Hello All,

I live in Washington State and we have a few tire stores.

• Les Schwab
• Firestone
• TireFactory

I bought the car as a CPO, tires need to be replaced. Have RFs but going with Non-RFs, current sizes are 195/55R16.

My question is, what experience have any of you had with any of these providers? The one thing that has me leaning toward Firestone, is they're the only ones who list prices! All of the other stores have no "online" pricing.

Thank you in advance.

 

I go to america's tire co. they always have the best prices and i have had really good customer service there.

 

See if there are any customer reviews of your local stores on TireRack.com.

Ps. You'll find more options in the 205/50-16 size.

 

Op, besides tirerack which is great, I have had good experiences at discount tire. No sure that there is one near your area.

 

Discount will match TireRack prices but they want to charge the shipping also.

 

And both have online pricing!

 

Yes, but I was talking about their brick and motar stores. They have quite a few of them out west. I think their stores are pretty good. They are good on line too.

 

Discount

 

discount tire and america's tire are the same company. i'd go with them.

 

Another vote for Discount Tire - great customer service, price matching, and they didn't give me any hassle going from RF to nonRFs. Before making the switch I had a RF repaired at Les Schwab and I think they said they wouldn't put nonRFs on a car that comes with RFs.

 

Since you are in Washington State.... How about Costco? You might have to special order though. Bought tires many for my past cars at Costco

 

Costco/SAM's/bj's all have large percentages of folks reporting they refuse to mount non-runflats on a car with them....but subsequent to tire buys (std tire to std tire, not runflat to std) seem OK.....so inquire first.

 

Buy them from TireRack and have them shipped to a well reviewed installer close to you. You can read reviews on TireRack instead of just hoping the tire shop guy steers you in the right direction

 

Holey-Moley!

Better responses than I anticipated, can't thank you folks enough. Discount/America Tire seems like something I am definitely going to check out. Thank you jordan.burks

I will also check the 205/50-16 aspect also - Thank you hsautocrosser

san diego motoring, thanks for the heads up on Costco but ZippyNH mentioned the same issues I had read in the forums at an earlier date.

v10climber and hsautocrosser, thanks for the heads up on TireRack. Prior to my getting this MINI, all I've ever used for (personally owned vehicles) have been motorcycles. So when I bought tires from my online source, they'd deliver and I installed my own tires. So buying online made sense.

What I don't quite yet understand about TireRack, is why or how a local dealer can make any money when it seems as though TR is cutting into their business and profit? Obviously there's something I'm missing. Now, I can see doing this if I was a racer, autocrosser, or a Gymkhana fanatic where I would want very specific tires for specific conditions... but for regular tires I'm not seeing the correlation.

Thank you, every single person who responded! Just awesome!


***

OK, just now getting into TR and recommended installers, the Firestone (Covington, WA) I was originally interested in is an approved installer for TR, yet...

Restrictions: Will not install non run-flat tires on vehicles that came with run-flat tires as original equipment.

My CPO came with three RFs and one Non-RF (I know it was "jacked-up from the get-go")

FRONT: 195/55R16 87V Goodyear Excellence right front is same but 87H Both Run-Flats
REAR: 195/55R16 Bridgestone Touranza Run-Flat (right)
REAR: P 195/55R16 86H Firestone Firehawk GTA 86H NON Run-Flat (left)

It has a spare tire. So do they just determine that "Hey this is what the car came with "originally" we're not going to alter?

 

If you have a access to a 2nd car....
You can just have your tires shipped to the installer....carry in the rims/worn out tires......then take the mounted tires/rims home....
Did it this way to avoid a few tire shops that would only do runflats to runflats...
But point out that you car has a spare, and only got runflats cause the buyer speced it with optional rims/tire size that is the standard on the S , which lacks the spare.
Big thing with ordering online.....is the local mounter gets to charge you 15-25$ per tire to mount...might get to sell you an alignment....and you might become a regular customer....

 

I had great success with my local big brand tire when replacing a tire(great pricing, same as tire rack and no shipping charges, it was a special order and in stock the next day, fast install). Like others have said, America's tire is also great and my girlfriend and dad usually replace their tires there, they just couldn't order the tire I needed to be replaced so I went elsewhere

Have you tried contacting the Firestone to see if they will swap to non run flats? I know a few people locally who have had their run flats on a mini and bmw swapped to non run flats at the Firestone in town.

 

Check out TireRack.com first to do the research of the tire you're looking for - I can't recommend Tire Rack enough.... complete with performance comparison write-ups and video. I found it EXTREMELY helpful. Once I narrowed it down, I spoke with one of the reps who are incredibly knowledgeable about the products out there. You can either purchase from them and have them ship to a "brick and mortar" store as you say which they have an affiliation with or directly to you. They waived the shipping fee for me when I purchased a tire-wheel combo with tpms and gave me an overall better deal than any store could. I had terrible experiences with all three of those tire companies there; Discount Tires was good though with some pretty decent service although I think the closest to you is in Kent. The only problem I had with Discount Tires, like all other physical tire companies, is that they're more interested in selling you something from their stock than finding what you actually want/need and most folks really aren't too knowledgeable about tires in general. I don't think there is really anything good near you in Maple Valley; just Mom-and-Pop stuff. Good luck!