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By James R. Hood
It often seems that buying tires is nearly as bad as buying the entire car -- newspaper ads filled with come-on pricing, high-pressure salespeople, unexplained add-on charges and confounding delays in getting the things installed.
So when one of the family Peugeots needed some new rubber, we grabbed the Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia Yellow Pages and the nearest laptop to see if we could find a better way.
We needed four 14-inch 195x60 H-rated tires. Although the Peugeot in question is rather long in the tooth (it last saw France in 1989), it is built to move and the "H" rating is important. A lesser, T-rated tire would be a serious safety hazard. We have found that Pirellis do well on our Peugeots (yes, we have more than one and no, they're not lemons) so that's what we asked for. Here's what we found on the phone:
NTB
The friendly folks at the nearest NTB (formerly National Tire and Battery) were just loaded with tires. They recommended the Pirelli P6000 for which they quoted a price of $92.45 per tire. That was high enough but the final price at NTB is always a lot higher than the per-tire price multiplied times the number of tires. In fact, we're always shocked when we read the invoice after buying tires at NTB. All the extra charges really add up.
The service isn't always great either. The last time we were in the NTB on Prosperity Avenue in Fairfax there was nearly a riot as frustrated customers demanded to know when their cars would be ready. One pink-haired, multi-pierced fellow screamed that he was a George Mason University law student and, ergo, his time was too valuable to expend in the aforesaid manner. He forthwith exited the premises, vowing subsequent action.
The last time we were at the NTB in Arlington, we bought two new tires and asked that they be put on the front. Sure enough, they put them on the back, leaving the two oldest tires on the front and throwing away the fairly good ones on the back.
Performance Discount Tire
This store, where we have had bad experiences in the past, was pushing some kind of Dunlop for $76.90, plus disposal, tax, balancing and who knows what. The fellow said he could put them on "right now" but couldn't do a front-end alignment because his mechanic had quit.
Merchants Tire
These people practically invited us to dinner. The salesman had an "amazing special" that he was willing to let us in on - a T-rated Michelin X-One for $100, supposedly including installation. Four of them would be $421 with tax, he said. "But that's a T-rated tire, our car's rated for an H," we said. No problem, he assured us: "Michelin rates their tires very conservatively." We doubt Michelin or the NHTSA would agree with this interpretation.
www.discounttiredirect.com
We swiveled around to the laptop and surfed over to Discount Tire Direct, which operates a large chain of stores in the West. We found the Pirelli P6000 SportVeloce, an advanced all-weather tire, for $55 -- $37 less than NTB. We found some top-end Michelin tires - far more advanced than the X-One - for around $70. The tire Merchants had tried to push off on us didn't even appear in our search results, since it was not properly rated for our car. The Dunlop tire might be OK - the salesman didn't provide the exact model number -- but didn't come up in our search.
We placed the order with Discount Tire and immediately received both a Web page and an email confirming the order and the price, which came to $241 including UPS Ground shipping.
Hello and thank you for your tire order.
The order has been processed and the merchandise will ship right away via
UPS ground service. The merchandise should arrive within 5-6 business days
since the tires will have to be sent from our Nevada warehouse. Your
credit card has been charged $241.86 total. If you have any questions
please contact me via e-mail or contact one of our sales representatives at
1-800-589-6789.
Thank you, we appreciate your business.
Rene Valencia
Internet Sales Team
All this occurred on a Monday. We started watching for our tires the next week. A huge package arrived from UPS the following Monday but that turned out to be a punching bag for our daughter (don't ask). The very next afternoon, Tuesday, there were four new tires sitting in our driveway, neatly wrapped in plastic. Five business days, Nevada to Virginia. Not bad.
Installation
Challenge #2 is getting the tires installed - mounted on the rims and balanced.
We went first to the Oakton Service Center, in an upscale suburban strip mall, where the drive was littered with BMWs and hulking Suburbans. The cashier looked shocked at our request.
"Did you buy the tires here?" he asked. We explained again that we bought them on the Internet. He scowled and directed us to the proprietor. "He might agree to help you out," he said doubtfully.
The proprietor informed us that he much preferred American tires since "the money stays here" but said he could work us in the following week. We wanted to ask about all those tanks of gas we've bought from him over the last 18 years. Did all that money stay here?
Next we called the Nutley Street Exxon, just off Interstate 66 in Fairfax. This service station is run by a large extended Vietnamese family and we have always found them very responsive to any request.
"Where is the car now?" asked the gentleman who answered the phone. "Bring it in, we will do it. $16 each."
The next day I pulled in just before 8 a.m. A few minutes later, my car was on the rack and the mechanic was admiring my Pirellis. "Beautiful tire. Very fast," he said with a slight bow.
Forty-five minutes later, the job was done. The tab came to $76 -- $64 for mounting and balancing plus $12 for disposal.
Total cost for tires and intallation: $317, slightly less than what I had paid NTB a few months before for two Pirellis. Besides saving about $200 and having a much wider range of tires to choose from, I found the process much less annoying than the usual visit to the tire store.
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