I am taking the M5 down to Arizona and leaving it our place down there because I am sick of the bad roads ravaging this car in Edmonton. My tires were close to the wear indicators and I was originally going to drive down and change them there but I was a bit concerned about driving in the desert on questionable tires.

Getting quotes locally made me want to puke. $ 3,400.00 for tires here. So I bought a set of Continental Extreme Contact DW's from tire rack delivered to my office for $ 1400.00 all in. I will get the dealership to mount, likely going to cost another $ 200.00. That is half what I was quoted here. With the dollar near par this was a no brainer.

These are not track tires but I do not track this car. These tires score very high in reviews. They wear well, are quiet and handle more that adequately as rubber on a daily driver. They are good to 168 mph. I do not expect to be doing over 100 mph and likely that only on long lonely stretches of the I-15 in Montana.

For those needing tires, Tire Rack is an option to consider. This is the 4th set of tires I have bought from them. No complaints so far.

 

I've bought two sets from TR with no regrets. As much as I'd prefer to buy from Canadian vendors, I'm not interested in paying 50-100% more for the same product. I had some discussions with a local (large) Bridgestone dealer who says his hands are tied by BS Canada; they set the prices and he was not willing to sell below his cost. I guess the reason they get away with it is most people don't know any better and/or are willing to accept the gouging.

 

I feel bad for the local tire guys.
Steelcase tire here in Markham is a great place and has helped me out MANY times in the past.
We have all our corporate vehicles done there, but I go State side for my rubber now too.
I've used TR as well as a discount place in Buffalo.
The markups here on the mfg side of things is insane in the CDN market.

 

Surprising as it may seem but Costco is a good place to buy tires too. I didn't believe it until I was shopping for a set of 2 tires.

Cost breakdown:

Tire Rack - $885.37 US taxes in delivered
1010 tires - $820.68 Cdn taxes in delivered
Costco - $735.00 Cdn taxes in and mounted for that amount.

Not that I would let Costco touch my rims

It just goes to show you that it pays to shop around. Another spot to shop is a place called Tire Savings located in the states. Unfortunately they didn't have the brand I was looking for but in my search they beat the Tire Rack every time on other brands.

 

Kal tire here in lethbridge damn near matched prices from discount tire direct when I bought my last set of 19" tires. No need to not support local shops when you know where to look.

 

^ a lot depends on the tire selected.
Some are totally wacko others are close enough to deal local.

 

If you guys need tires I can get you Nittos for next to nothing.


To the guy saying costco is a good place to buy tires.

Do you know why they're cheap? The Tires are expired and often made 5 or 6 years go. Hence why sometimes they have models that you can't find anywhere else, they call them exclusives, I call them expired and discontinued. Yes tires expire and and dry out. I mounted tires on a guys BMW about 2 weeks ago, the bead split on them and the tire was already cracked in the sidewall. Guess where he bought them the day before....

Moral; don't buy tires or batteries from Costco/Sams Club/huge bulk buyers, they buy bulk for a very good reason.

 

Interesting you mention this. 20/20 did a spot on this subject and explained how to look for the manufacturing date in an oval impression on the sidewall. Here is how (Tire Rack link by the way) http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=11
Tires do have a shelf life and there have been deaths attributed to old tires yet there is no expiry date for selling.

I have alway got current stock from Tire Rack so I am confident with them. Did not know Costco pushed old stock. In that case, I would not touch them.

 

This is totally true. It doesn't make much sense but what can we do about it. And every damn place is different. Another thing to watch for is when their suppliers have tire sales.

 

This is true but OEM performance products are usually way higher. Michelin PS2's are double the price here. Seems the quality perfomance tires with high review ranking are priced much higher, likely because if you are an enthusiast they have you.

 

I used 1010tires for a set of pilot sports as they are extremely hard to find as I was only able to find 1 locally, for around $400 installed at that. 1010 was extremely close to tireracks price so I went canadian on the purchase, as it was probably around ~$20 of a difference.

 

+1 on shopping down south for tires. my wife's CRV just got new Yoko's recently at Discount Tire. they matched Tire Rack, so all-in i paid $526 USD. the same tires here were $1090 CDN. i researched a few tires and this price disparity was typical.

4 hrs (total for return trip) of my time isn't too valuable to save $500. plus i got a free alignment check and hand car wash. great, friendly service.

 

The tires I ordered arrived this morning, I ordered them Monday. Same week from Nevada to Edmonton is not bad. Date stamp is 7th month 2010. All is well in Tireland.

 

Put me in the tire rack camp too. I've not seen any local dealers remotely close on pricing and as you go up the performance chain the gap widens. The gap varies by brand as well. Michelin is ridiculous.

Canadian consumers and retailers are held hostage by large manufacturers it seems. Even US market being much larger the differences seem outrageous. We have tires being made in Canada and sold in the US for a fraction of the price here.

 

Also as an FYI, Ryan (Xcelr8) whom is a long standing member here works as a sales manager in the main South Bend, Indiana location for Tire Rack. I am sure it wouldn't hurt to chat to him first if you are in the market for tires.