[omgmike]

I'm curious, have you had better overall service and pricing buying tires through your dealer or going with a place like Discount Tire?

I'm about to need to swap out the Pirellis that came with my M5C and I'm pretty sure I'll go with PS4s, but I'm a bit worried that a place like Discount Tire might not install them correctly and manage to damage my CCBs or not properly install the TPMs.

[NoMods]

depends on dealer and locations of the discount tire and the techs that care or DGAF.

[pmsteinm]

Like was said above, it really depends on the place. I always buy from tire rack and have them shipped to wherever I'm getting them installed. On my CTS-V I used the dealer because there was a tech there that I really liked and he always did a great job. But now I'll have to find somewhere new. The big thing is when road force balancing sometimes the machine says to remove the tire and rotate it relative to the wheel. Many places the techs are lazy and don't and just slap more weights on the wheel. It looks like the bmw factory is one of those places based on the ton of weights my car came with (or the pirellis just suck).

[logicators]

I have used Costco tires for years for all my vehicles (in two different states and 3 different locations). They are competitively priced, almost always have a $150 off sale going on, on a set of Michelins, and never did a bad job for me. They are able to order any Michelins and also offer a lot of free extras like roadside hazzard warranty, free lifetime rotations etc.

I bought a set of PS4S-AS from them in January for winter in stock sizes, the total was about $1130 installed including taxes. They charge about $50 for seasonal tire swaps.

[Aronis]

Interesting question. I days of yore when knights roamed the country side, getting tires from Tire Rack or Discount Tire used to be a huge savings over the "dealer price." Recently I have had tires put on at there dealer because I discovered the actual tire price was about the same! So, I just go to the dealer for tires unless I am buying tires for 'next spring' because someone gave me a heads up on possible tire shortage, read that as COVID mania.

One caveat, one time I bought tires from Tire Rack for my Q7 and one was "out of round" and the installer could not balance it. Yes, Tire Rack sent replacement for no charger, but the installer charged me again for that one mount and balance, those bastards, had they gotten the tires, that would all be on them.

Mike

[Namelss]

FWIW, BMW of South Austin told me I should purchase replacement tires there as they’ll price match. Hope this helps.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

First off, great thread idea. This is something that every owner of every car has to deal with, and if your geography dictates that you have to do seasonal tire swaps, you could be doing this twice as often.

I generally trust my dealer for tire matters — or at least I used to. Even if it’s a little more, I generally order star marked tires through my dealers and let them do the install.

I’d like to think that the dealership will do a “better” job (what that actually means, I don’t even know), and will be more careful with them as they are specialized in dealing with BMW wheels (and brakes). My thought is perhaps they know how to dismount and mount “better” since they are more familiar with the idiosyncrasies of OE BMW wheels, since that’s what they specialize in.

Last year, I was a little late on winterizing the car, which is unusual for me. I usually order my upcoming winter tires during the preceding summer. The dealer was unable to find them, and I ended up purchasing (non star marked, obviously) Pirelli Sottozero IIIs from Tire Rack and having them shipped to my dealer. They took care of everything from there.

I do not have a dedicated set of winter wheels.
My car has 706Ms and I love them so much, I like to used them all year. That means the dealers dismounts my summers in the winter, mounts winters, and stores my summers at the dealership until the next seasonal swap. This is another part of the reason I like to use the dealer for everything. I lease the car and this is cheaper over the duration of the lease than buying a dedicated set. My method costs less than a second dedicated set.

Lastly, I mentioned above that I used to trust the dealers for tire matters. After doing my last seasonal swap, they recommended an alignment. My steering wheel was less than one degree off center and I knew this before they made their recommendation, so I decided to proceed with the alignment. They totally screwed up the alignment, and it was several degrees off when it was done and the car was drifting and pulling to the right significantly. It took three subsequent alignments and three subsequent visits (and test drives with the ship foreman during each) to finally get the alignment right, which is absurd.

While I know the alignment is not exactly tire related, it did make me question their competence quite a bit, and I’m not sure what I’ll do going forward. I may very well use a third party.

[pmsteinm]

I have noticed my local dealer actually has better prices on the OEM tires than tirerack (for both my M5 and my wife's X5). I will buy the summer tires from them when it is time. I didn't do that for my winter 789Ms because they wanted 2x the list prices for the Pilot Sport A/S4. So I had the tires shipped from tirerack but still had them do the mount/balance/TPM install. They did install the correct tire on the correct wheels so that's a good start. I figured if I ended up with a 275 on a rear wheel and 285 on a front wheel I would never use them again. In general I never plan to leave my car with them for tires since I will just drop that set of wheels off. After the free maintenance is done I hope to only ever bring the car in for an alignment and state inspection.

[micvite]

I'm more concerned with who to have install them lol especially with ccbs how many people are going to actually have or use the wheel sticks vs trying now to smack the brakes? Then comes the matter of tire roadhazard warranty which a lot of places have for free or cheap but if you buy from the dealer you're pretty much SOL if you hit a nail on your way out of the service bay

[irablumberg]

I too have had good pricing on tires from my local dealers either matching or coming very close to Tire Rack. Based on this, I am happy to have the dealer do the work as the dealers I use are reliable and stand behind their work. The other thing is that my BMW dealer gets the OEM version of the tires that are sometimes not available elsewhere. For example, I got Pirelli PZero snow tires in the stock size from my dealer when no one else had that size and the price was quite reasonable based on the Tire Rack pricing for other sizes.

[jnotrom711]

Ive used both the dealer and discount tire. Have had decent luck with the discount tire thats about 1/2 mile from my house, which subsequently is located next door to the discount tire world headquarters.

I dont generally get concerned about the installation. I probably would be more selective if I had CCB, but even then if they damaged a rotor, it'll be a bad day for them because not a chance I would let them get away with that, wether its a dealer or tire store.

The only issue i've noted so far with discount tire is a couple times they have tried, or even refused to put my spacers back on. "it's a Liability" allegedly.

Ridiculous. the first time I asked them to make sure to put the spacers back on the correct wheels etc if they came off with the wheels, many times they kinda get stuck on the hub. But they didnt even know I had spacers until I said that, then of course they refused to reinstall them.

Complete waste of my time to just bring the car home and put them back on.

But I have since talked to them and said just put them on "I accept the liability if the spacers cause an issue. Thanks."

[omgmike]

Originally Posted by Namelss

FWIW, BMW of South Austin told me I should purchase replacement tires there as they’ll price match. Hope this helps.

That is helpful as that's who I'd use. Just need to email SA and get some quotes.

[adeuel]

Find an independent shop that is an authorized Tire Rack installer.

My guy that I use for all my out of warranty and race work, gets the tires at the same price that I would get by ordering them myself through tire rack, but he makes a little something on the order too.

Said another way, if you order them yourself and have them shipped to the installer, tire rack keeps the commission that could have gone to your installer, all for the same price.

[pbonsalb]

Discount Tire owns Tire Rack. My local Town Fair Tire matches their prices and I have used them for 10 years and at least $10k in tires so that is where I go.

[crypto]

I didn’t realize Discount Tire owns Tire Rack but that’s interesting. I’ve used both in the past but my experience specifically with DTD has been awesome. They replace tires under warranty with no static at all. I even had tires I just found to just not work well for my F150 (over a year later…) and they replaced/pro-rated replacements for me at like 80% of cost going off honor system of measuring tread. I’ve found their customer support nothing short of amazing.

With that said — stock and cost is a big factor but I would never have any concern and am big fans of DTD. I am sure the dealer does a great job but I go to a shop I trust for tire swaps. I know the machine they have basically can’t scratch the rims and I specifically make sure I get a tech I know will take great care around the CCBs. I def would make sure I know what kind of touchless machine a shop has and make them super cognizant you are concerned with the care of your rims! Even though I trust them — I still take a video of my wheels at time of drop off. 😆

[Namelss]

Originally Posted by omgmike

That is helpful as that's who I'd use. Just need to email SA and get some quotes.

Cool, I thought I remembered that. Let us know how they price them for you so I can go there too.

[Maverik259]

Exclusively use local discount tire stores. The most amazing human beings I’ve ever worked with. Plus they plug/patch holes for free regardless if I bought tires from them or not. And the warranty on mileage is next to none. Only had one instance in which they couldn’t get my tires in on time so I went with tire rack and a Mobil install at my house. I also have titanium studs so I always ensure they don’t use power tools on my wheels and I always tip the guy doing the work appropriately.

Dealer has never been close on price for me.

[omgmike]

Originally Posted by Namelss

Cool, I thought I remembered that. Let us know how they price them for you so I can go there too.

I ended up ordering PS4s BSW from Discount because I could do it in 30 seconds online, including scheduling my install appointment. Just a few bucks under $2300 all in, including tire warranties.

I didn't figure Hendricks would beat that price, and I'm lazy, so if I have to call, you've already halfway lost my business.

Hey, I think you mentioned a while back you have a wheel repair guy? Would you send me his contact info? I want to have him repair my passenger side rear that I scuffed up, and probably have him repair my wife's wheels as well. God almighty that woman... it's like curbs are an irresistible force to her.

[dcohen13]

Working for a tire manufacturer, Discount is a great option. Simple Tire has unbeatable prices, as they are basically a tech company that sells tires. They pull from manufacturer warehouses to remove unwanted overstock. If you are looking for RCompound or knowledgeable performance tire help, reach out to Phil at Phils Tire Service. He is the best in the country.

www.philstireservice.com