Thread: Where to buy tyres - Local, UK or USA?

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

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

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

Originally Posted by rovercare

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

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

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

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.