Where to buy tyres - Local, UK or USA?

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Originally Posted by rovercare

Buy local? pffft, I bought 2 gate openers for $805 delivered, no better than $850 each here in aus, for the exact same unit, sure for a hunjy I'll buy local, but not %100+ markup

Atleast my job relies on services rendered which can't be imported:p

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Not all services industries are protected by distance Rovercare, I get quite a bit of graphic artist work done for website banner adverts and print media advertising. I have used for five years a local business because they are reliable, do good work and are not expensive.

I have now been pointed in the direction of an Indian graphics company that will do the same quality of work with a 24 hour turn around for roughly 20% of the cost of the local small business I use.

When I mentioned this to my local service provider he told me he expects that most Aussie graphics companys will be broke within five years as they can't compete with OS service providers who work for peanuts.

There are lots of different service based businesses that will struggle to survive especially once the Governments super fast broadband is up and running.

It won't be just local tyre companys and vehicle parts suppliers in Australia that people will soon be complaining about as being expensive rip offs.

This sort of thing will have wide ranging and serious economic fall out for many Australians in the future and I suspect that is likey to have a knock on effect for even those local service providers who don't have to worry about overseas service suppliers.

cheers,
Terry

Priced a set of General Grabers 255/60-18 Local price @ $390/ unit Total $1560 for 4. Tire Rack @ US$216 / unit = $864 + $412 freight Total US$ 1276.( A$ 1192 ??) Plus quoted $50 for fitting. A saving of $320 from US Thats nearly another tyre locally . What would you do ;)

Gary

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Originally Posted by TerryO

Not all services industries are protected by distance Rovercare, I get quite a bit of graphic artist work done for website banner adverts and print media advertising. I have used for five years a local business because they are reliable, do good work and are not expensive.

I have now been pointed in the direction of an Indian graphics company that will do the same quality of work with a 24 hour turn around for roughly 20% of the cost of the local small business I use.

When I mentioned this to my local service provider he told me he expects that most Aussie graphics companys will be broke within five years as they can't compete with OS service providers who work for peanuts.

There are lots of different service based businesses that will struggle to survive especially once the Governments super fast broadband is up and running. It won't be just tyre companys and vehicle parts suppliers in Australia that end up struggling because of cheap imports.

This sort of thing will have wide ranging and serious economic fall out for many Australians in the future I suspect.

cheers,
Terry

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Its the nature of the beast unfortunately, its just the same as jumping online for some advice to fix something on your car, that's done a local out of work

Lucky my services cannot be reproduced online, good to be in a licensed trade, that require hands on work

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Originally Posted by rovercare

Lucky my services cannot be reproduced online, good to be in a licensed trade, that require hands on work

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The point I am trying to make is its more of a case of how would your business be affected if a percentage of your customers, who may be in industries that are effected by OS service providers, find their incomes dramatically reduced and they can no longer afford your services?

Unfortunately nearly everything has some sort of a knock on effect in the end.

cheers,
Terry

Hi,

Ii used Tirerack in the USA for mine, 4 off Continentals for a D3, $450 ea in Aus, $1100 delivered from the USA!! $350 was carriage and arived in 5 days!

No complaints, worth the leap of faith!!

Well thats my 2 cents worth!:)

How do you go with warranty issues on tyres bought OS?

Does a local tyre supplier selling that brand honor the warranty on behalf of that brand ?

Hi all,
We all like to save money and I too am gulity of buying parts from overseas to save money, but there is definately a long term effect if we all do it all the time. If you are saving hundreds by buying overseas then why not but if it less than a hundred it might not be worth it, the big downside to buying overseas is if it goes wrong eg lost shipment, I have recently had small orders that have been lost in transit and although both times they have been re sent it takes time to sort out. I like to use a small tyre shop in Brooklyn in melb for my general tyre needs (punctures, removing of tyres from rims, etc), they deal mainly in cash and have a high turn over of cheap and second hand tyres, they look shonky from outside but the guys are genuine people who are very friendly. They sell a lot of s/h tyres to taxi drivers and they told me that these taxi drivers are the tightest in terms of wanting to spend money, they apparently argue at having to pay $30 or so for a tyre. The other day I was there and they had this pirelli 305 section tyre from a lamborghini, I asked about it because I had seen the car there the week before (very odd place to see a lamborghini), it had a large screw in it and the owner wanted a new one, he was quoted by another tyre shop $1500, these guys rang their pirelli contact and got the tyre for the bloke for $750, same tyre and same size, now that is definately a mark up and that is comparing two tyre shops in melb.
Cheers Matt

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Originally Posted by 33chinacars

Priced a set of General Grabers 255/60-18 Local price @ $390/ unit Total $1560 for 4. Tire Rack @ US$216 / unit = $864 + $412 freight Total US$ 1276.( A$ 1192 ??) Plus quoted $50 for fitting. A saving of $320 from US Thats nearly another tyre locally . What would you do ;)

Gary

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Buy local because if you don't, there will soon be no places left for you to get them fitted.

I went to the local dealer and was quoted $259- for tyres. Mentioned prices from tryerack and showed him. He then showed me his cost. It was 50% more that my shipped price from tyrerack. He's considering using them to bring in stuff.

I have found another local contact where I can get Conti cross contacts for <$150-.

I'll buy to save money, but i'll spend more if I get better service. Sorry ARB if I can buy a pair of lockers cheaper than you can quote to fit one (and face it who'd trust you install) and thats after it's shipped around the world.

As for fitting costs, local rice boy centre quoted $80- each to fit and balance plus $20- ea disposal. Exhaust shop next door, $70- fitted, balanced and disposed all 5.

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Originally Posted by big guy

Buy local because if you don't, there will soon be no places left for you to get them fitted.

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That's a bit far fetched now isn't it. If everyone is buying tyres elsewhere, all that would happen is you'd end up with shops that solely just fit tyres.

But the reality is that economics and commerce is not so simple, there's a lot more too it.

Why pay twice as much to buy local and keep someones business running? Were customers, not Centrelink. If they can't compete then, they need to take another approach or get out of the market. I find these stories of tyre shops that have buy prices that are more than that of Tire Rack odd. Why aren't they out finding a cheaper supplier so that they can be more competitive? Why should they instead rely on us to charity case them?

And thanks for the links people, I'm going to buy a set of 5x large 18" tyres from Tire Rack shortly. No one locally stocks them and were vague on information and pricing about them (that's places like Sparco, Bob Janes, Beaurepairs, K-Mart Tyre and Auto and various smaller tyre shops), Tire Rack on the other hand provided all the information that I needed and considerably cheaper than I was expecting.