Hi All,

My Pilot Sport looks like F1 racing rubber now, no treads. I am going to buy Potenza RE960AS from TireRack.

Question, anyone tried to get tires from TireRack and shipped to a tire shop near a border and do the tire swap there?

I live in Vancouver, so I am thinking asking TireRack to send the tires to a tire shop in Belligham and have my tires changed there, this will save me at least $120 dollars.

Anyone tried this before?

 

i've heard of people doing that with success. although i hope you'll be saving a lot more than $120. to make it worthwhile you need to be saving at least $200-$300. think of the time, effort, and fuel costs involved on your part. those border lineups are no joke either. as a fellow vancouverite i'd say you're looking at a 6 hour round trip including install time, $25 fuel, so be sure to calc the savings prior to ordering to assess the "deal" (or not).

for local ordering, i've heard great things about Tire Trends out in coquitlam (i think). i plan on getting a set installed soon and they seem to have very competitive prices.

 

^+1
pay a few more dollars for shipping, the GST and make your own choice of reputable installer locally.

 

Check out www.1010tires.com and www.tiretrends.com as well, they are Canadian so you won't have to pay brokerage and duty but in most cases tirerack.com still ends up being cheaper even after the fees. I ordered Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tires in 245/45/18 a few months ago on sale on tirerack for $120 a tire and paid about $200 in brokerage/tax/duty fees, still ended up being cheaper than anywhere else.

 

I see, so did you ask TireRack to send to your vancouver address directly or send to a place at the border and pick it up there?

 

I bought my tires down in the states and it was a great deal. I called a store up and asked for the direzzas and it came out to $760 us installed. I took a road trip down to the states and had them put it on. The service was great and the deal was even better.

1010 tires would have caused me just over 1g plus installation. So I think it was worth it for me to go down to the states.

hope this helps.

 

Here's the link with details on my purchase from Tirerack, almost 2 years ago, but still should give you some idea as to what the experience was like.

https://g35driver.com/forums/canada/73820-snows-g.html

When I'm in the market for tires again, I won't hesitate to get them from Tirerack.

 

I live in Toronto so I had it shipped there, probably could have had it shipped to one of their recommended installation shops in Buffalo or something but since the tires were so cheap from tirerack to begin with, I figured I'd just take the hit and pay the customs/brokerage fees. UPS is the most expensive I believe when it comes to brokerage fees and I think tirerack only uses them. If you look around on the UPS website, you can find the brokerage fees they charge depending on the value of the item, other than that and some other random $5-10 charges from UPS, I believe I paid 14% for GST/PST and 7% duty because my tires were not made in the U.S If your tires are made in the U.S then I believe that you don't have to pay any duty on them. I just looked up, total brokerage/taxes/duty on my $480 US dollar order was $185 CDN so not too bad I suppose.

 

So why not drive from the ole k-dot through the peace bridge to one of their recommended installers? I have considered doing that before but found a great place in Mississauga as far as pricing and brands go. But with the exchange rate today I would reconsider next time especially for the odd sizes of my tire purchases over the last little while.

 

My 4 PS2's were $1032. US ($1158.83 CDN) back in April. My UPS costs were:

30.48 entry prep (my company preferred rate)
1.83 brokerage HST
69.53 customs HST
101.81 total

shipping to Dartmouth was $126 US ($141CDN)

The same tires in Canada were about $2200 versus $1400 all in.

 

Similar for me.
Michelin is the biggest rip off in Canada right now.
The savings differential will be a little less for most other brands. (but still worthwhile )

 

It's a strange one. I wonder why and when it will change.

 

I just recently got some stock sized 19" tires off eBay, they were used and had 7/32nd's left on them. Had them shipped to the boarder (Calais) and went to pick them up for just under $400 Cdn. My duty to bring them across the boarder was 40 bucks. Much better than any $1200 alternative I had found before that.

I'll do that 3 times and still get more tire life than 1 set.