New Tires From The Tire Rack

If you’ve never visited TireRack.com, you owe it to yourself to check it out. They’ve got just about every brand of tire, quite a few different types of after-market wheels, and a unique tool that allows you to see how a new set of rims will look on your vehicle. They also stock suspension kits, air intakes, brake pads, and a handful of other stuff.

What I like best about the Tire Rack, in addition to the good pricing, is that they have a great collection of reviews on tires. I was just buying a set and I really appreciated the fact that I could read dozens of reviews on the particular brand of tire. The reviews weren’t all good either — as a matter of fact, I upgraded myself from a cheaper tire based on some user reviews. Overall, it’s a good system.

The choices for custom wheels are another matter. While I really like being able to see how wheels will look on my car, I think Tire Rack’s wheels are overpriced for the most part. They do offer some wheel and tire packages that seem pretty reasonable, but I would definitely call the local custom wheel shop before buying wheels from Tire Rack. The same goes for some of the premium tire brands (like Goodyear and Michelin) — sometimes, you’ll find your local premium brand retailer (i.e. your local Goodyear tire shop) will be able to offer a better price on a Goodyear tire than you can find on Tire Rack. However, for brands without a brand-name national retail network (like Pirelli, Nitto, Yokohama, etc.) Tire Rack is often the least expensive.

Installation was easy — I had them shipped to a friends dealership (he works in the service department). I got them installed easy, and no one tried to sell me “siping” or “tire insurance” either, both of which aren’t good deals (in my opinion). Finally, Denver sales tax is almost 8%, so my shipping costs were lower than the sales tax I would have paid if I’d bought them locally. If you’re not lucky enough to have a friend with a shop, there’s a list of preferred installers.

Since winter is coming, the tire retailers are going to be advertising all kinds of specials in the next couple of months. To see a list of Tire Rack’s current specials, click here .