Dan87951

Wow, its been a few years since I bought tires and was absolutely shocked at the cost of them now. Is it just me or have tire prices sky rocketed? Any recommendations on a good set at a reasonable price (if thats possible)?

225/40/18
265/35/18

MrNvgtr

Agreed, yeah they are ridiculous for what they are.

I just went through a major price comparison campaign and you'd be surprised with the results. Of course, results will vary depending on the tire brand and size you're looking for. The two most competitively priced sources I found were Treadepot.com and (please take a seat) the local Porsche dealership, thanks to their price matching/beating plus 10% PCA discount. I've actually used Treadepot 3 or 4 times now because they always had the best price of all the on-line retailers. This time, again because of the insane tire prices out there, I tried the dealer and a few other entities out and was pleasantly surprised. They had Treadepot beat on a set of Kumhos, and one other tire, and I almost bought them (Kumhos) when at the last minute we were talking more about them and they actually didn't recommend that particular tire and recommended I go with the Toyos that Treadepot had a slight price advantage on. Regardless, kudos to the dealership for being so competitive and for actually sending me elsewhere due to their honest recommendation for a tire that they didn't have the best price on (). I almost felt bad, but they were really cool about it, almost encouraging me to run out of there and buy them from Treadepot.

sjfehr

You're not imagining things, prices have gone up about 50% on the tires I really care about (EG, the tire I'm using- Dunlop Star Spec) in the last four years. The new Z2 is coming out this winter, but I don't expect it to suddenly get any cheaper. I might switch off to Hankook RS3, which is priced right about where the Star Spec used to be. I just don't get it- if bargain tires are still under $100 each for the same sizes, it can't be oil/transportation prices driving the price up, it's got to be the manufacturers. What gives?

I'm also really sick and tired of paying $1100 for a set of racing tires that don't even last half a season of autocross (50 miles if you're measuring).

Anyhow, Sumitomo HTR ZIII is a good bargain street tire with great summer dry/wet performance, and comes in common Porsche sizes. Also, probably doesn't factor in for you since 90s and earlier ran mostly 18" and smaller wheels, but check out tire prices for 19 & 20" some time. Good god, they're insane! Even 18" are steep compared to 17".

pwalker

Unfortunately the price of tires is directly linked to the price of oil, as it's a critical component (not transportation costs). Once we start realizing a price drops, I believe the price of tires will start to come down too. I just wish Nitto would make NT01 in a 305/18!

sjfehr

It takes about 7 gallons of oil to make a tire. At $100/bbl, that's about $22 worth of oil _total_, and really only an increase of maybe $5/tire from oil prices 4 years ago. It certainly doesn't explain 50% price increases on tires whose design has not changed. Why are we getting charged 50% higher prices than charged just 4 years ago for the _exact_same_tires_?

Dan87951

Ok glad I'm not the only one that though so. I actually found my old receipt of what I paid for my last set of tires 3 years ago and just about cried... the front were $83 rears $136 for Fuzion ZRi's.

Can anyone recommend other online places to get tires from other than the usual tirerack?

thanks

Marc Gelefsky

Why? Rarely see any significant savings over tire rack?

OakRZB

My local GoodYear shop will price match TireRack "price + shipping" price. Pretty decent if you don't prefer to go the internet route. Of course sales tax will be a huge factor on those $300-400+ tires.

MrNvgtr

Dan - see post #2 above.

Marc - see post #2 above. Though I don't go into the details, I find significant (i.e. like $80 total, and in some cases in the hundreds) savings over TireRack at Treadepot and my local dealership (yeah, I actually said dealership) to name a few. Obviously the exact savings varies tire by tire. The PCA discount is a unique advantage at my dealership. Their freight prices to get the tires to me are higher, but the PCA discount helps a lot.

996TWINS

Have a friend out of state buy them for you and pick up the tires for your "friend". Result, no sales tax.

mudbuddha

+1 on TreadDepot as I have good experience with them. Also, try Discount Tire Direct but I have also bought from Tire Rack before when they had a good sale. Just have to shop around a little bit to find good deals.