Where can I get tyres?

MarkR

This seems to come up often, so thought i'd post my 2c. You can get your tyres in two way. Locally, or over the internet. Both have positives and negatives attached to them

Local
Pro

• Personal Service
• Convenient
• Easy to go back to if there is a problem
• Fitting usually free
• You don't need to even know the size of your tyres (they'll check - hopefully!)

Con

• Can be expensive - shop around
• Range may be limited

Internet
Pro

• Can be a lot cheaper then buying online
• Large selection available
• Can order without getting up / making calls
• Easy to compare prices

Con

• You will have to find a tyre place to fit and balance your new tyres
• Some of the above will give you dirty looks over the phone if you ask them to do this. You know what I mean.
• You'll have to pay for them to take off the old tyres, dispose of them, put on the new tyres, and balance them.
• If you buy the wrong tyres - tough
• Tyres will need to be delivered to your home / work and signed for
• Sending money to the foreigners :-)

There's more pro's and con's for each I'm sure, but this is off the top of my head, as I am quite bored in work today.

Online Shops
Camskills
Black Circles
Eiretyres

I can only speak from my own experience, but I previously spend €400 online, as opposed to €720 locally for the same tyres.

colm_mcm

How hard is it to buy the correct tyres? the size is written on the side!

I was in Spain last month, you could buy tyres in the supermarket.

jimmycrackcorm

Very useful thread - should sticky it. I'm looking for tyres for two cars and would not have considered the internet due to the hassle of fitting until I saw this and had a look at the prices in the links listed by the op. I noticed though that Eiretyres list fitters that are local to your area so it actually can be cost effective to use the internet for tyres now...

Heroditas

I bought two new rear tyres online last month and got them fitted and balanced in my local tyre place.
Total cost for the tyres delivered was €385 and I got them fitted for €30 - total cost of €415.
The guy in the local tyre place said he'd get me 2 Conti runflats and fit them for €460 next time - works out only a tiny bit more than if I bought them online and brought them to him to get them fitted.

As a result, he'll be getting my business next time.

Supporting local business etc etc

MarkR

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Very useful thread - should sticky it. I'm looking for tyres for two cars and would not have considered the internet due to the hassle of fitting until I saw this and had a look at the prices in the links listed by the op. I noticed though that Eiretyres list fitters that are local to your area so it actually can be cost effective to use the internet for tyres now...

I wouldn't trust those links to be honest on the eiretyres site. A lot of people of called those numbers only to be met with puzzlement. Ring around first locally, check your prices there first, see do they do fitting etc, then off to the net.

Anan1

MarkR wrote: »

Con
[*]Sending money to the foreigners :-)

Do we even make tyres in Ireland?

MarkR

Anan1 wrote: »

Do we even make tyres in Ireland?

Nope, but we damn sure take our cut selling them.

I meant you wouldn't be supporting the local community etc.

colm_mcm

buy them on camskill then donate the money you saved to your savings account

gobby

Can't say enough good things about camskills. They are very quick. Think they have a depo in Ireland even though they are a UK crowd. As mentioned though, you need to know of a good place to fit the tyres and then balance the wheels. They have a great selection if you are picky and know what you want.

SpannerMonkey

+1 for camskills or eiretyres

v300

Nice thread Mark.

bazz26

MarkR, I see you are based in Shannon so if in the Limerick area, Limerick Tyre Centre in Fenton's Yard, Raheen across from Kilroy Motors will fit and balance tyres bought online for a very reasonable price.

I ordered two 17" Falken tyres off of camskill for my S40, ordered them on a Friday and they arrived Monday morning by courier. Cost €160 for the two tyres delivered and €25 to have them fitted + balanced. I rang around every local tyre centre and the cheapest price I got was €105 per tyre for some Korean crap brand I could not even pronounce.

I am all for buying Irish but loyalty is a two way street.

VeVeX

A little bit of info without advertising what company I work for -

The most important thing to realise is the likes of Camskill are essentially wholesaling tyres to the public. In some cases they can sell tyres cheaper then it is possible for tyre dealers in Ireland to buy them when going through Irish channels.

However-
On a regular basis we supply and fit premium tyres for members of Irish car enthusiast forums. These people would ordinarily have bought tyres from the likes of Camskill or Eiretyres etc. We offer these forums discounted rates on tyres so we can compete with internet retailers.

Our prices on premium branded tyres is relatively close to Camskill when fitting is factored and in the majority of cases cheaper then Eiretyres. We will be in the position in January to offer Michelin in performance sizes supplied and fitted cheaper then camskill are retailing them for example.

MarkR

Necessarily cryptic I suppose. Maybe your company can contact the admins here in regard to advertising / boards discount.

Shop around the trye places in your area, there is huge value out there, don't be put off by the looney prices Advance tyres and similar charge. I wouldn't buy tyres off the net as the saving is minimal when one considers you have to mess about getting them fitted.