My car is long overdue for new tires. I have been neglecting them for no good reason other than a desire not to spend the money on them. With my inspection due this month I figure its finally time to replace them since I doubt it would pass otherwise.

Since I’m not sure how much longer we are going to keep the vehicle I’m pretty much just looking for the cheapest tires out there.

TireRack

The king of internet tires. TireRack offers very low prices, a great web interface, and from what I’ve heard good service. I’m a huge internet shopping fan, and I love being able to price things out on a website rather than calling someplace.

Continental CT95 205/65TR16 - $65.00 per tire

Kumho Solus KR21 - $61.00 per tire

Shipping was estimated at $38.72 for 4 tires, leaving the price at $298.72 for the Continentals and $282.72 for the Kumhos. The one downside to TireRack is I’m responsible to find a place to have them mounted & balanced as well as tire stems. This would be $22 per tire with the disposal of the old tires, so another $88 plus tax bringing the grand total to around $390 for the Continetals or $375 for the Komhos .

Local Auto / Tire Store

This is where I usually bring my car in for service. I trust the people working there and they are very close to my house if there are any problems.

Enterprise 205/65TR16 - $95 per tire

Unlike TireRack this price includes mounting, balancing, and valve stems but I would have to pay tax on the whole amount. So grand total would be $406. The downer is I’ve never heard of this tire brand before and I can’t really find much about it on the internet.

Tire Warehouse

This is a large chain with a local presence. They are located close to my house and offer a larger selection of tires than my regular local shop does.

Continental CT95 205/65TR16 - $99.95 per tire

Kumho 205/65TR16 - $89.95 per tire

Once again this includes everything, but I would have to pay tax on the full amount. The Continentals are $37 more expensive than TireRack at $427 but I would have the convenience of a local store. The Kuhmos would be $385, only $10 difference from TireRack.

Wholesale Club

We are a member of BJs Wholesale Club. I’ve heard that Costco has great prices on tires but unfortunately there are none in the area. I decided to give BJ’s a call to see what they offered but they did not have any tires in stock in the correct size.

Final Conclusion

In the end I decided on the Kumho’s since it was the cheapest option. I had heard good things previously about the CT95s, but I’m not really a big car guy and would rather spend the $50 elsewhere. In my opinion it was worth the extra $10 to go to the Tire Warehouse for the tires rather than going through TireRack plus I could get a same day appointment there.

So in the end I went with the cheapest tires from a local store