Bay Area People...

[ktc]

Hey people in the Bay Area...

... how do you get new tires? Do you order them from Tirerack and take it to a particular place for mounting? If so, where? Or do you go to Discount Tires / American Tires Co? (went there today and was quite :tsk: at the service received).

Also, specific to the 330i (KrisL, et al...), will I notice a huge difference if I left the entire PS2/RE050/Conti trio and went towards more affordable tires? I'm an everyday average driver (like to go >80 once in a while, drive ~75-80 in the rain, corners quickly but not to the point of losing the back end, etc.) and I do not autocross... would going to Khumho's or the next level down of tires really make that much of a difference to me?

Thanks.

[dolfstar]

I order from Tirerack and drop-ship to Dinan in Mountain View (I live in Mountain View, so this is easy). Tirerack gives me the expected delivery date and 1-2 days before I call Dinan for an appointment. I started doing this because I did not want rim damage. Most ordinary tire places don't have the equipment to do it without damage, or the knowledge. Always been very happy.

[Cliff]

Also, specific to the 330i (KrisL, et al...), will I notice a huge difference if I left the entire PS2/RE050/Conti trio and went towards more affordable tires? I'm an everyday average driver (like to go >80 once in a while, drive ~75-80 in the rain, corners quickly but not to the point of losing the back end, etc.) and I do not autocross... would going to Khumho's or the next level down of tires really make that much of a difference to me?

Probably not. After buying the M Coupe I wanted to use less costly tires on my daily driver 330. I am currently running Falken F452's that I ordered from www.discounttire.com (http://www.discounttire.com) and they've been good tires so far. Discount Tire also has a chain of brick and mortar shops called America's Tire. Their shop local to me here in Livermore has taken very good care of me on a couple of occasions. I have also used Tirerack quite often, but have used shops local to me (Edge in Dublin and Roger Kraus in Castro Valley) for mounting and balancing services.