New tires - advice needed.

[seriousthistime]

I have a 2004 Honda Accord with 38K miles. The tires are the original Michelins, 205/65/R15. I know I need to get them replaced. Soon. I'm not looking for a top of the line performance tire. Just a good all-around tire, decent in snow, and something that will last a while.

Any recommendations? My driving is mostly city, some short interstate stints, and three or four long trips (2+ hours each way) per year, as well as occasional longer trips (1-2 full days on the highway each way, maybe once a year).

Will I get the best price if I get the tires from Tire Rack or some other place and have them shipped and installed locally, or does the tire installer just add on fees to bring the price up to what I would pay if I'd just gotten the tires through them?

I'm pretty good about checking air pressure (with full service oil change ever 3K miles) but not so good getting them rotated. I'd like the tires to last for about as long as these tires have lasted me - 40K miles or so.

[Jake 48]

serious,
when I was shopping for tires I used Tire rack for the reviews/ recommendations. I then went to the manufacturers store with the recommended model ( in this case Firestone) website, got a quote and then went to Towne Fair Tire website ( don't know if you have them in your area) and they beat Firestone's price. Shop around once you decide, it is very competitive. good luck

[tskeeter]

Serious, once I've figured out what tire I want to buy, I've found that America's Tire/Discount Tire is very price competitive. Especially when you consider the value of life of the tire rotation and balancing being part of the price. I don't really bother with rotating tires, unless I have the tires off the car while I'm doing something like brakes. So, to me the balancing doesn't have any value. But, as tires wear, it seems like I have tires balanced once or twice during their life. So, at $10 - $15 per tire, the balancing is worth about $40 - $60, if it gets done once.

I've never done a complete cost comparison between Tire Rack and the brick and mortar places, but I think you end up pretty close on price for middle of the road tires. If you're buying very expensive, high performance tires, you can probably save enough to justify having to be available to take delivery of a set of tires (you probably don't want new tires just stacked on your front porch until you get home from work), then schlepping the tires across town to get them mounted, balanced, and installed.

When selecting tires, I do like the reviews on the Tire Rack web site. If people are buying from Tire Rack, they are car guys. They have a better handle on what they are talking about when it comes to car tires than the average motorist.

[moxie]

We used Wal Mart for the first time ever...for tires for my mom's car...very reasonable! I think they were Goodyear... did all 4 of them.

[TD2K]

I'm not looking for a top of the line performance tire. Just a good all-around tire, decent in snow, and something that will last a while.

I'd like the tires to last for about as long as these tires have lasted me - 40K miles or so.

That doesn't sound like a lot of miles on just a standard car tire. I have Nitto Neo-Gens on my WRX which are an inexpensive performance tire and I've gotten about 60,000 miles out of the current set. They also don't do a bad job in snow.

Tire wear is hard to estimate but I believe the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S has a pretty good tread wear. I'm considering these or the lastest Nitto Motiva tires though these sound like higher performance tires than you are looking for.

As others have said, I've been pretty happy with Discount Tire. My last set of snow tires I bought from Tire Rack mounted on new wheels.

[seriousthistime]

Well, I decided on Goodyear Eagle GTs. They had a good rating for traction in snow and rain. We have more rain than snow and I noticed my old tires were losing traction on wet roads. So far, so good. I've made a couple of long distance trips and put about 1500 miles on them.

I checked prices, went with the Goodyear dealer across the street from work that was running a sale, got an $80 rebate, free financing for 6 months, and will get them rotated for free every 6K miles. The one time in memory that I had tires rotated, they had already worn into their positions on the car and rotating them just brought out the uneven wear. I waited too long. Having the Goodyear dealer across the street, it will be easy to get them rotated in time.

Also, I had asked a question on another thread in this board about age-related issues with my car. It's a 2004 and I have about 40K miles on it. Several people suggested that hoses and belts were likely to deteriorate with age and not just miles. Thanks for the suggestion. It scared me enough to take it to my independent repair shop. I had them give it the "used car inspection" that they do for people who want to have a car inspected before they buy it. The car passed with flying colors.

Now my biggest car worry is getting into an accident. I hope to keep this car for a good long time and don't want someone to come along and total it.