Introduction
I had bought my used Audi, and it had around 30K miles on it. I didn’t know (but I should have checked) when I bought it that the tires needed to be replaced. Usually around 30K miles is when you’ll need to replace tires, but it really depends on how you drive the car. If you take your car to the track, you’ll need tires earlier, but at around 30K is usually when they’ll need to be replaced. Here is a good link on how to check your ties.
Used tires on Craigslist
I don’t recommend this route if you have a Honda Accord or a Hyundai. For those cars, you may as well just buy a new set off Tire Rack. However since my car needed 19″ tires, they are pretty expensive, and so I created a CL alert on these tires. After a month or so, I found a guy who had a set of used 4 Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires for $350. A set of these go for $1000 on Tirerack. This is what happens when you buy nice cars that need nice tires. He said the tires had 90% tread depth left. Here’s some free advice – when someone says their tires have 90% tread depth on CL, you should round DOWN and assume it’s closer to 66%-75%.
Anyway, I of course lowballed him via email and asked him if he’d take $250 for the set. He said they were cheap already at $350 and was going to hold out. I then asked for $300 but he stood his ground. A day later, he emails me back and says “after 2 no-shows, I’ll sell them for $300.” So I went to pick up the tires and even visually, I could see it didn’t have 90% left on them, but it was still a heck of a deal.
How to install them
You guys should know by now that I am not a car guy. I am frugal and will DIY if I can. Changing tires was not something I wanted to do at home since I don’t have the equipment. I called up Discount Tire to see how much they’d charge, and since they were 19″ tires, they wanted something like $150-$200 to mount and balance them. I thought that was kind of high. I then checked on CL and found a random body shop that would do it for $89. I was going to go this route until one day, Amazon emails me telling me they were offering $30 to try Amazon Home Services. The offer is only $20 today.
Luckily I found a person on there who would install the tires for the same $89. However, with the $30 gift card, it was a much better deal. Plus, the person had over a dozen 5-star feedback, so I felt good about it. I bought the deal, and then later contacted them for a time to do the installation.
Installing the tires
When I brought the car in, I realized it was a one-man shop, which I’m okay with since I assume corporate shops will try to nickel and dime you. I asked him how he got on Amazon, and he said they actually reached out to him. They read his reviews and asked him if he wanted to be in the beta program. He figures this will bring in new customers; you get hooked on the cheap tire install and he’ll make it up down the road when you need more things from him. I thought it was a great business move for him.
While servicing the car, I asked him to check my brakes. He said they needed to be replaced pretty soon, but he didn’t try to upsell me on it. I asked him how much it would cost me, and he said he took that service off Amazon since people would buy the cheapest brakes, and after he installed them, if they squeaked, they’d blame him and not the brakes. While he was installing the tires, I looked up some name brand brakes and rotors, and he said he could install those for me if I bought them. He said he’d make an exception for me since I’m buying name-brand brakes from a name-brand vendor. Anyhow, that’s another story.
I had asked him to check my current tire depth and the CL tire depth. Seems like the ones I had were down to 4/38″, which is barely legal. The new tires were about 75% depth, and not the full 90% the seller stated. Now I didn’t feel so bad low-balling him. He also showed me that my current tires were cracking, and if your tires are cracking, you should replace them immediately (regardless of depth) since they could easily “blow” if you hit the wrong pothole.
Feedback
When the tires were done, I filled out a very short feedback form from Amazon at the shop. The odd thing is that I could fill out a separate feedback online, so why even bother with the manual one. I guess Amazon thinks that not many people would fill out the online feedback. All in all, I was very happy with the service and the price of my tire install.
Other services?
I then looked on Amazon to see what other home services I could purchase, but didn’t see anything I liked. There are house cleaning services, car stereo installations, car battery installations (a rip-off), etc. I haven’t seen any other services that I’d purchase from Amazon at this time. However, if you find a service you want, go for it, especially with the $20 rebate going on. I got mine about a month after my service was “complete.”
I have a 2011 Ford Edge Sport with stock 22 inch tires. Yes, they’re expensive! I’m thrifty with my money as well but as a rule I won’t try to cut corners to save a buck when it comes to anything that keeps me on the ground (or grounded). This goes for shoes, beds, tires (and brakes). Suffice to say, I didn’t want the lowest performance tires that had mediocre ratings re: traction and grip.
After doing a lot of homework I realized that waiting for a Discount Tire Direct (DTD) option from eBay with a $100 off $400 purchase was the ticket. For me, it meant buying tires in sets of 2 (coupon code could be used several times). If you were just below $400 then you could buy valve stems for $12 or even a wheelbarrow wheel if needed (we all need these right? right??).
Before purchasing I asked the local DT/America’s Tire (same company) if they’d price match. I told him the price point he’d have to come in at for me to bypass buying online. I was very transparent with him and didn’t try to BS with elusive responses about where or why it’s so cheap. I told him I’m buying from DTD on eBay, that I pay no taxes (in California) and shipping is free to my door. He laughed and told me that if he’s going to be honest with me that I should buy them and bring them into their shop and he’d install them for $80 out the door. Took his name, proceeded to purchase on eBay, and set up an appointment to bring my car in.
There was little wait and I was in and out fairly quick. I have lifetime rotation and flat fixes included too. Something you may or may not factor into the price you’re paying the shop to install your tires.
I don’t remember exact numbers, but using discounted eBay gift cards, cb portal, coupon, no taxes and free shipping made it a hell of a deal (ebay bucks don’t apply to eBay motors). I’d definitely recommend anyone savy enough to do their homework and compare the DTD on eBay option in the future. Seems they come out with the $100/$400 coupon 2-3 times a year, usually Spring/Fall. The coupon doesn’t exclude any rebates either, which you can find in .pdf format on their website.
On another note, yes, if your tires show any visible cracking it’s time to toss them. My Edge doesn’t get a lot of miles per year and consequently tire age is more important than remaining tread %. From what I’ve gathered, rule of thumb is 5-6 years and that’s it. You can find the exact week your tires were “born” as well by looking at the sidewall to determine the week and year. One plus with buying online (as opposed to locally, CL or not) is that inventory turns over rapidly. The tires I received were less than a month old. You might have scored a great deal on those tires, but for your safety and for my own peace of mind, please check the age of your tires!
That poor man. At least they weren’t run flats, it could always be worse. I understand exactly where he is coming from on the brakes. Things like that are why so many shops require you to buy parts they install from them, and if they don’t they tell you NO WARRANTY up front. IMO “cracks” in the side of a tire can go in 2 groups. They can either be superficial or they can be true dry rot. A lot of tires will get small cracks in the sidewalls from the normal flex of driving, Michelin and their family of tire brands (BFG and a few others) are actually the worst for that despite being some of the best tires made in my opinion. That happens because the sidewall of the tire you see is actually just an outer most protective sheath type layer and for some reason Michelin can’t keep it from cracking. However, if you have true dry rot it can in fact be dangerous. It’s hard to do unless the tires have been sitting in an oven for awhile or they are 5+ years old, and thats on the young end. You can check true dry rot by seeing just how deeply the crack goes. If you can see down in the crack and see the white of the fiber cords in the tire, thats a dangerous one. When I first started working on cars I worked at a ford dealer and had an older person bring in his Crown Vic for a state inspection. It was probably a 10 year old car at the time but still had original tires on it because he never drove it. Those tires were the true definition of dry rot and to this day the worst set I’ve seen. Also, discount tire and any of the chain shops are going to be a rip off on things like tire install fees as that is how they make their money. They advertise tires at basically cost and then make all the money on the install and all the other crap fees they charge you that are in the fine print at the bottom of the sale AD. Next time you see a “tire disposal fee” ask them why they are charging you to have someone come out and pay them an average of another $1 a tire for the used tires.
Wesley, I love that you’re the resident car expert. Yeah, I’m pretty sure he didn’t think someone would be bringing in 19s to have changed. I guess it balances out with people that have 16s. Anyway, always appreciate your input.
See today’s post on the brake change.
Nice find! I used to work at a Discount Tire to pay my way through college and 19″ tires are a real pain to mount, especially if they’re really low profile. You got an excellent deal.
Yeah getting them swapped for ~$50 was a heck of a deal I thought, especially for 19s. Still owe ya the test drives, which I still plan on doing!
No worries, we’re not in the market for a new car right now anyways. I was more curious to see how they compare to other cars.