Yes. They will not sell you tires, if your car doesn't have a spare.

Think about it for a second. You want to buy four tires. And have them mounted. But:

Do you have a spare tire in the car?
OR
Do you currently have four run flats on the car?

If you can answer YES, then you can get tires from Costco. Answer no? Sorry. you are out of luck!!

This is a new policy at Costco and well, don't try to make sense of it because you will only get a headache.

Since I have a MCS convertible, I have no spare, and I dont have runflats on the car right now, so I was told they couldn't help me.

Strange no?

(This is for ALL Costcos! There is a new internal memo about it)

 

I have a car that did not come with a spare and it did not come with runflats either. I guess I'm out of luck with them.

 

Last time I got tires at a local tire store, I had to sign a liability statement because I wanted non-runflats installed but did not have a spare. They did install the tires after I signed a statement.

 

Cheaper to have tires shipped from The Tire Rack and installed locally for a minimal fee, than it is to give the locals the straight profit. And The Tire Rack won't grief you about lacking a spare or not having runflats. So look on the site, find a local place, give them a call about drop shipping some tires to them and how much they want for mount and balance. If you do it near work, you would totally have time to do it over lunch, doesn't take an hour to do 4 tires.

 

It's a liability issue. In the US society where I can sue McDonalds for spilling hot coffee on my own lap, imagine the pay day you'd have suing CostCo because you broke down in South Central LA?

 

If you go to a junkyard...get a spare that you can show them...be about $15 if you don't care what it looks like....then just leave it at home after the install!!
Then if you do have a major tire problem..you can toss the spare on while you wait for the new tire to be shipped in/repaired...the inconvience is simply having to get the tire to the car if it is not driveable.

 

I argued this policy with them last year when I put new non-run flats on my MCS (sans spare) and persuaded them to install; perhaps they have now tightened up that policy and no longer allow particular stores to exercise any discretion.

Would no longer matter to me anyway since I carry a spare in the back seat.

 

It might depend on which state you're in. I've bought tires at Costco without a spare numerous times without any problems.

What Costco (and others in this state) will not do is mount the new tires at the front of the vehicle if you only buy two tires.

 

Seems goofy to me, but I guess TheGeekGuy is right. Some attorney has convinced them that it's a liability.

And nothing against lawyers. It's just that 95% of them make the rest look bad.

 

I don't mind saying that I have something against lawyers. They are gradually, (but as quickly as they can) sucking the country dry of common sense as they persuade everyone to become victims and force businesses to protect themselves against absurdity. (Yes, I realize any sweeping statement is inherently inaccurate, and there are some good lawyers.)

 

It's your car and your money.Avoid Costco and their BS policies.

 

Well said, OXYBLUE, and that's a great looking MINI!

 

I just bought four tires from Costco, and the guy behind the counter didn't ask me about a spare. He also didn't know anything about my car (he listed it as a Cooper S Hardtop). I can't imagine this will be enforced.

I'll ask when I get them installed tonight.

 

Similar to what 911fan said, buy two tires at a time. I know it's kind of a hassle but they can't force you to buy four at a time.

 

I just wouldn't buy from Costco. They aren't cheap enough to warrant the hassle.

 

They were cheaper than Tirerack for the Bridgestone Potenzas I just bought, and that included installation.

 

Yeah, straight profit...if I am REALLY lucky I can make 15% on a set of UHP tires. If I want to be competitive it's usually closer to 10%

And it doesnt take an hour? Sure thing, come on over and you can use my machine and dismount and remount, then balance 4 RFTs with a 3/4" tall sidewall. Yeah, doing 4 225/60R16s on steel wheels takes about 10 minutes, not so much doing 205/45R17 RFTs.

Further, unless you are in a major metro area good luck finding a local guy to even bother mounting them for you...and by the time you are done adding in mounting fees, then balancing, etc you might as well have bought them from the dealer locally.

Oh, and when something is wrong with one of them...the local dealer is actually there for you...or you can ship them back to your mail order place.

TR is full of awesome folks, I have a commercial account there and buy from them regularly but this notion that a local dealer is getting rich selling you tires is laughable. If all he did was sell tires he would be out of business in about a month. In a lot of instances the only money made on a tire sale is the balancing.

 

That's a great idea. I'll probably buy a cheap backup once I switch away from my runflats and keep in in my garage just in case.

 

Will they mount on just wheels without the car there? if you have a truck and really want to buy from costco I'd try that...

 

Sam's Club by me won't even dismount a runflat for a non-runflat if I bought tires there regardless of a spare.

 

Oh, I find plenty of places that are cheaper than Tire Rack (including install)...Costco just isn't the only one, and locally, they are far from being the cheapest for me.

 

Soon after I purchased my 09 Clubby S last March, I checked with Costco in Northern Virginia; they informed me at two different stores that, if I had a spare, they would order the tires I was interested in; NO SPARE, NO Tire sale. I, too, think this must be a liability concern for them. I now have a spare and plan to order non run flats in the near future.

 

No brainer

 

Ah, no wonder I was grilled went I went to my local shop to ditch the RFs. The whole time I was thinking "what's the big deal anyway". They seemed to ease off when I mentioned having slime/air compressor + AAA card, though. Not much fight from them after that.

 

Well... I guess there are some disadvantages to living in the south. My local tire guy, I can't name the store "directly" looked me straight in the eye and said "What do ya mean, run flats????" Then he looked up the size I needed and gave me a price that was about 20% above the top tire that Tire Rack shows on their site. I left.