Tires.....where do you guys get them?
 

My 2002 just hit 43K miles and 2 tires need replaced. Dealer wants $430 for 2 Mich. Do you get tires done at the dealer?

definitely get tires at www.tirerack.com they are the sponsor in this forum too. best price + best service goes together!

Dealers are only good for warranty work.

+1 :y

Get exact model and size of Michelin so you are comparing apples to apples. Make sure tires are same size and tread symmetry as those on other end so you can rotate and no problems with ESP.

Check out installers authorized by TireRack in your town. Definitely worth a little trip. Have the tires sent directly to them. Their prices are published on website. Also consider Road Force Balancing if the installer has the machine (like Hunter 9700). Extra $5 but worth it I think.

Agreed. Not from the dealer. Check and compare Discount Tire and The Tire Rack. I have ordered from both for many years and both are excellent for service and delivery. Don't forget to get the 'Special matched set' if you are involved in spirited driving.:rolleyes:

Are you more interested in traction or price?

Mine has the Mich. MXV4 tires. I compared prices. Tire rack is great, however when I added in shipping and mounting at NTB, it would be about $30 cheaper just to get them at NTB.

My main concern on tires is quietness. Anyone know how these rate in that area?

It depends on the quality of your shop. I just had tires on the mininvan replaced, and I was willing to just get it over with and have it done at the local Sears, but they couldn't resist the car shop nature of screwing over the customer. I had priced on their website at about $550, and the wife calls saying they quoted her $750. I talk to the guy and he mumbles around about pricing errors and internet and blah. I tell wife to leave, she can drive around on the spare for a few days since no big trips were planned. Ordered from Tirerack and sent to the local Goodyear (no smaller indy available).
Bottom line was I got a better set of tires installed two days later, lifetime-balanced & aligned for $100 less.
Goodyear shop naturally wanted to upsell other things, but just prepare yourself by repeating "No thanks" on the drive over. Their last attempt was "your rear brake pads need replacing" (at 25K hardly). Again, a simple "no" saved some cash.

I got 4 Fusion HRI tires at TireRack about 4 years ago for around $300. Had them installed at 65k miles. The car handles great with them. Loved them then and still love them today at 109k miles. No problems, plenty of tread left and I'll get at least another 10k miles on them.

They still sell them and I'll prob get 4 more when I need tires.

Dont forget to check onlinetires.com, I think they are typically 8-11 dollars cheaper per tire than tirerack.

Be careful of a switch. For example, there are six Continental ContiProContacts that are 235/45R-17 and are priced between $130 and $190. One variation is the UTQG. Make sure the UTQG is the same on the TireRack tire and the NTB tire. Also, make sure that NTB is charging the same for mounting and balancing as their site linked to TireRack.

As for noise, if you have them now and they have been quiet for you, I would imagine replacing them with the same tire would also be quiet.

Did you have a chance to read the reviews? It's one of the 'tabs'. I'm always a little cautious on self-nom reviews but if there are enough of them it's at least a part of the puzzle. Same with the numeric rating system TireRack uses but it's something.

Good luck.

Michelin is a very good tire. I had the MXV$ on my 300E then tried other brands and ended up going back to the Mich. Very quiet and good ride. There are cheaper and more sport oriented tires available. What will be your use is step one. If a simple replacement go with the MXV4 and be done with it. You need to specify what you would like to accomplish though and we can better help with ideas. As stated check the UTQG ratings and be sure to get the same match

Mine are the MXV4 Energy plus which have quite poor ratings, there is another MXV4 that had the highest rating of all tires. I'll replace with those. I want a quiet highway tire, with good traction control in rain.

You are right to avoid the MXV4 Energy. They don't have good resistance to hydroplaning especially as the begin to age a bit. In snow...they are really bad. I've had them as OEM on two different cars and both were very poor in bad weather.

I've heard a lot of good things with the newer MXV4 Primacy.

that's the one! supposed to be excellent tires.

I get them at Firestone. Just ask for a deal and you can get it or bring in a quote from somewhere else and they will beat it. I bought my car with brand new Riken Raptors on it (terrible tires). Needless to say, I took them off within 2 weeks and put Bridgestone Blizzaks on, which are incredible in the snow and ice. I also got some summer tires for another set of wheels I just got. 235/40R18 front and 265/35R18 rear Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Positions. They are amazing tires. I saved over $200 on EACH SET compared to the pricing on TireRack.

I have used tirerack.com in the past, fast shipping, somewhat competitive pricing. Now I goto Americas tire I have a friend that works there, they do excellent work.
with the 19's i originally used pirelli p zero's great sticky tire, but didn't last long, then swapped to Yokohama Sdrive ES100's, not as sticky as the Pirelli's but much quieter with a predictable slide. Recently went back to OEM wheels and replaced with stock sized Falkens about a 2 months ago, so far a great tire.

Another vote for the Michelin Primacy MXV4 tires. They are smooth and quiet on most road surfaces, and I find it harder to break them loose than the original MXM4s. They are also remarkably good in the wet. And I have found no need to go to a snow tire in winter, though that may be due more to the 4Matic than the tires.

look ahead to warranty service
 

I was going to buy the Michelin Primacy but found that if I was willing to go down to a T rating the Pirelli P4 had better price/noise/grip/handling characteristics, and 130,000 km warranty (that's about 10yrs for me). I live on the We(s)t Coast and anti-hydroplaning characteristics are paramount. The Primacy's are good in that respect until they hit about 50% wear, by various accounts. The P4's are fabulous in the wet.

I plan on taking road trips throughout the continent. So, I wanted to buy at a big franchise with continent-wide coverage. You can bargain for tire purchases! Costco had a sale on Michelins, so I took that price to a Big O and negotiated a much better price (actually the same as online purchase) on the Pirellis. The warranty coverage comes with free rotation every 10K, flat repairs, and free nitrogen inflation, at any Big O. Costco offers essentially the same service. Other widespread franchises (e.g. fountain) would likely work in this respect also.

If you're going to drive mainly locally, then buy online, but if you plan on babying your tires and heading off into the wild blue yonder then a franchise purchase makes sense.

Thats really something I never considered. I'll be traveling back and forth to Florida from Ohio...nationwide coverage makes good sense.

I just bought my 2nd set of Bridgestone GO19 GRIDs BL 235/45R17 94V .They are on sale at Firstone for 124.oo ea. I got 20% off due to only having 40K out of the 50K on them (Proration). 100.00 ea is not bad for GO19's. They due however get you on the Disposal fee, lifetime align, lifetime balance, road hazard protec. stems, CA tax, etc.. Total out the door was $619.. The first set were the older version (G009's) and were only H rated, and a bit more expensive. These are V rated and still carry a 50K mile warranty. Overall pretty happy with Firestone as you can get your oil changed at the same time. They balance, align and rotate all for free one you buy the above. Yes, they do try and upsell you on brakes and other stuff each time, but just say no!

I have purchased many tire through Tirerack as well. The are awesome too.

So far I am really happy with Bridgestones + they are the tire for F1 (at least for now :)

Hope this helps, and good luck.

The dealer may not be the place to buy tires, but if you need an alignment the dealer is the place to have it done.

I just got a great closeout deal from Tire Rack on BFG Traction T/A-H rating. I up'ed the size to 225/50-16 on the stock e320 rims and they look good. Tire rides great and has 60,000 mile treadwear warranty. Best of all they were only $65ea.

Well I just got the Primacy's put on from NTB with the roadside warranty. I think I'll like these tires. Seemed very quiet.

What did you pay? I need a couple of these for the rear of my wagon.

The guy at NTB or NTW whatever they call themselves, looked up Tire Rack and a few others. Matched prices, I went ahead and got the lifetime rotation, balancing, road hazzard warranty deal on each tire as well. $353 for the 2 rears which included tax, disposal and all the other crap.