecdotal but I’m inclined to believe that you get what you pay for. Buy the premium tires if you can afford to. There really does seem to be a difference in quality.
From 2001-2010, the price of tires rose by 41%. The CPI rose by 23% during this time. The inflation-adjusted price of tires rose by 20%.
Cite: http://www.bls.gov/xg_shells/ro4xgppihi.htm
Graph: Photo and Video Storage | Photobucket
Since 2004 inflation adjusted tire prices have been rising fairly steadily. I assume it has something to do with China’s voracious demand for raw materials. I don’t think the Obama explanation holds much water, as he entered office in 2009.
I used to buy used tires as well and there are some pretty decent ones out there if you look. I just bought four brand new tires from Pep Boys but I saved 10% with my military discount which is pretty significant when you are talking about tires, maybe you have a friend in the military or something that can get you his discount or look for a coupon. It was also one of those buy three, get the fourth free, so I am still waiting for my visa gift card with $130 on it. The warranty is a good thing to have, if anything at all happens to the tires in the first three months they are replaced absolutely free and after that to something thousand miles I can’t remember how many they are still heavily discounted, not too bad a deal I suppose.
