Buying tires at dealership vs tire store?

couple of bucks cheaper and saves me the issue of dicking around with the price match. also don't have to worry about the shop not having my tire make and model or size. shipping only takes a day or so from their south bend location to my house.

 

Do America's Tire and Discount Tire know how to either leave the TPMS alone or will they replace it if needed at reasonable cost?

 

What do you mean? Are you asking if they know how to mount tires that have TPMS involved?

 

You mean the rebuild kit or the sensor itself?

 

but then you have to pay for mount n balance..... americas tire that is included. They also replace the valve stem seals on the TPMS sensors.

 

my experience is that is has been cheaper. your results may vary

 

Dealership prices on tires are not kind. Even if the dealer throws in "lifetime rotation/balancing/flat repair" it's typically at that dealer only. At least with chain tire places like Americas/Discount, you can take it to any one of them, anywhere, and they'll take care of you.

 

Ha! Only 4 "real" tires on most cars these days. I hate mini-spares!

 

When I bought my Level 8's at Discount tires, they took care in mounting them and they also used a torque wrench for each lug. It was the second time around when I brought it in because the wheel weight was barely contacting the caliper and was making a noise that they scratched it all up. It was two techs that worked on my truck and all the wheels were scratched. They even tried to pry the flat center caps off while the wheels were still mounted on the truck so you can see where the screwdriver marks are instead of pushing them out when dismounted for rebalance.
Same store too. Just sharing my experience. I didn't really care because off-road. They will get scratched anyway.

 

Most tire places don't have alignment machines, dealer does. If the prices are pretty much the same go to dealer. They'll handle the Tpms installs much better. I heard too many stories of tire shops not mounting these correctly.

 

Just bend over for the dealership

 

2017

 

Discount 100%. I've had good and bad experiences everywhere, including DT. However, there are very few places that will double down on making it right if you bring it back. Discount doubles down on making it right if you bring it back.