Thread: Importing your own tyres.

I support locals and I also import. I buy locally if their prices are not blatant rip-offs. When I can buy overseas, pay full retail, ship by expensive air-mail, and the goods arrive at 1/3 to 1/5 of the local retail price then there is something wrong. The local distributor buys at substantial discount often as much as 45-50% off retail, ships in volume at low cost, so should be charging a good bit less in many cases.

Recently I went to buy a tube for a very ordinary family car. Five local tyre services quoted from $7.50 to $25. Guess who got the business.

Originally Posted by big guy

Buy local, support local business, be safe, comply, know you are covered by statutory warranty in the event of failure, peace of mind taking the family on a road trip and all round happy you are doing your part.
I think its been said before, ordering over net, importing, delivery and getting them home, loading in back of vehicle, finding a tyre shop that will put some one else tyres(imports at that) on your car etc.

It just seems too much knowing all my money goes overseas and local workers miss out.
I said it before and will say it again.
Support your locals before they are all gone.

While a little off track, when it comes to tyres all your money goes O/S anyway and the locals will make more from you fitting your tyres regardless of where they came from, so no jobs lost there.
How many of you buy off the net rather than local?

Being in Alice virtually everything has to be shipped in regardless and not held in stock. Our Local LR dealer is excellent on all levels and I will usually get Landy bits from here, but.......
I also have a Mitsubishi, my other sons have a Hyundai and a Saab.
Nobody has parts off the shelf for these things (even the Hyundai) ever! and in every case "yeah I'll have it next week mate but you have to pay extra for freight"......
The parts will be more like 2 weeks, the freight cost one motgage repayment and the parts often wrong.
I can get on the net and make a phone call, have the parts arrive faster to my door and in most cases less than half the cost from local suppliers.

Supporting local here is a bitter pill and one which more people are refusing to swallow. The logic is great but the outcome is a joke. I suggested to one business that since they were a trade customer (of the same supplier I was dealing with) and had bulk shipping rates, that the they should at least match the price I was given.
"No mate, we wont" (not can't) was the response. I dont feel guilty for not buying from them at all.
It is sad to see any business go belly up, however in many cases these business's are not victims of corporate giants but are simply the consequences of their own greed and poor accumen.

cheers

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

I support locals and I also import. I buy locally if their prices are not blatant rip-offs. When I can buy overseas, pay full retail, ship by expensive air-mail, and the goods arrive at 1/3 to 1/5 of the local retail price then there is something wrong. The local distributor buys at substantial discount often as much as 45-50% off retail, ships in volume at low cost, so should be charging a good bit less in many cases.

Recently I went to buy a tube for a very ordinary family car. Five local tyre services quoted from $7.50 to $25. Guess who got the business.

I hear you.

Times have changed, sadly and we here in Australia have now got one of the most expensive costs of living in the world.
I hear it all to often from overseas visitors I meet that we are expensive.

Heck, we live on an island, the worlds largest island and cost of living has skyrocketed.

It will get worse if more of us direct import, thats just how it works and than the economy here will crash again but even further.

I always negotiate a bit with tyre shops, I sell mine at 50% worn and get new ones so I get tyres at quite regular intervals, even ride with a Bob Jane outlet owner, there is always some room for negotiation.
They have staff, rent etc to pay and are lucky to make 10% net margin on Gross turnover. Its not much cream there!!!

Mate of mine recently bought a set of 265/75-16 BFG AT's for his Patrol. He managed to buy them at 'cost', fit them yourself. They cost him $215 each; going rate is about $330. For the rest of us buying from a dealer not a bad return, no stock holding, order them in, straight out the door for an immediate better than 50% profit. Fair bit of fat in the tyre retail system I think.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

........................Recently I went to buy a tube for a very ordinary family car. Five local tyre services quoted from $7.50 to $25. Guess who got the business.

What sort of tube though. Had the same issue buying 900-16 tubes for the OKA. The paper thin Korean offerings, the heavier duty Dunlops or the 'uber' heavy duty Michelins. I bought the Michelins, they might cost more but are not more expensive.

Deano

Originally Posted by strangy

While a little off track, when it comes to tyres all your money goes O/S anyway and the locals will make more from you fitting your tyres regardless of where they came from, so no jobs lost there.
How many of you buy off the net rather than local?

Being in Alice virtually everything has to be shipped in regardless and not held in stock. Our Local LR dealer is excellent on all levels and I will usually get Landy bits from here, but.......
I also have a Mitsubishi, my other sons have a Hyundai and a Saab.
Nobody has parts off the shelf for these things (even the Hyundai) ever! and in every case "yeah I'll have it next week mate but you have to pay extra for freight"......
The parts will be more like 2 weeks, the freight cost one motgage repayment and the parts often wrong.
I can get on the net and make a phone call, have the parts arrive faster to my door and in most cases less than half the cost from local suppliers.

Supporting local here is a bitter pill and one which more people are refusing to swallow. The logic is great but the outcome is a joke. I suggested to one business that since they were a trade customer (of the same supplier I was dealing with) and had bulk shipping rates, that the they should at least match the price I was given.
"No mate, we wont" (not can't) was the response. I dont feel guilty for not buying from them at all.
It is sad to see any business go belly up, however in many cases these business's are not victims of corporate giants but are simply the consequences of their own greed and poor accumen.

cheers

Same with me,I recently had my L322 radiator sent back to me from Kalgoorlie and it cost twice as much to freight it 1000K's from Kal to Newman than what it cost to get a brand new one send from the UK???.I buy over the internet simply because Repco,Auto barn etc double the cost of parts because they are LR and double it again because it's for a Range Rover. Pat

Originally Posted by strangy

While a little off track, when it comes to tyres all your money goes O/S anyway and the locals will make more from you fitting your tyres regardless of where they came from, so no jobs lost there.
How many of you buy off the net rather than local?

Being in Alice virtually everything has to be shipped in regardless and not held in stock. Our Local LR dealer is excellent on all levels and I will usually get Landy bits from here, but.......
I also have a Mitsubishi, my other sons have a Hyundai and a Saab.
Nobody has parts off the shelf for these things (even the Hyundai) ever! and in every case "yeah I'll have it next week mate but you have to pay extra for freight"......
The parts will be more like 2 weeks, the freight cost one motgage repayment and the parts often wrong.
I can get on the net and make a phone call, have the parts arrive faster to my door and in most cases less than half the cost from local suppliers.

Supporting local here is a bitter pill and one which more people are refusing to swallow. The logic is great but the outcome is a joke. I suggested to one business that since they were a trade customer (of the same supplier I was dealing with) and had bulk shipping rates, that the they should at least match the price I was given.
"No mate, we wont" (not can't) was the response. I dont feel guilty for not buying from them at all.
It is sad to see any business go belly up, however in many cases these business's are not victims of corporate giants but are simply the consequences of their own greed and poor accumen.

cheers

My experience of living in Alice for four years was that many businesses there only survive due to the isolation and captive market. Most wouldn't survive in a big city where consumers had more choice.

Couldn't have said it better. Pat

Originally Posted by BigJon

My experience of living in Alice for four years was that many businesses there only survive due to the isolation and captive market. Most wouldn't survive in a big city where consumers had more choice.

One of my friends runs a VW shop. His customer broke down in Alice, and asked the garage man to contact my friend to get a starter motor sent up. The price was $120 plus $20 freight. The garage man charged the customer $300 "because the freight up here is so dear". Crook.