I'm Tyred

[AlanHo]

I had four new tyres fitted to my car today.

I had telephoned for prices from all the leading tyre suppliers in my locality and got prices for my preferred Continental Premium Contact 2 tyres of between £94.50 and £132.00 per tyre (fitted price inc. new valve balancing and VAT).

I did a web search and found a supplier which sells all the leading makes - and some I have never heard of - at very good prices. They quote prices delivered to your home and provide details of their official tyre fitters in your locality.

Tread here

For the tyres I had chosen they quoted a price of £57.40 per tyre and their local fitting company wanted £14.45 per wheel to fit the tyres which included the cost of disposing of the old tyres. Thus the total cost was £71.85 per wheel - a massive saving compared with the local tyre suppliers - some of which are national chains. This is an exact like for like comparison.

Whilst in the waiting room I browsed the usual tatty and dog-eared magazines and various tyre brochures piled up there to kill customer boredom and was amused by an advert by Kumho Tyres (never heard of them? - neither have I). It was for their range of herbal tyres blended with aromatherapy oils. If this becomes popular, driving in the future is likely to be a very smelly experience.

[Scarecrow Man]

"Kumho Tires" (formerly known as "Samyang Tire" from Wikipedia) is South Korean, and I've just heard about them in the last 2 months.

[andsome]

How do they balance them, do they have portable balancing equipment? Whenever I or my friends want tyres, there is always on particular company in Lichfield much cheaper than the rest, for whatever brand you want.

[AlanHo]

When you browse their site and click on the link to find your local tyre fitters versus post code - you get a list. In my case 5 companies in the Solihull/Birmingham area which were normal tyre suppliers with a "Kwik Fit" type workshop. There was also in the list a mobile fitter who has a large van in which there is a balancing machine - but his costs were higher and I went to one of the tyre workshops.

After my experience - I strongly recommend browsing the website to obtain costs for your car - even if it is for no other reason that to use as a comparison with local suppliers to beat them down on price.

Perhaps I should add that the major cost benefits are when you buy premium brands - if you go for some of the obscure Asian or East European tyres with names you sometimes cannot pronounce - then the savings are less. My local tyre supplier could provide anonymous tyres for my car at £36 per wheel fitted - but there is no way I will risk cruising a motorway on such unknown rubber.