If you own a vehicle, having a flat tire on the road is one of the last things you want to deal with. Additionally, poorly-fitted tires might cause the vehicle to require maintenance faster than it would otherwise. Thus, having good tires that your vehicle is designed for is important.
Best Places To Buy Tires
Whether you want to buy a spare tire or need to replace all four tires on a vehicle, you will want to find the best deal because they can be quite expensive. To help you get the best deal, this list compiles best places to look for some new tires.
America’s Tire
America’s Tire is one of the largest retailers of tires and is present in 35 states in the U.S. As of the last Consumer Reports survey, Discount Tire scored a whopping score of 90 out of 92. America’s Tire offers the option to shop for tires in-store or online.
To shop online, visit their online retailer America’s Tire. The website America’s Tire helps you look for the best tires by letting shoppers shop by vehicle, size, or brand. If you are not sure which tire you should get, shop by one of these categories and the website will make some suggestions on which tire(s) you should get.
If you get tires online, you can choose for them to be shipped to your home, to the closest Discount Tire Center or America’s Tire Shop, or to your preferred certified dealer. For the last two options, after the tires have arrived, drive to the indicated local shop to have your tires installed. Returns are permitted but there are strict guidelines on how to return tires, including strict packaging guides.
America’s Tire offers rebates and coupons but they tend to change from time to time.
Tire Rack
When shopping with Tire Rack, an online tire retailer, deals such as rebates or coupons are offered directly by tire manufacturers. In some cases, Tire Rack offers customers a VISA gift card to express gratitude for their business.
After buying tires, you get free shipping on orders that are over $50. In many cases, the tires are shipped to you by the next day. That’s Amazon’s one-day shipping level of fast!
Want to save even more with Tire Rack? Choose to pick up your tires instead of getting them shipped and get a discount. However, this option is only available in selected regions, so check if you live in one of these regions.
Goodyear
Almost every driver has heard of Goodyear and its tires. With over 4,000 retail locations in the U.S., Goodyear is one of the most established tire and auto-related products retailers. Goodyear is popular among drivers thanks to its high quality tires.
Goodyear tires are available at both Goodyear retail locations and other retailers such as Walmart and Tire Rack. When you purchase Goodyear tires, you are offered a two-week price match guarantee. This means that, for 14 days after purchasing tires from Goodyear, if you find a better price for the tires you bought, the difference will be refunded.
What happens if you decided you don’t like the new tires? Well, just exchange them for a different set within 30 days from the date of purchase.
Les Schwab Tire Center
While Les Schwab might not be the best tire retailer on this list when it comes to price, many customers are loyal to Les Schwab because of its customer service. It isn’t hard to find customer testimonials that praise Les Schwab and its customer service, especially on review websites like Yelp or Angie’s List. Thus, while the price may not be the cheapest, the customer service is definitely a desirable feature.
To buy tires from Les Schwab, you can order tires in person or on the website and go in for an installation. In some cases, you can return tires for a full refund within 60 days from the purchase date. When you buy tires from Les Schwab, you get to enjoy perks such as free flat repairs, free snow tire installation and removal, and free rebalancing.
Tire Buyer
Tire Buyer might be second only to Tire Rack when it comes to buying tires online. Tire Buyer offers free shipping when you ship tires to one of the 9,000 in-network, nationwide installers and get your tires installed there. If not, you have the option of shipping tires to your house and installing them yourself, but this comes with a shipping fee.
Due to its large network (9,000 installers!), tires may arrive at your selected installer within 48 hours.
There are two options for returning tires: have the installers handle it or ship the tires yourself. Returns are free when done at an in-network installer. If you handle the return shipping yourself, the shipping fees will be deducted from the refund. Returns are typically allowed within 45 days of purchase although there are some rules, so make sure to read up on them before returning the tires.
Tire Buyer helps you find the specific tires you are looking for by letting you set specifications such as your car model and average price. While the results include recommendations that are specific to your criteria and requirements, Tire Buyer has a narrower group of recommendations that is the result of other characteristics such as customer reviews or mileage warranty information.
Amazon
Well, who here is surprised, because what doesn’t Amazon sell these days (this is a rhetorical question, so don’t even try to find the answer to it)? With tires as cheap as $16.99 or as expensive as $500+, Amazon has a wide variety of tires on the website.
What’s great about buying on Amazon is that you get to read reviews from other buyers to decide if this is the right tire for you. What’s not so great is that you need to know what you’re looking for, shipping might not be free, and returns are not always allowed. Regardless, Amazon does have some great deals on tires, so you just might find your perfect tires on there.
Big O Tires
According to customer reviews, Big O Tires has some of the most affordable tires as well as payment plans should the car owner need one to pay for the tires. To qualify for a payment plan, you might need to have an acceptable credit score, which is quite subjective, so don’t be afraid to explore the payment plans further if you’re thinking of this option.
When buying tires from Big O Tires, you can have your tires shipped to your home or to a local Big O Tires store.
Priority Tire
Unlike some other websites in this list that offer other auto-related components and products in addition to their tires, Priority Tire focuses solely on retailing tires to customers. Priority Tire sells brand name tires such as Goodyear to you with a price discount (most often) as opposed to the full price.
Priority Tire offers free shipping and fast delivery when you order tires on the website. In some counties, Priority Tire offers same-day shipping if you place your order before 1 pm. The tires are shipped directly to your home and have a 90-day return policy if they have not been used or mounted.
Walmart
Walmart has a variety of tires, including brand name tires like Goodyear, SuperMax, or Cooper Tires. As Walmart tends to buy things in bulk, the corporation has significant purchasing power and thus negotiation power. Therefore, you might find a good deal on tires at Walmart.
You can buy tires from Walmart either online or at one of Walmart’s garages and have the tires mounted there. If you want your tires shipped to your home, Walmart will do so for free. Walmart may offer rebates when you buy tires to help you save money.
Sam’s Club
It was an intense process to decide whether to include Sam’s Club or Costco on this list as a great place to get tires if you have a membership. In the end, since this list is focused on tires and not on grocery stores, Sam’s Club wins as it has a slightly lower membership fee.
Sam’s Club offers free shipping if you want to ship tires to your house. As long as you have a membership, you get access to rebalancing, flat repair, and air pressure checks. Thus, if you have a Sam’s Club membership, it’s worth buying tires from this company.
BJ’s Tire Center
If you have a membership at BJ’s Wholesale Club, it might be a good idea to buy tires from this company via its Bj’s Tire Center. With quality tires, quick tire pickup, and a wide selection of tires, BJ’s Wholesale Center has pleased many customers who bought tires from them.
When you buy tires from BJ’s Wholesale Center, you have the option to pick up the tires (sometimes only within a few hours!) or schedule an installation at the closest BJ’s Auto Center.
National Tire & Battery (NTB)
NTB was first owned by Sears before Sears made the mistake of selling the chain in 2003, which has already reached 226 stores by then. Today, NTB has over 600 stores throughout the US and offers a wide variety of brand name tires and batteries.
When buying tires from NTB, you have the option to either buy them from the closest auto garage and have them installed there, or buy online and ship the tires to your house.
What to Look for When Buying Tires
With a wide selection of tires offered by many retailers, looking for new tires can be an overwhelming task, especially for new tire buyers. Thus, this list offers a few guides on what to look for when shopping for new tires:
- Which tire did you owner’s manual recommend? The tires your vehicle currently has might not be the best tires it could have. If you’re not sure about whether the current tires are the best option for your vehicle or not, consult a mechanic. To find the tire’s size, see the number listed on the sidewalls, such as 250/55 R16. This indicates that the tire’s width is 25 mm, the height is 55% of the width, and the R means “radial”, meaning the layers run in straight lines. A “B” would mean “bias”, or that the layers run diagonally across the tire instead.
- Choose “all-seasons” over the “high performance” tires. For most people who are just commuting from home to work or school and back plus a few road trips a year, all-seasons tires are the ones for you. Tires that are high-performance are made to endure higher speed and not necessarily longevity. See all those race cars and how often the tires have to be replaced? That’s what high-performance tires are for. Most people don’t need them, so stick with the all-seasons tires that are made to last longer.
- Pick the younger tires. Typically, the more recent the tires have been manufactured, the better. To know when the tires were manufacturer, check the tire’s manufacturing date, which begins with “DOT”. For example, if the sequence is DOT2015, this means the tires were made in 2015 on the 20th week of the year.
How to Save when Buying Tires
Tires, especially quality tires, can be very expensive. Buying a set of four tires may cost you close to $1,000! Not everyone has $1,000 laying around, thus it is important to be able to save as much as possible when buying tires. If you are looking for ways to save money on tires, these tips might be able to help:
- Buy tires online and take advantage of free shipping and tire installation. Installing tires is not that easy; that’s why we tend to go to auto garages or auto centers to have them installed. Yet, in doing so, we might need to spend another $100 (more or less). It might be worth it to take the time to learn how to install tires and do it yourself to avoid this cost. Take an online course, learn it from your mechanic friend, or read a book on how to install tires. Many tire retailers offer free balancing at a local garage, so you can drive your car there to have the tires rebalanced for free after you have installed them. Additionally, take advantage of free shipping if applicable. Some tire retailers offer a discount or free shipping if you pick up the tires yourself, so look out for those as well.
- Know when to buy tires. April and October might be one of the best months to buy tires as deals and discounts often take place during these two months. In April, the weather is getting warmer, which means people are thinking of summer vacations and road trips. In preparation for them, drivers might want to buy tires to ensure safe driving. In October, the weather is getting colder and winter is just around the corner. Thus, drivers, especially those who live in cold and snowy places, will want to buy tires geared toward winter driving. To encourage drivers to buy new tires, tire retailers offer more discounts and deals during these times of the year.
- Purchase more than one tire. Purchasing more than one tire might get you a discount as opposed to buying just one tire. To make sure your retailer offers a multi-tire discount, you can always call ahead and ask. If the retailer does not offer this option, why not call a few other retailers just to check? It doesn’t hurt. Additionally, buying tires when the price is lower might save you more money than needing an emergency tire in the middle of the road and having to pay more for it.
- Look for (and use) rebates. Rebates are the tire world’s coupons. Tire retailers don’t usually offer coupons but offer rebates instead, though both will save you money. Thus, when looking for tires to buy, you might want to check out what rebates a retailer is offering and for how much.
Conclusion
Having quality and well-fitted tires are somewhat essential to vehicle owners. Not only do quality tires ensure safety while driving, they also help slow down a vehicle’s depreciation. Every few years, when it comes time to buy some new tires for your vehicle, you will want to look for the best deal. This list of 12 best places to buy tires plus the few tips in the article will hopefully help you find the best tires for your vehicle.
