Well here is my Dilemma, I have always bought tires from Tousley Ford where I still get my employee discount. Well so far this week I have made two expensive orders from Tire Rack, one set of tires and rims for the Roadmaster for a total of 1500. Tousley could get me the same for 1600 unmounted without lugnuts. And I just ordered a set of tires for the Expedition. Now Tire racks Price is $112 a tire for a Brand ne Continental Conti-trac TR. I called Tousley and my buddy Pat said the best he can do is 162 a tire + tax (Since its local)

Now I have to wonder, this has got to undercut the old fashion tire shop a ton. I save over $400 by buying from tire rack, but I cost Tousley almost $2000 worth of business that should have gone to them. What do you guys think about this? On One hand I like Competition and how it makes for better, cheaper products for consumers, but I can't help but feel sad for the tire salesman who is just trying to make a living.

~HJ

 

guess they better get balancing and tire repair down pat.

idk i still buy from my local tire shop, because there tires are the same price as summit and they do a heck of a job balancing.

 

I feel like internet businesses are usually cheaper as there is usually less overhead. In addition, a lot of the time you can get away without paying taxes (although legally you are supposed to report that purchase but who ever does that?)

 

I didn't think you had to pay sales taxes on items bought out of state (ie. Mail order, Internet order) I think that's why they always say "add 6.5% For XXXXX state residents".

 

Hurting them? sure. Putting them out of business? not even close, every who has a car needs tires. No way are all those people going to buy them online.

 

you are right but they are trying to change that

 

I was told that you are supposed to report those purchases on your taxes at the end of the year. My tax preperation person asked me if I had made any purchases like that when I had my taxes prepared last year. It's interesting that they don't mention that on the internet sites. Of course, I didn't make any tax free internet purchases last year

 

I have no Idea what State sales taxes have to do with your Income taxes though? I have never been asked that ever or seen it on any form. Not to mention if thats the case What if I bought something in another state that has no or little sales taxes and drive it across the state. You aren't short changing your state your short changing the state the item came from.

~HJ

 

I'm pretty sure turbo-tax asked me that question. Probably depends on the state. Does MN have a state income Tax? Of course I don't make any purchases online

To the origional topic I purchase my tires locally. I make good use of the lifetime balancing.

 

Hold on let me pull out my book with the answer to every question in it. I'm not a tax expert which is why I have someone do my taxes for me. As to what state sales tax has to do with income tax, I don't know. What does how much money you spent on school or improvements to your home have to do with income tax? Maybe they send the taxes back to that state for you? Your guess is as good as mine.

 

It's funny: my local Cooper/Mickey Thompson/Dick Cepek dealer used to be the lowest price. Equivalent to the online prices plus mounting -- no reason not to go local.

But they were bought out by another firm which raised prices SIGNIFICANTLY -- now it's cheaper for me to buy from Summit and pay the local guy to mount them.

It occurs to me that a local shop that is tied to a good distribution outfit should be able to come close. But too few seem to do that.

Most "average" folks probably still don't buy tires on the internet. I think the majority of those purchase are from "specialty" groups like truck and performance afficionados. Most folks will just buy them wherever it's convenient.

It might "shake out" some tire dealers though, and that's too bad. But maybe the competition will eventually lower prices at the local level -- who knows?

 

personally my local tire places can kiss my ***. they are an EXTREME RIP OFF. everyone around me wanted $675 for my 32x11.5x15 and that was WITHOUT mounting and balancing then they always want to put new valve steams in every time and that is a good $20 easy depending, when 99999999999% of the time my wheels already have very good valve steams. then they cant balance worth a crap either its mostly high school kids that are in a hurry and honestly dont care. and the fact that they usually damage your wheel also if there alum..

now summit racing they where $550 and some change shipped to my door in UNDER 16 hours i ordered them around 4pm they arrived around 7am the next morning. then before this i spent like $50 and bought a tire mounter. then also aquired an old bubble balancer. so i can save myself $, know i did the damn job not some HS moron that cant even balance a tire.

there is no good mom and pop shops around that does a good job. i would rather order from summitracing any day while i am living up here. when i move to Tenn in Union county there is alot of good places but screw up here...

 

IMO theyre out to help themselves so im going to do the same... ill let them balance them because i cant but i doubt ill buy tires locally anymore. sure if something goes wrong im in trouble but it its summit racing and can take the 30 minute trip and get a new one...

on a side note::
shops making money off parts is crap if you ask me, i paid like 20% more for my ball joints then i could have at summit, only reason i didnt mind is because me new mechanic is my freinds dad so i dont mind helping them out, but my old mech straight up told me that if i brought parts in hed jack up the price...

 

^^^^ Agreed, I live in Michigan as well and I have yet to find a "good" tire shop. My new tires (less than 10K) have been in 4 times for balancing issues, and they still arent resolved. Most people don't know, and those who do know, just don't give 2 sh*ts about doing it right.....

 

I have never bought from summit because they have a limited choice. They don't have any of the parts I am looking for for my Roadmaster, and their tire selection in the sizes I need leave a lot to be desired. So far I am not impressed with Summit.

~HJ

 

I miss my old tire shop. They got gobbled up by the greedy-guts type, so my loss. They were supposed to keep the manager, but he quit because of the changes. Wish I could find out where he is now.

 

i was looking at there packaged deals with them allready balanced for about 400 bucks less

but my question is how well will the balance be after getting them shipped freigth line
will it throw the balance off???

 

^ shouldnt unless the throw the tires and the rim bends...they get driven on and dont go out of balance so shipping shouldnt be a big deal...

 

Probably not -- but consider the dynamic balancing stuff from http://www.innovativebalancing.com

I'm using it and it's great.

 

its a gell?

 

summit isnt for normal tires its mostly performace and offroad truck style they have everything i need for my trucks

sorry you are unpleased that the grandpa car doesnt have more stuff for it LOL....

 

It's not that, I just bought Very Expensive High Performance tires for my Roadmaster, and in summit you have a choice of about three tires for this. If I wanted Crappy tires that'll last 10K miles for $200 a pop then that is the place. I don't want anything normal and plain Jane for the Roady, it's going to be a real machine by the middle of the summer. They also make nothing for Impala SS's for real performance and handling. Everything that they make for an SS will fit on my car. I guess if I want BFG tires and 15" steel rims Summit FTW! LOL

 

nope.....they are ceramic beads that balance your tires.....getting ready to order that stuff myself....

 

I'm with Stone on this one.

I don't have any experience with mom and pop tire shops but most of the places I went to for quotes in Jersey were way over the prices the online stores offered. I even showed them a print out of my prices from Summit and the guy had ABSOLUTELY no interest in matching or coming down in price AT ALL. So instead of him going down maybe 100 bucks off his price, he lost a 800 dollar sale. Ain't gonna get no sympathy from me. The place I went to was a chain so if they don't realize that the online stores are kicking their *** in prices, they will soon enough.

 

I had one shop so far that seems to be way better then anything I've seen online. For instance, last year I paid $120 per tire for my new Kumho MT's (33x12.5x15). I just bought 1 new one from TireRack for $150 (including $25 shipping). So the overall price, seems to be the same. However, at the local place, I also got free balancing, and got the tires sipped for $20 bucks (for all of them).

Only reason I didn't go back to the local tire shop was because of the fact that I moved and am now 120 miles from them. It would cost my $30 bucks in gas to get there and back. Just figured it was easier to just ship it my place and and have the local Tire Plus mount it for me. We'll see how well they do with balancing, but since it's just a spare I doubt I'll ever really get a chance to use it (hopefully).