[JetBlack330i]

Is tirerack the best place to buy S-03's?
Anybody know of a cheaper place?

 

[Mark49]

I'm not sure if Tirerack is the absolute cheapest. You might be able to save a few dollars somewhere else but Tirerack is an excellent company to deal with. I've ordered from them several times in the past and was always very happy with their knowledge and prompt service. I highly recommend them.

 

[webguy330i]

I am 99.9% sure they are the cheapest for S-03's. You can get a set of 4 + shipping + $70 for mount/balance at the dealership for less than most any local tire shop. And as Mark pointed out they're an excellent company to deal with! Top notch customer service.

 

[Kaz]

Every time I go someplace to get tirerack-bought tires mounted, I always get asked what I paid, and the place always says it's lower than their cost.

 

[The HACK]

Every time I go someplace to get tirerack-bought tires mounted, I always get asked what I paid, and the place always says it's lower than their cost.

Yeah, and actually the local tire shop where I got mine mounted, said they simply gave up trying to compete with TireRack prices and just decided to make money off of them for mounting and balancing tires. They also get almost all their tire from TireRack as well.

 

[GSR13]

I have ordered my last three sets of tires from TireRack. The last time, they sent me the wrong size tires. I caught it immediately, refused delivery, and then called TireRack.

They refunded my Shipping Charges and got the correct size out to me ASAP.

So far, I have been very pleased with their service.

 

[JetBlack330i]

I just placed an order through Discount Tire (this is tires.com, not to be confused with discounttires.com). They will beat tirerack's price.
The good thing is that they are local, and I'd rather deal with people face to face, no matter how good the phone customer service is.
The bad thing is state tax. However, total out-the-door price was still a few dollars cheaper than tirerack + shipping + mounting, so I think it was a good deal.
Recommended.

 

[The HACK]

Even if a local shop beats TireRack.com's price by a few dollars overall, I'd probably still go with TireRack because they've been pretty active in the enthusiast community. Jim from TireRack has been Jon Shaferesque in helping out fellow enthusiasts on the Wheel and Tire forum on .org.

But I'm glad you found a good price for the S-03s...You WILL enjoy these because it's going to be the stickiest street tire money can buy. Good luck and have fun.

 

[ayn]

Even if a local shop beats TireRack.com's price by a few dollars overall, I'd probably still go with TireRack because they've been pretty active in the enthusiast community. Jim from TireRack has been Jon Shaferesque in helping out fellow enthusiasts on the Wheel and Tire forum on .org.

But I'm glad you found a good price for the S-03s...You WILL enjoy these because it's going to be the stickiest street tire money can buy. Good luck and have fun.

Yeah, I will go with TR too even if a local place would match their price (I don't think anyone would *beat* their price by much). They also sponsor S2Ki.com. btw, I think they sell mostly high-end tires like the S03s, Blizzak, Pilots, Sumi HTZ, Kumho, etc... I ordered 8 tires from them, my S03s, and my gf's RE910, and they didn't have RE910s in stock. They ordered them from Bridgestone and got here about a week after I got my S03s, not bad!

JetBlack330i: hey if you're in Austin, the place to mount+balance is Walker Tire Co., I went to the one at Airport and N Lamar, excellent service. No scratch whatsoever.

--Andrew

 

[Adrian 330Ci'01]

I ordered them from TireRack and had to get them shipped across the border (Canada)... aside from their shipping company (UPS) generally sucking, the rest of the experience was excellent, and I still saved significant $ even though I had to pay duties...

Here was the breakdown...

Tires (S-03's for sport package) and shipping... $1200 CDN, $100 CDN install and $300 CDN!!! for forwarding, GST, PST and a 7% Japanese import tax (since that is where they are made).

Even with all this it came to about $405 CDN ($255 USD) per tire instead of the locally available price of about $490 CDN ($305 USD) - all #'s include taxes.

I would definitely recommend them... even for Canadian buyers who get screwed on all the import issues (for your reference... take the USD value of the tires and multiply by about 2.3!)

 

[JetBlack330i]

JetBlack330i: hey if you're in Austin, the place to mount+balance is Walker Tire Co., I went to the one at Airport and N Lamar, excellent service. No scratch whatsoever.

Andrew,
Thanks for the tip.
I already placed my order, which includes mounting and lifetime balancing for $10 a tire. I've had tires mounted by Discount before, and they are OK, very polite, though long wait. I'm mostly impressed by their store policies.
I took another car in with a puncture. They fixed it for free, while the NTB store next door was asking $18 (or something like that). I said "I didn't buy the tire here", to which they said "we hope you will in the future". I'm a customer, as long as they don't screw up. I was prepared to buy from them even if they were a few bucks more than tirerack. Turns out they are a few bucks less. Icing on the cake.

BTW, the Firestone store, in the same mall strip, was asking $250 per tire and when I mentioned tirerack ($190) they basically gave up. They said tirerack sells cheaper than their cost. I can't believe it, since Bridgestone is one of their brands. Discount doesn't even carry Bridgestone. They special ordered it for $185.

 

[JetBlack330i]

Even if a local shop beats TireRack.com's price by a few dollars overall, I'd probably still go with TireRack ...

But I'm glad you found a good price for the S-03s...You WILL enjoy these because it's going to be the stickiest street tire money can buy. Good luck and have fun.

The way I see it, Discount is serving a purpose to enthusiasts as well. They are providing some much needed competition to tirerack and the more competition, the better for us.

Hey, at ~$1000 for 20K miles, these tires better be good.