jime

My method of getting good tires for less money was a little painful, but had pretty good results.

I printed out a quote from Tire Rack (right now $72) with shipping (about $8 tire) and called one of the local places who say they will match prices (but you have to include shipping – total was $81 per tire). On the phone they gave me a quote of $549 and after I hung up I realized that was way too high. So I made up a table of the costs they had quoted and figured a fair price would be $424 and $444 if they charged me tax on labor.
Of course they wheeled and dealed to get the price up, but I was able to keep them from going too high. I’m not even sure what I paid for – but I remember them requiring $6 to take off the old tire and $6 to mount the new one. Bottom line was about $104 per tire plus tax or about $100 less than their original quote.

Next time I am going to get a hard quote of exactly what they want to mount and balance tires if I brought some in that I had purchased elsewhere. That should at least be a “hard” starting point to let them match the prices from.