If you are planning on buying new tires for your vehicle, then welcome to the tire price lottery! The variety of tire brands and tire sizes are baffling and the prices seem to be governed only by the number of letters and numbers after the brand name. Some tires are priced so high you need a second mortgage and who wants to buy cheap tires! …er because there poor quality right? Wrong…
But don’t fret, with a bit of lateral thinking, research and price hunting you can grab yourself a bargain set of cheap tires. Tires are no exception to consumer products in that the highest prices tags do not guarantee the best quality and tire benefits. The same logic applies for cheap tires, provided you do your research thoroughly and base your decisions on your circumstances and not price alone.
Are Cheap Tires Junk?
- Cheap Tires or Junk?
Buying cheap tires doesn’t mean that you are purchasing junk. We often associate cheap with poor quality but this is a general misconception that’s been exploited within the in the tire industry. Certain cheap tires have better performance and durability than some of their more illustrious higher priced neighbours if you know how to compare. Today, the tire manufacturing businesses are flourishing in the automobile industry. The demand for new tires never ceases, only increases tag line springs to mind.
The ever increasing number of online merchants means that this healthy competition has grown fierce. When one company offers a discount, you can bet the others are also forced to offer alternative discounts, to keep abreast of the the competition.
With competition comes deals and discounts and this is where we want to be to take advantage of these deals. There is fierce competition among tire stores, online resellers, auto parts stores, and now even super chain sellers like the Wal-Mart and Sears, sell direct to customers.
Steps to buying Cheap Tires
Some simple steps before starting off. Grab a coffee, pen and pad, and your mouse in that order. The first step you should take here is to make a note of the type of tires you already have. The model of the tire, the making of the tires on your car, everything should be noted well. If you have already had a tire change, it would be advisable to have an idea of what tires were fitted when the cars where purchased.
Summary to buy Cheap Tires
- Note down your make of current tires, model and size
- Find the car manufacturers recommended tire
- What size tires can you fit on your vehicle?
- Note down prices, tire brands and model no.s for the exact fit of tire you need
Almost all details can be obtained from the owner’s manual, which gives clear information about the size of the tires, and other information that you would need, in order to purchase a new set. A tire placard will also have these details written over it. You will find this placard at the tip of the door at the driver’s side of the car or else in glove box.
This information is necessary so as to know what type of new tires you need to purchase for your car. Once you have this, the next step is to visit online dealers and search online for retailers within your state. Also check nationally because the savings can be huge and delivery and fitting are not significant enough to eat into these savings. Make notes on the best deals you have found and dont forget to take a slurp of coffee!
Set yourself a budget for each tire and make sure that you do stick to your budget. Another important factor is to make sure that there are no additional or hidden charges for the tires you are planning to purchase. You need to get the total price details from the shop staff or the websites you are dealing with. Moreover, you also need to get an idea about the complete cost for removing the old tires and replacing them with the new ones, along with the purchase of the new set, balancing, fitting etc.
Use tire reviews from customers to determine the quality of each tire. Get a number of reviews to establish a trend one way or the other. There are many tire review websites, just make sure they are impartial and not subsidiaries or affiliates of the many tire brands out there. Tire reviews written by genuine customers will give you a fair idea as on how good each tire model is and also about any warranty guarantees.
We are currently developing a tire review website purely for this purpose and give the consumers a detiled review sirte. This website will impartially review a wide range of speciality tires and performance tires based on the main factors.
Cheap Tires Buying Factors
- Durability
- Warranty
- Price
- Road Surfaces
- Driving Environment
- Speed Rating
- Uniform
Almost all shops and dealers provide warranty for their tires, but when getting cheap rated tires, you must be aware that not all warrantys are equal, read the small print and verify anything that you are not certain of.
There are companies like Firestone, Bridgestone and Continental Tires which offer good warranties for the tires they sell, and along with that, a trial offer for the first 30 days! These offers are designed to hook you in, but assess each on their own merits, investigate the validity based on the terms and conditions.
Comb through these company policies, as you may feel that these offers are solely marketing tools with the manufacturers interests at heart. Customers interests are not always a priority.
Some warranties cover certain damage casued by road problems but the small print may not hold the company responsible if the tires were not maintained correctly. Companies have been know to ask for proof that your vehicle’s tires were well maintained. If all conditions as per the company policy are satisfied, reimbursement will generally cover the costs of the tire only and you may have to pay for installation charges for the new replacement tires.
Cheap Tires Summary
Buying new cheap tires is not a straight forward task. But hopefully by reading through the pointers in this article you can save yourself a packet on a new set of cheap tires. Put the time in to research the many tires brands and tire sizes that are suitable for your vehicle. Make comprehensive notes of these prices, brands and sizes. Once you have compared the different rates, look at the after sales care and warranties from each company
Online sellers nine times out of ten will undercut any local tire reseller, but make sure you assess any extra charges that my come along, like the shipping fees, delivery charges and so on. If you do your homework and put the time in I guarantee you will nail yourself a great set of quality, durable and more importantly cheap tires