Yep, the car was washed and the interior cleaned, then they furnished a brand new set of Michelin Latitude tires mounted and balanced with road hazard. Now wasn't that PRICELESS ???

I was returning from the post office and as I entered a quite rural area I noticed a noise every time one of the tires went around. I figured I'd picked up a spike or something. Sure enough a long bolt was through right where the sidewall meets the tread area. Can't patch that area and a plug is not recommended there either. Too much stress and flex there. I would have been able to get around 40,000 tread life but with over 34,000 on them it didn't make a lot of sense to buy just one tire and forever after that to change one out early so.... I called around and got prices as high as $1500 and change. I called my dealer and just said he had to compete with COSTCO. He called and price matched them for me including the road hazard. So my price was all inclusive of tax, mounting, and balancing. I think I got a pretty fair deal at $1176.

And they spruced it up . Now COSTCO wouldn't have done that

 

That is a pretty good deal, Jim. I took a look over on tirerack.com and with road hazard and shipping it's already at about $1035. That's not including mounting nor, as you noted, the Lexus spruce-up.

 

Yea, and getting it done at the Lexus dealer puts the road hazard on the computer so it's good anywhere I pull into a Lexus dealer. Of course it's pro-rated but still ....

 

I always seem to pick up those bolts as well.

 

My local dealer advertises for $10 over their cost for any tires on any Lexuses. The question is "what is their cost"?

It seems to be a great deal. I remembered that I replaced my IS250 AWD 225/45/17 (with about 25k miles on the odo) Mich tires for close to $1400 from the Lexus dealer.

 

Well at least I know what I am looking at in the future. Luckily I get paid mileage for client visits. I figure that will pay for tires and oil changes easily. Along with maybe some accessories

 

Always order my tires (summer or winter) on Internet, and never at the Lesux Dealer... too expensive!!!

 

Well when you've got a bolt in one, you're stuck on who has them and is willing to deal. As it is, I got the best price around I think.

 

try putting that as a deduction on your 2011 Tax Return. ha ha !
car wash $1176

 

Good deal Jim. I try to use the dealer as much as possible for work. It gets recorded and they always back what they do. I have the Chrome rims and I am very apprehensive of having anything done with them including rotating them. I had one of my tires replaced due to a road hazard, which I had tire insurance, the dealer replaced it no charge and not a scratch on the rim. Tires have been rotated twice and still not a scratch.

 

Great price with a car wash thrown in! I checked out the internet for winter tires/rims and found my dealer still provided a great price. Plus it is very convenient to have the car looked after by the same people all the time.

 

I was curious if you had to put in new TPMS sensors at 34K miles with the new set of tires, or if they left the original ones in.
Back in November, 2010, I was able to purchase the OEM Michelin Latitudes (19") from Tire Rack on sale for $ 176 each, in addition to getting a $ 70 Michelin rebate for buying four. The prices on those have increased dramatically in the last year.

 

No, they just had to reset them on the install. Evidently it isn't that big a job.

You got a good price as well. What was your total after mounting/balancing/tax's & such?

 

The total cost for getting the tires from Tire Rack (including shipping) was $ 764 (no taxes associated with purchase). The total cost to dis-mount the OEM tires, mount the 4 new tires, and balance was $ 70 at my Lexus dealer. I used the $ 70 Michelin rebate visa card credit to pay for that. I sold my four OEM Bridgestones that had 300 total miles on them for $ 440 to a private party. So, my total net out-of-pocket cost was $ 324. Based on differences in the expected useable mileage between the OEM Bridgestones and Michelins, I figured the break-even mileage would need to be ~ 40,000 miles on the Michelins to offset the purchase of the Michelins vs. keeping the Bridgestones on the vehicle. I also would have done this anyways as I wanted a better tire for winter driving in rain and occasional snow when traversing the Cascades/Sierra's in winter trips.

 

Set of four - P235/55R19 Michelin Latitude Tour HP purchased and installed at Tire Rack, South Bend, Indiana

Tires plus Install Labor plus Indiana Tire Fee plus Sales Tax minus Rebate

$876 plus $60 plus $1 plus $61.32 minus $70 equals $928.32

They checked the tire pressure monitors before starting the job to verify they worked properly. The TPMS worked fine afterwards. Tires at 34 PSI and lug nuts torqued to 76 LB-FT. Very professional, production facility. No car wash or detail.