If you desire to stretch your budget on your next set of tires you really need to perform some research before you decide to drive into your local tire store. Otherwise you will get stuck in the familiar pattern and find yourself paying more than you probably wanted. You understand how it goes. You get to the front counter, someone shows you some tires, you select the most cost effective ones, they don’t have them in stock, you pick the next cheapest, then the salesman highlights how this *really good* tire is just a few dollars more, on special. You start feeling peer pressure seeing as there are people in line behind you so that you just say “OK” and pull out your wallet and begin the process of convincing yourself that you really did get a good deal.

Ask me how I know.

If you’d like to avoid the usual, in order to avoid spending almost $700 for a set of tires for a little sub-compact, you will need to be ready and you need to give yourself time. I love to use Discount Tire since it is convenient and they really do have good service. I have experienced many flats fixed or repaired throughout the years, and air pressure, rotation and balancing are all included when you get your tires from them. And they generally give a decent discount when you bring in a set of tires which may have worn down prior to their normal warranty numbers. And yet I really did spend nearly $700 for my last set of tires, which will have maybe 500 miles on them when i sell the car this month. No, I didn’t do my research, did I?

Your first problem here is the number of tires which can be found. Dozens of manufacturers and brand names are available to choose from, and every one of them has a bewildering assortment of sizes and types and tread patterns. The easiest choice is whether to get a passenger car or truck tire. Once you are past that, you ought to consider the weather in your area. Dry weather and wet weather have different needs, but all tires should be qualified to handle water on the road. The farther north you reside, the more you need to consider all-weather or winter tires. And if the vehicle regularly goes off of the pavement, that’s another entire category of tires. Following that, almost all the choices are marketing hype and prices and mileage warranties.

A great starting point is Consumer Reports. They do unbiased testing on tires. You will be required to pay, however , you can buy an on-line subscription and keep it for 30 days for under $10, definitely worth it to assist you in narrowing down your selection for cheap tires. As recently as October of 2010 Consumer Reports established that even a good ultrahigh performance tire may very well be found for around $100. Additionally they noted that prices differed from outlet to outlet and, seemingly, week to week.

Donald Hendrick enjoys seeing the sights pulling his RV safely and frugally. His articles on cheap tires, tire safety and towing can be found on many travel sites world-wide.. This article, How Can I Find Cheap Tires? is released under a creative commons attribution license.