Thread: 04' Discovery 2 suspension upgrade help.

Originally Posted by Yorkie

and duty...

duty is supposed to be 5%. never paid it on tyre imports in the past, doesnt bother me if i get it this time.

regardless of the GST and duty, allowing for that, i'm still about $120-150 PER tyre better off than buying locally, including

total for 5 tyres including duty & gst (worst case) = $320 per tyre.
quoted $30 to fit, balance & dispose of old tyres around the corner = $350 per tyre.

cheapest 18" all-terrain tyre i could source locally in perth that was legal for my car = $470ea.

so i'm still $120 per tyre ($600 in total) better off this way.

I looked at buying 16" rims. best I could do was $100ea. set of 5 rims = $500. 16" tyres, best I could do locally for decent A/T was $270ea (discounted thru a mate). so a set of 5 would be $1850 = $370ea.
then i'd also have a full set of 18" rims lying around.

sure i could sell them on gumtree, but since there's been 2 sets in perth for sale for over a year now without moving, that's not going to happen unless i give them away. and my wife would stop making me dinner if i stored 5 tyres in the garage!

i support local Australian businesses and stores where i can (i own and run a retail business in perth), but where it's not coming close to balancing up, my wallet makes the decisions.

If you can't get the size you want, then fair enough. But don't always assume tyres from US will be cheaper.

I bought some Goodyear Duratrac recently in 285/75-16. The best Tyrerack could do was $345/tyre delivered for 5. That was in 2 shipments but was only $100 less for 1 shipment. I would still have to pay for fitting after that.

I ended up getting them supplied and fitted around the corner for $325 each.

Personally, I ditched the 18" rims because I didn't want low profile out in the bush. Makes a huge difference, not to mention the fact that if you wreck a tyre you will never get another one quickly.