Buy Tires Online And Have Them Installed LINK

If you're an automotive enthusiast, you're likely familiar with the offerings from Tire Rack. The Indiana-based online tire retailer and wheel seller has been the go-to for that hard-to-find wheel, offering tire sizes for everything from classic cars to trackable vehicles. Tire Rack tests tires on its track and on a road course. It also uses a hockey rink for ice driving and winter tires testing. It rates the tires on its site and you can browse its results to find a quality tire and best tire deals that fit your needs.

buy tires online and have them installed

According to Matt Edmonds, executive vice president at Tire Rack, if you order a tire that doesn't appear to fit the vehicle you own, one of Tire Rack's customer service representatives will reach out to double confirm that you want the tires you have chosen. That's because returning tires that don't fit is not easy. Tire Rack does allow returns within 30 days of your tire purchase, but you'll need to call its customer service line to find the best solution to return tires that aren't right for you.

For tire installation, Tire Rack works with local installers all over the country that have been vetted by the company. You choose your tires and can have them dropped shipped to a local tire center that is a Tire Rack-approved installer. Installation costs vary based on location and types of tires. You can also utilize Tire Rack-approved mobile installers as well and have the tires drop-shipped to your home. Tire Rack offers free shipping on orders over $50.

The Indiana-based company also does offer sales and discounted tires. Edmonds notes that nothing is wrong with the tires the company has on sale, and in many cases the tire deals are offered at a discount because there are new versions coming in, or the tires have been sitting in climate-controlled storage and are two years old or more.

In Consumer Reports' Tire Store report, Tire Rack performed well across the nine categories that CR readers were asked to assess and scored a 89 out of a max score of 92 on its rating scale. The online retailer was knocked for its lack of "free perks," which included free add-ons like free tire rotation, tire balancing and tire mounting. It does, however, have an A-plus Better Business Bureau rating.

Tirebuyer.com offers similar features to Tire Rack and Discount Tire (below) by allowing you to purchase tires online, ship them to a local installer, and get them installed. Tirebuyer.com is owned by one of the largest tire distributors in the US, American Tire Distributors.

If you buy your car tires at Tirebuyer.com, it'll ship them free to one of its 10,000 installers all over the country. However, the online tire retailer will also ship them to your home free of charge. Because it is part of such a large network of tire distributors, Tirebuyer says you can get your tires to your installer within 24 to 48 hours of ordering.

Tirebuyer does not offer a robust sizing tool to choose the right tires like Discount Tire and Tire Rack do, but should you end up with the wrong tires, you have a few options to return them. If you had the tires shipped to an installer, returns are free and handled at the installer. TireBuyer has its own network of trucks, which makes it easier to handle these kinds of returns. If you had the tires sent to your home or a non-Tirebuyer shop, you'll need to use FedEx to ship. The return shipping fees (usually $7.50 per tire when you drop the tires off at a FedEx location, or $15 per tire when you arrange a FedEx pickup) will come out of your refund.

Tirebuyer.com also offers a relatively liberal return policy for tires that have been used. You have up to 45 days to return tires, though there are some rules (they can't have been used off-road, they can't have uneven wear, etc.) that you can learn more about here.

Discount Tire is a bit of a hybrid in the online/brick-and-mortar tire space. While you can purchase tires online through its site Discount Tire Direct, you can also have them drop-shipped to your local Discount Tire or America's Tire shop (the name is different depending on where in the country you live). You can also choose to shop in-store for the right tire at a Discount Tire as well.

You can choose to shop for tires at one of the local shops or you can shop online, have the tires drop-shipped to the Discount Tire or America's Tire local shop of your choice, and have them installed.

The site also allows you to make an appointment online to have your new tires installed. Discount Tire offers a handy tire size calculator in case it seems like you can't find the exact size that is currently on your vehicle.

Discount Tire says that if you're not satisfied with your purchase, it will do its best to make it right. If you've purchased tires online and they turn out to be wrong, you can return them, but the language in the return policy is a bit strict for Discount Tire Direct. You have to repackage them correctly with the original packaging or you could forfeit your return.

The tire vendor also offers a pretty robust road-hazard warranty, too, for a price. While it offers a pro-rated and free road hazard coverage, it also offers a warranty that extends for three years. It covers road hazard damage including tire repair for the first three years of tire ownership with its Certificate program that you can opt for when you purchase and have tires installed at one of its shops. The prices can range from $10 per tire to as much as $100 per tire, depending on how pricey the tires you purchased are.

You guessed it: You can, in fact, buy tires online at Amazon from brands including BF Goodrich, Good Year and many others. You can buy both tire and wheel assemblies as well as tires, and it will ship them to a local store or to your home depending on what you prefer.

Amazon also offers installation locations at tire shops and home installation through its less well-known Amazon Home Services platform. You can choose to use the installation service regardless of whether you purchase tires from Amazon, too. Amazon works with highly rated (on its site) local businesses to connect you with the right installer for your needs. Installation cost is based on which company you choose to go through and can range anywhere from $40 for two tires to be installed, to $100 for four tires. The service gets 4.8 out of 5 stars on more than 1,200 reviews.

Returns are handled the same way that you would handle returns for any item you purchase from Amazon, which also means that return policies are largely up to the sellers of each specific tire. In most cases you can take the tires to an Amazon Locker, UPS location or another mailing facility to return them if they don't fit your vehicle. Be sure to read about the return policy on the specific tires you are purchasing before deciding to drop a bunch of cash, though.

Sales and discounts on Amazon are a bit hard to find since it will vary widely based on both the manufacturer and the seller. If you choose to go with Amazon it's best to really read the fine print and know what you are signing up for when purchasing tires via its online platform.

Priority Tire also does not offer to ship the tires to a local installer. It only ships tires to your home, and you'll need to haul them to an installer or find a mobile installer who is willing to come to you to do the work. It ships free via FedEx Ground, and while it does offer shipping to places like Alaska and Puerto Rico, it charges for those locations (around $150 to $200 per tire).

If you happen to live near one of the three warehouses located in Florida, Pennsylvania or Texas, you can order tires and pick them up at the location. Priority Tire says it offers some promotions for local pickup.

For each retailer, we looked at the following important factors that affect both your bottom line and the amount of hassle you have to go through to get new tires. We considered warranty, installation convenience and cost, then used Consumer Reports' most recent tire retailer satisfaction survey to help determine how happy people were with their purchases from these national retailers, as well as each company's rating on the Better Business Bureau.

According to Petersen at Consumer Reports, there are more than 33,000 independent tire retailers in the US. That means there's a lot to sort through when you're shopping for them. Tire shops can range widely in size and how they sell tires. Everyone from big-box stores like Costco and Sam's Club and Walmart to small, local, independent tire shops offer tires for sale. These days, online retailers are also making it incredibly easy to buy tires online and have them drop-shipped to a location of your choice when you're ready to have them installed.

Petersen advises that the best way to make the most of your tire shopping is to take the entire cost of both purchasing the tires and getting them installed into consideration. "It's not like a TV," he said. "You buy a tire and you still have to have someone put it on your car."

One thing to note, according to Edmonds, is that tire pricing is largely determined by a couple of things: the compounds that the tires themselves are made of and how much research and development a tire company puts into creating those tires.

"There's nothing wrong with 2-year-old tires that have been properly stored before being sold," Edmonds says. He notes that proper storage means that the tires have been stored in a temperature-controlled space inside, out of the weather and sun.

Most installers will offer additional road hazard warranties that cover things like a flat tire as a result of a pothole or nail in the road. These vary from company to company -- some offer them for free, while others charge a premium for them. Be sure you read about the warranties and how to take advantage of them before purchasing tires.

One other thing to consider, as Petersen points out: The big difference between purchasing tires at a brick-and-mortar store and an online store is the variety of selection. "Online retailers provide lots of different models and sizes of tire that are likely to fit your car. Brick-and-mortar retailers aren't going to have every model you might want to consider and if they did, all chances are they wouldn't necessarily have them in the size you need," he says. 041b061a72