Best place to buy tires?

[ATCclears]

You can do preliminary comparisons online between Costco, Discount Tire, and Les Schwab. You can then call to check local availability. I've used all three. There are pros and cons to each.

I do find Discount Tire to be a bit slow if you want something specific and they don't have it in stock.

I do like that I can make an appointment with Discount Tire. If I use Costco, I go early to avoid a lengthy wait.

Les Schwab doesn't have some of the big brand names, but I appreciate their hustle. Their Centralia store was helpful and fast a year ago when I was towing a horse trailer.

Peter

 

[FortunateSon]

We buy our tires at Costco. They sell very high quality tires, always offer free rotation and balance, and they almost always have a coupon available for $70 off and that usually comes with a discount on installation. Plus, as an executive member we get a 2% rebate at the end of the year.

 

[teflon6string]

Depending on where you travel, and what sort of stuff you run over, service after the purchase can play into it beyond the initial bargain of inexpensive new tires. I've used Costco, America's and Les Schwab. If you check reviews, you'll find reports running from stellar to dismal on all brands. So this is just one man's opinion:

Had a RIDICULOUS series of flats a few winters ago (pieces of other people's mangled snow chains and cables punched through my healthy treads), it was weekly for awhile. 5-6 events in a 2 month span. Les Schwab was good about repairs and replacements. There just seemed to be a lot of them around and open when I needed them. So that was handy.

They've also been really good about calling around to find half-used similar brand replacement tires when I've had "that d*mn Subaru problem" where you can't put a new tire on with 3 older ones lest you damage your differentials.

So even if I paid Schwab a little extra (which I don't believe I have so far), I'd go with them because there's nothing, for me, like good service when I need it.

They also gave me some free stick-on lead weights to balance a target pistol - so there's bonus points right there!

 

[92bluexj]

Thank you for all the responses. I am checking out all the places online tonight.

 

[MrNiceGuy]

If you have a membership Costco has excellent prices on tires

^This


I wouldn't send my enemies to schwabs.

The last time I did, I told my gf's mother to go to schwabs for an oil change. After an hour they came back with a list of "fixes" they said were required for a total of ~$1350. She was kind of upset and asked for her keys back... they refused. They told her they could not legally let her drive away. Apparently diagnosing a leaky valve cover gasket, old serpentine belt, and a cracked CV boot turned them into law enforcement officers.
I had to leave work, drive to schwabs, argue with the manager for 15 minutes, and threaten to call the real authorities before they would give me her keys. Almost 2 hours later we were pulling out. They never did change the oil.

After checking it myself I saw a slight seep in the valve cover gasket, a prestine belt, and a dried but not cracked CV boot that hadn't leaked a drop. A few months later I had another shop do the gasket and boot for a total of $265.

Apparently this wasn't a one-time event, it's company policy to deny a customer their keys/car if they deem it "unsafe". A google search will turn up dozens of similar stories, ALL OF THEM written by women.

I wouldn't urinate on schwabs if it was on fire and my bladder was ready to burst

 

[mjbskwim]

To be specific,the Les Shwabs on 6th ave in Tacoma is a bunch of thieves and the one in Fife is a great store.
It must be all in the manager

 

[Grunwald]

I'll add to the Discount Tire chorus here.
I don't get the Les Schwab thing - why in bloody hell would I pay premium price for off label tire?

 

[PDXSparky]

I've purchased tires from Costco several times and thought I got decent deals. Like that they rotate and balance the tires for the life of the tire, free flat repairs, and the one time I had to have a tire replaced by warrantee, they warrantee replaced 2 tires so they'd have the same amount of tread. Last time I got tires for my car, I went to Costco again. They had the tire I wanted, but Sears beat there price this time, so I bought the tires at Sears. I've been very happy with the service after the sale.

Last time I bought tires for the wife's car, I went to America's tires because they were offering a $100 visa gift card if you bought a set of 4 tires. Their prices were decent and installed the tires promptly. I haven't needed to go back for any servicing, so I don't know how they'd rate in that area.

So, first place I'd go to when looking for new tires would be Sears.

 

[Fishjeep]

Les Schwabs Sucks! About 6 years ago they changed out a set of tires on My Wife's Jeep prior to our road trip to the coast to visit family. The Ahole that did the swap forgot to tighten the lug nuts, We literally Pulled into the inlaws drive way and two of the wheel/tires came off. Scared the hell out of us! out of twenty lug nuts 11 remained and all the wheel studs and all the brakes/rotors/drums had to be replaced....Their response before the lawyer was "tough sh$$" ... Nearly killed my family, Stay away from those Crooks, they couldn't care less when they come running! Costco,tire factory and discount tires.com are all GTG!

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Reading all the above posts just says to me that honesty, quality, and service have all but disappeared these days! Sure, you could have great experience at any of these places but IMHO the odds are very long against. My terrific experience at Schwab was over 40 yrs ago and while they have treated me right (I speak the jargon), they have burned a woman who is a family friend. Tire stores are only the tip of the crappy iceberg of retail too!

 

[notazombie]

Believe it or not, I've had my best luck with used tire places. US Tire on McLoughlin has been really reliable over the years. Usually $140-$160 for a set of 4 mounted and balanced. Typically they have 80-90% tread remaining. I don't mind giving up that new tire feeling to save several hundred dollars. I've only ever had one problem (leaking valve stem) and they took care of it right away free of charge. Really, the only thing Lester has going for him is the fact that he's everywhere. If you monitor your tires occasionally and keep air in the spare you won't have any emergencies.

 

[Dinged]

Reading all the above posts just says to me that honesty, quality, and service have all but disappeared these days! Sure, you could have great experience at any of these places but IMHO the odds are very long against. My terrific experience at Schwab was over 40 yrs ago and while they have treated me right (I speak the jargon), they have burned a woman who is a family friend. Tire stores are only the tip of the crappy iceberg of retail too!

My family used to deal with Les Schwab a while ago, in the 90s and maybe early 2000s, and they were fine then, it seems that their level of service has declined only within the past decade, kind of sucks because they used to be the "go to" guys. The only reason I could think of to stop into Les Schwab now is to eat popcorn lol

 

[Bigfoot]

Les Schwabs Sucks! About 6 years ago they changed out a set of tires on My Wife's Jeep prior to our road trip to the coast to visit family. The Ahole that did the swap forgot to tighten the lug nuts, We literally Pulled into the inlaws drive way and two of the wheel/tires came off. Scared the hell out of us! out of twenty lug nuts 11 remained and all the wheel studs and all the brakes/rotors/drums had to be replaced....Their response before the lawyer was "tough sh$$" ... Nearly killed my family, Stay away from those Crooks, they couldn't care less when they come running! Costco,tire factory and discount tires.com are all GTG!

Same story here. Estacada store replaced a wheel bearing (expensive) and did a tire rotation on a RX7. I picked it up on the way to work doing 65-70 on the freeway and I'm hearing these strange sounds, pulled over on the shoulder and I had only two lug nuts holding one wheel on and they were halfway off, the other wheels weren't much better. I shuffled the lugs around, tightened them and drove slow to the closest car parts store and called and asked Schwab if they would reimburse me for the missing lug nuts, the lady on the phone agreed. Pulled in the next day and presented the receipt to the salesman or manager and he flicked me an attitude, "11 DOLLARS!!" he said. I said "Well it's cheaper than a lawsuit". I got my $11 and haven't been back in 15 years.

It was bad enough that they might have killed me and anybody who might have been next to me on the freeway when a wheel or two fell off and it's bad enough that a tire shop fails to TIGHTEN LUG NUTS but being a prick over $11 instead of apologizing cost them one or two thousand dollars in lost business since.

 

[Swedish K]

I will say that America's/Discount surprised me last time I went in - I had a tire that had a leak - they fixed it for me and even though the tires were not from them they did not charge me for the repair. They even did the fix with a patch from the inside and rebalanced it.
On the other hand you have schwab - went there one time to have a valve stem core replaced as it kept hissing at me - waited an hour for them and they came over saying that the tires needed to be replaced and they couldn't fix them as they were too worn. Clearly the tires were nearing the end of their lifespan but they hadn't hit the wear bars yet. What any of this had to do with a 2 min swap out of a valve stem core is beyond me - and to top it off they wanted to charge me $45 for "diagnosing" the problem that they never fixed since I didn't take them up on their $900 solution. I stopped a mile down the road at a local tire shop for the valve stem fix - they were in the process of closing but the guy tells me that he had just gotten a pair of the same make/model/size tires in with 80% tread - total cost for the pair installed - $60 - Bonus - they replaced the pair of tires and the valve stem in less than half the time schwab took to do nothing.

 

[bentbronco]

another vote for Americas Tire. Long story short. My parents got a new set of tires for their toyota camry. Dad back in the day use to be a gas and tire guy. He dose his own oil changes and rotates his own tires. Had the set go early. He went in to the same americas tier that he bought the set at and got the newb. The newb suggested the tires did not go the rated mile beacouse he did not have them rotate the tires. So dad explained that he dose his own service and would do his own tires if he had a tire machine. The newb said no problem. Dad received something like $20 off each tire. They then upgraded him to another brand they had in stock. The upgraded tires are still on the car and doing fine.

 

[Silver Hand]

Les Schwabs

Sold me more problems than any other tire supplier in America.

In the 1970s they insisted my 3/4 ton chev. PU had a bent frame for two sets of rear tires wearing prematurely to the inside 'Wild cats'. The First set before them [Not a Schwab tier] wore fine and the three sets after them [Not Schwab tiers either] wore out just fine.

I had a set of Les Schwabs Toyo's on a 1970s gremlin at the same time raising 3 kids, the wife's car. Wore out so well we bought another set just like them same size same tire. Nothing but flats for the life of the tire every month another road hazard of flat of failure. They replaced those tires one at a time, But they were unsafe the whole time!

Mazda rx7 took off the Eagles that were plenty good and had Les Schwab put on there best hi speed Z rated tires for the performance. As the tires broke in there was a serious harmonic in the drive train. Les Schwab insisted it was the rear end So we had it looked into and changed all the rear cluster and axle bearings. The harmonics did not go away! I went back to
Les Schwab They said then it was the transmission. I Junked the Les Schwab tire investment and replaced the tires and the sound was GONE Immediately.

Having such good luck with Toyo M-55s on my 1985-1/2 Nissan 4 X 4 pickup, I wanted a set on my 1978 F-250 super cab. 'Custom service Truck'. The first of the square head lights rigs, rear windows that opened Custom built Balanced engine ect. My pride and joy in the business.
I bought those Toyo M55s from Schwabs for that F-250 and had 14 flats that year and that old 1972 chevy with Kelly Springfeilds on it went every place that ford did and did it twice a day hauling goods. Never one flat.
Les Schwab said where are you bringing this truck. I told them about the chevy,Turned out they sent me home with a new set of tires when seeing the tires on my Chevy were not theirs, I never did get a flat on those they put on. But the fact I or an employee changed 14 Flats, Considering the days lost in business I Lost Money Using Les Schwab tires.

I purchased a used Jimmy Blazer had four new Les Schwab tires on it. They were dangerous in dry weather and much worse in the rain [loss of traction]. They would do nothing for me but sum what agreed there might be a problem with those particular tires and they did not want those tires back.

They sell junk and are not interested in the customers safety! I will Never go back. They will lie straight in your face rather than drop a nickle.

They had no interest in service on commercial vehicles and I paid for every flat repair.

I have purchased Seven sets of tires from Costco, another set of Kelly Springfeilds for the CJ-7 Three flats, or slow leeks in the last run of years.
Costco - Michelin tires, Our last set ran out 92,000 same tire set before these ran out to 83,000 miles on a GMC Jimmy.

Silver Hand

 

[Bajablast]

Nobody has mentioned Firestone.

After using Les Schwab for many years, I have used Firestone for the last 10+ years with no regrets. My last Nissan Frontier pickup came with Firestone tires which lasted 11k more miles than they were warrantied for. When those needed replacing, I went with Firestone Indy Firehawk tires. They too, lasted 5-10k miles longer than 'expected life'. They are the best tires I have had on any vehicle. I had to have 2 Firehawks replaced as I picked up nails in them too close to the sidewalls to be repaired. They were replaced no questions asked.

Firestone will replace before repair a tire if they have even the slightest inkling it will be unsafe. Can't say that about Schwab.

The Beaverton store even replaced a broken wheel bearing for free under warranty, long after the 12 month/12k miles warranty had expired for me. I am not saying this would happen for everyone, but it is this type of service that has kept me a happy customer for over 10 years and counting.

Firestone also has a NATIONWIDE warranty.

I deal mainly with the Firestone in Beaverton at Cedar Hills Blvd/Canyon Rd intersection. That store has done all my scheduled maintenance on my previous Nissan Frontier , and I plan on using them for maintenance/tires for my new Nissan Frontier. They are considerably cheaper than taking it back to the dealer for the EXACT same service.

Just my .02 cents.
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Capitalism is BO$$!!!

 

[Modeler]

I used to go to Schwab's because of the easy credit. Now that I don't use credit anymore I've started going to my local Tire Factory in Stayton. Good service, good tires, good prices, locally owned and managed without Big Brother Les looking over their shoulder.

 

[tacticalgunner]

I don't know if they have America's Tire up there, but I know that they wont be undersold. I bought a new set of Hancooks from my truck about a year ago and they live up to there name, free nitrogen, balance and rotation and plus the tires where about 200 less that Toyo, which IMO are the same level as Hancook.

 

[erudne]

Schwab in The Dalles is a good store I have dealt with for years, as tire prices rose I started buying used tires at LS, I keep the receipts and get the same after sale service, 16" tires are becoming rare as those that use them have been driving untill the tires are bald. A LS employee told me I can switch-out to 17" rims and buy used 17" tires as there are plenty of those used on the Mkt. I have saved several $1000's buying used tires for my PUs