Thanks for this feedback. I was concerned that "Discount" Tire meant they mostly cared about keeping prices low (and sometimes when companies do this they sacrifice quality of workmanship). I will pay more money if it means I get better quality work from employees who put more care into their work product. Saving money is not the most important thing to me when I look for a company to get new tires from.

Sounds like Discount Tire is not just about saving the customer money but also doing quality work. Thanks for this info!

 

they were called America's Tire back 13+yrs ago. it depends on the shop and who does the mounting. if they use the right tools and staff, they can do the work as well as tirerack...(no mount marks, perfect balance).
about amonth ago, i took my $5K wheel set for my 370Z to get tires mounted and balanced. no scuffs, perfect balance.

but they will usually have to order tires from their warehouse if you're specific about the brand and model tire you want. tirerack has a warehouse attached, so you basically have hundreds of thousands(?) of tires at your disposal.

 

I use Tire Barn next to my house mostly because of over 10 years of business I've maintained with them. I do pay a bit more than if I went to Discount Tire(another store near by), but I get a lot of peace-of-mind type of services: life time tire balance/rotation at every 5K or earlier if the tires go out of balance for whatever reason. Free tire repair/replacement, depending on where the puncture is. Finally,there's little to no wait if I get there in late afternoon right after work.

BTW, if you have a Fit Sport, I would advice you to go for 205/50R16 size, rather than the original 185/55R16. The tire's diameter is almost the exact fit as the 185, and you get access to more selection of tires.

 

Thanks. I belong to too many different forums and they all are different. I'll learn to be more observant next time.

 

I paid $124 per wheel installed and balanced so I decided to price some Hankooks based on your posting. The cheapest I found was $81 plus $21 Shipping and $13 installation PLUS an unstated amount for having alloy rims. That put me at $115 per tire installed (plus what ever the alloy rim charge whicch I am ignoring for now).

As for a comparison of Yokohama Avid and the Hankook V2 tires we are looking at a $9 difference for a Low Rolling Resistance tire with a wear rating of 740 vs. 500. That is a 48% increase in longevity.

Here are the numbers I used. I started with the base assumption that the a wear rating of 340 on his existing Dunlops gave him 30,000 miles in his type of driving. I used the same wear and calculated factor of 88.23 on the other two brands.
.
Dunlop** 340 30,000 miles
Hankook* 500 44,177 miles
Yokohama 740 65,294 miles.

I have not even calculated the fuel savings yet. Over 65,000 miles at 35 mpg one would probably use 1857 gallons of fuel. The estimated saving of LRR is1.5 to 4.5 %, so I'll use the middle number of 3%. 3% of 1857 is 55.7 gallons. At $4.00 we are looking at a savings of $223

So for an investment of $36.00 I save $223 in just gas alone.

If I look at tire cost per mile it comes out to:

Hankook $115 each (x4) for 44,177 miles or $.014 per mile
Yokohama $124 each (x4) for 65,294 miles or $.0075 per mile

You can change the assumptions and get a little different numbers but on a cost per mile basis you will never begin to make up the difference of double the cost per mile plus the $223 in fuel.

 

I don't know where you got $81 Plus $21 shipping but DiscountTireDirect has them for $83 SHIPPED. As Previously stated, Discount Tire Direct Regularly has $100 off a set of 4 tires which is what I got in on which makes the tires about $58 each shipped. Drop your installed price to $98 (if they were needed now) or $73 (waiting a month or so was an option), then recalculate. (Our Dealer charges $60 for Mounting Balancing alloys)

Also, as far as the mileage rating, i'm not sure where you are getting your numbers but the UTQG rating is not standard across manufacturers so that can't be compared. you have to Compare to other tires within the same line. Looking at other hankook tires, the Ventus V4 has a 420 UTQG rating and is warrantied for 50,000 miles so a 500 from Hankook is likely closer to 66,000 miles while a 580 from Yokohama looks also to be like 60K miles. (also, Hankook's 700 UTQG rated tires are warrantied for 100K miles) - Realistically, you can't use that for comparison. [edit/update] Looking at Warranty Ratings and the UTQG Number of both manufacturers, it seems that Yokohama's Standard seem to be about 120 -140 higher than Hankooks so a 440 on a Hankook is about the same as a 560/580 on a Yoko. same goes for a 600 [han] and 740 [Yoko]. using this (unquantified) basic Logic, a 500 Hankook should be about a 640 Yokohama.

$124 - $73 is $51/tire or $204 saved in Tire Costs. That's about 55 Gallons of gas.
Cost per mile:
Hankook @ 66K mile based upon the adjusted UTQG Rating to match Yokohama - $.0044/mile (Purchased without the $100/4 tires still comes to $.0059/mile)
Yokohama @ 75K miles - $.0066/Mile
difference is $.0022/Mile or about 50% greater cost/mile.

waiting a few weeks or a month or so until the discount comes around again will definitely save you money and give you tires the perform better and are safer.

~SB

 

I really hate to get into a pissing contest here so I'll respond to you obvious errors and drop this subject.

UTQG IS a standard REQUIRED by the US Department Of Transportation (DOT). A quote follows: What is UTQG?

Tires have many markings on the sidewall, but most people don't understand the technical meaning of them, especially UTQG. Therefore, this time we would like to talk about UTQG.
UTQG stands for "Uniform Tire Quality Grading", which is required by "FMVSS" (FEDERAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY STANDARDS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. This standard requires motor vehicle and tire manufacturers and tire brand name owners to provide information indicating the relative performance of passenger car tires used in the U.S.A. in the area of Treadwear, Traction, and Temperature Resistance. This applies to all passenger car tires, except deep tread, winter-type snow tires, space-saver or temporary use spares, or tires with nominal rim diameters of twelve (12) inches or less. This is the standard with a history which had been judged as final in the Supreme Court of U.S.A. between the governments, vehicle manufacturers and tire manufacturers.

TREADWEAR

The treadwear grade is a comparative rating based on the wear rate of the tire when tested under controlled conditions on a specified government test course *. The grading fixes 30,000 miles (48,279kms) as 100% Index, and the grading shall be in multiplies of 20.
*The test course consists of three loops of a total of 400 miles (644kms) in the geographical vicinity of Goodfellow Air Force Base (AFB), San Angelo, Texas, U.S.A.
(TEST PROCEDURE)
* Run a car with test tires mounted till 6,400 miles (10,300kms) pass.
(The tire is tested in convoy with a "base" tire so as to eliminate the variable of temperature and road surface.)
* Measure the tread depth after each 800 miles (1287kms) run.
* Then the projected worn out tire life is calculated. Fixing that 30,000 miles (48,279kms) as 100% Index.
For example, a tire graded 200 would wear twice as well on the government course as a tire graded 100. The relative performance of tires depends upon the actual conditions of their use, however, and may depart significantly from the norm due to variations in driving habits, service practices, and differences in road characteristics and climates.





You second quote that I wish to respond to is

waiting a few weeks or a month or so until the discount comes around again will definitely save you money and give you tires the perform better and are safer.


Most manufacturers discount their tires on a semi-annual basis. I chose not to include discount sales because would apply to both brands.



Sometimes only the tire models that are not selling well are on sale although some times the entire product line is on sale.



I have no idea where you got the "perform better and safer" statement. Since they are both all season, the performance should be similar except the Yokohama Avid should run slightly cooler due to the lower rolling resistance.

As far as safety goes, if you know something about this tire that makes it unsafe, PLEASE post it here with some verifiable references and report it to the DOT so the issue can be addressed by a possible recall. If it is just an opinion and not verifiable then you probably should state IMHO at the beginning of your statement.



I prefer to deal in facts although people's opinions to matter when making a judgement call.



I'm finished with this thread.



Ken B.

 

A Few Clarifications here: UTQG is not standardized across manufacturers.
The standard may be defined by the Department of transportation but since MANY different companies perform testing there is NO Consistency.

No one said the Yoko's are unsafe but better performing/handling tires are safer. this is just common sense: They stop in shorter distances, grip better during sudden maneuvers and LRR tires usually fare worse in wet conditions due to the lack of Siping (removal of water from the center of the tire) than non "Eco" tires.

The discount I was referring to is a DiscountTireDirect promotion that occurs usually 3-4 times a year if not more. $100 off a set of 4 tires is VERY common with DTD so the reference isn't for a one-time deal that's already passed. even without the discount, there are a number of tires that are a better bang for the buck. there are some that are also worse (the factory Tires are perfect examples).

~SB

 

Also here stating that treadwear and traction ratings do not jive between manufacturers, they only compare within the same manufacturer for the reason specboy stated.

It was a good plan by USDOT, just didn't work exactly as they'd planned.

 

fyi
for anyone looking for tires, DTD has $100 off a set of four. (visa prepaid gift card). the tires I have on my car are linked below.

that's $58 per tire shipped or $70 installed.

~sb

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/di...w=false&cs=205

 

Slickdeals.net also has info on some hankook rebates making it an even sweeter deal.

~sb

 

Arizona heat kills tires and batteries. After my uncle moved to Mesa from Los Angles he complained about how hard the climate was on his cars, especially tires.

 

imho, if you can get 30k miles out of your tires in real world, you did a great job.

 

Hm... And here I thought getting 48k on my stocks was bad.

 

Tire Rack. They have live chat for questions and provide a list of recommended local installers.

 

Uhh Sears LOL i got them for 490installed and 1 year no interest MUUUUHAHHAHAH

 

Never from a dealer...any brand of dealer. Discount tire only

 

x2 they have the best prices around!!

 

I had to buy a tire (Dunlop) from the dealer (Fife Honda) when I hit a pot hole at 7K miles on my 09 5MT. No one else had that size in stock yet. Cost me $150 (free mounting) back in spring 2009 and I had to put on myself in the dealer parking lot. Buy tires from a dealer ...... no way edit - Oh yeah I had to take it back three times to get the TPMS sensor working.
Got Avid 195/55s last year through Tire Rack. Love them

 

Is there some qualifier that I've missed in your statement? 30,000 miles from a set of tires? I've run Goodyear Assurance Triple Treds on my last car (Civic & Civic Hybrid) for 15 years (since the tire first came out), and have never gotten less than 70,000 out of a set of them.

If I only got 30k out of a given set of tires, I wouldn't have bought them in the first place. I don't have that kind of money to burn.