Been a long time since I owned a car. After coming to Canada a year ago my OH parents gifted us a car they no longer needed. Anyhow, need to get some new tires for it.

Anyone bought tires from costco?

Would you recommend them?

Do they provide a service others don't.

Do they taking bookings or do you just rock up there on the day and join the crowds, wait and hope to leave with some tires.

When researching tires online I find some of the other tire places don't have prices. You have to put in your personal details and request a quote.

I just want to get a quick simple price comparison of a rough idea on what its gonna cost. If it includes balancing and what ever bollocks they need to do. Hidden fees like environmental tax, tipping the mechanic.

Cheers.

When we got tires we went to an independent place in Abbotsford. Costco along with Canadian Tire were the highest price of all the quotes.

I'd call around for quotes, Costco prices can be a fair amount higher, independent places may have better pricing and service.

I purchased winter truck tires from Costco a few years ago. They were several hundred dollars cheaper than I could source elsewhere, and I ordered them online. The store didn't permit making an appointment to fit them, it was a matter of first come, first served. I got to the store at opening time to be told I was 10th in line. It was early afternoon before they were ready, so 5hrs+ spent hanging around. The saving was barely worth the hassle of wasting half a day to get tires fitted.

I have bought Costco tires, they were as cheap as anyone else, but offered free tire rotations and repairs.

You do need to get to the store about 30mins before opening to get towards the head of the queue, and then be prepared to hustle to get to the counter before the others. You have to do this not only to buy the tires, but also to get the free rotations etc.

OK if you have the time.

Thanks for the replies. Not sure if I can be bothered with the hassle of fighting with everyone early hours on a Saturday or Sunday mornng and then having to wait around for ages. Would have to be a good deal for me to do that. The free rotation seems like a hassle if you have to go though the same process.

I will have to do a ring around.

Our costco makes appointments now. However we use a local independant tire shop. Most tire shops offer free rotation, flat repairs etc. Closer is better, no idea if their price is the cheapest, but the service is exemplary.

Abbsry?

I had a set of tyres from Costco. They were the cheapest that year but the queuing was a bother. Now I go to a local independent, the price isn't very different and the queue forms at 6am for their 8am opening, but once in the door, I can leave the vehicle and walk to work. Ideally, I suppose, one should have the summer tyres installed in July and the winter ones in February so as to beat the rush.

Canadian Tire offers a curious warranty on the tires at no extra charge; I ignored it when I bought my new tires but have since used it twice without problem.

Basically they warranty the tire against any and all damage (ie not manufacturing failure) and will credit you the value of the tread left on the dead tire when you replace it.

The first time I trashed a tire on a nasty pothole and they gave me 50% discount on the replacement for the 50% tread left on the tire. This year, same thing, sidewall tire the credit was more like 20% which was reasonable.

I'm still blown away by this.

Unless you need the tires pronto I'd wait for CT to do a deal on the ones you need. If your car is reasonably vanilla their own Moto master brand are probably OK.

I got my winters from the dealer we bought the car from.

I priced up quite a few and they all came within about $30 of each other.

I paid a small amount when we got the car to insure the tyres. So far have had 2 repairs and one new tyre so that was worth it.

I got it serviced yesterday and they changed the tyres for free (mine are on rims already).

I think it's worth going to an actual dealer sometimes as they know there is a lot of competition out there with the likes of Costco. Personally I'd rather spend a few $ more than wait around in Costco for hours at a time! Dealers run you home and pick you up if you can't be bothered to wait around.

Same as Pizzawheel, got mine from CT, cracking warranty nobody else comes near to and free changeovers for the life of the tyre. The price of the tyres was cheaper than 90% of competitors in my area.

Make friends with your local indy guys and become a regular...you'll be looked after and get better deals than big chains can offer

Brand new set of 16" firestone winter tires for my girlfriends truck - <$400 studded, mounted, balanced and installed

Ours were not studded as its not necessary in these parts (winter tires were not needed at all this winter) but we went to an independent and paid about 350 for 15" tires, 4 with everything installed, taxes etc in the price.

Canadian Tire wanted an obscene amount 690 or so, Kal wanted nearly 900.

Not sure I will even bother with winter tires again, they sucked in the rain and it rains here more then anything else, easier to just not drive on snowy days.

Exactly, your indy dealer has much more leverage on what he can offer you as a deal...plus you're getting the personal touch and much more impartial advice - your indy isn't going to punt you a set of tires you don't need because he's getting so many of them in on a bulk deal

Not sure about BC, but certainly in the UK you can buy specific rain tires...i used to run them on my vehicles in the UK during winter and they were more than adequate, compared to friends running summer tires which didn't perform as well

Our normal tires are all season, but I worked the winter in Whistler so got winter tires since they are required on the highway from October to April roughly, but it snowed so little there was no point in having them.

The all seasons we have do very good in rain, and I cannot wait to get these winter tires off next week.

I've never tried summer tires, the all seasons we had were not considered winter tires so not sufficient for the highway.