The estimated reading time for this post is 4 minutes
If you’re searching for a gift for that special someone for Valentine’s Day, you may be considering getting a new set of tires. Now I’m not saying that tires make the most romantic present in the world, but if your loved one’s tread is wearing a bit thin, new tires may be the ideal gift!
Not really, but you may need a new set of tires anyway. Your tires may be losing traction or you may want snow tires for an upcoming blizzard. Shopping for tires can be daunting. You can do research on a brand of tires and read articles reviewing tires, but chances are that author may not have driven on those tires for many miles and the author’s vehicle might be very different from yours.
Tire Rack is a website that sells tires at competitive prices. You can research tires there and see the ratings. But what really makes Tire Rack a valuable site is the user reviews. The wealth of knowledge about tires at Tire Rack is extremely useful because people write reviews after they have driven tens of thousands of miles. Sometimes hundreds of thousands of miles. In all different types of vehicles.
I recently needed to replace the tires on my beloved Ford Flex, a/k/a Fiona. I knew I needed new tires, but had no idea which tires would be best for my car. A friend suggested I check out Tire Rack so I headed to the site and was impressed with both the selection and the available information.
How It Works
To get started, head to Tire Rack and enter the make, model and year of your car. It’s helpful to know the size of your tires as some cars have different sized tires. You can see what size your tires are by looking at the side of the tires where that information should be written.
You’re given the option of seeing the all tires to fit your car, original equipment tires, best sellers or the Tire Decision Guide. The Tire Decision guide allows you to search for your tires based on whether your car will be driven in snow, whether you want dedicated snow tires, and your priorities, such as handling, tire noise and tread life. Then you can choose which brands of tires you want to consider.
I didn’t have much luck with the Tire Decision Guide the first time I used it. When I first tried this search function, the site showed only three types of tires for my Ford Flex, all of which were low-rated. I took advantage of an online chat with Customer Support, chatting with Nick the agent who suggested that I clear the search, which I did. I was then shown 29 different types of tires. (Later, I tried the Tire Decision Guide again and it worked well.)
Once you get your results, you can sort them by:
- Price
- Brand
- User review rating
- Performance catagory
- Speed rating
- Warranty rating
- UTQG, Uniform Tire Quality Grading
You can compare tires to see which tire is best for your vehicle. Reading the reviews can be exceptionally helpful, especially if you find reviews from people who own your model of vehicle.
After you select your tires, you tell Tire Rack where you want your tires sent. You can have them sent to your home, if you want to put them on the car yourself. If you want a mechanic to put them on your car, Tire Rack has you covered. Enter your zip code or address and Tire Rack will show you their available garages nearby to mount and balance your tires.
[tip]Don’t forget to use Mr. Rebates for an extra discount![/tip]
You can see the available garages in a list and on a map. The garages include service stations, car dealers, and other garages. You can also see reviews of the garages as well as their charges. Pick where you want the tires to be sent and Tire Rack will send your tires directly there. Your garage will contact you directly to set up an appointment for you to have your tires put on your vehicle.
The site says that most locations are within one to two business days of their distribution locations. My garage received my tires the day after I ordered them.
Tire Rack ships to garages in the US and Canada.
Bottom Line
Few of us are experts about tires. We usually only pay attention to brands of tires when we need new ones. If you have a car, truck or motorcycle, chances are that at some point you will need to buy new tires. Check out Tire Rack to find out more information and compare prices for your next set of tires, whether or not you give them as a Valentine’s Day gift.
Have you ever felt befuddled when buying tires? Have you ever tried Tire Rack? How do you research which tires to buy? Let us know in the Comments section below!
* Ford Flex image by Calvin Kim
** Red Tire image by Brian Leon
HI Carolyn
The tire rack appears to be a great website for the vehicle owners, I don’t think we have this sort of concept here, a new idea though.
Thanks for sharing this great idea.
Sapna
Hi Sapna, Yes, the person who told me about Tire Rack suggested that I write about it for The Wonder of Tech. He pointed out that it’s such a different but useful way to buy tires that people would really enjoy discovering the site. After buying tires from Tire Rack, I had to agree with him.
International expansion would be a fantastic idea for Tire Rack!
Hi Carolyn,
Did you get tired of high tech and decide to go a little more low tech? 🙂
I find tyres really good now. I have had one changed in 8 years. People keep telling me I need to change my tyres and change my car. The mechanic tells me to keep the car because it never breaks down and that the tyres are fine!
I’ve been editing a dissertation about the marketing of cosmetics. I was so bored that I decided to give up and then realised I only had half a paragraph to go. I finished it, but that half a paragraph seemed like an eternity!
I can relax now and then write anything I want to on Sunday, it’s my day for a rant about anything. They are talking about snow coming now and so the ice and snow pictures could be coming soon. I shall edit with Photoscape this time. Incidentally, I downloaded a free copy of Photoshop the other day. Support has been withdrawn from one version and so it’s a free download now. I still don’t like it!
Hi Mike, Lol, yes, I try to find the best tech out there – low tech, high tech, it doesn’t matter so long as the tech helps people in their daily lives. Tire Rack is such a different way to buy tires that can really help people. No, it’s not the latest app or gadget but more people here drive cars than own smartphones!
I am glad you are trying new photo editing software. You should do a comparison post on your site of the pros and cons of the different ones you’ve tried. I know they’re all free, which is great, but you probably know more about them than anyone else!
I remember your trick you gave last winter at your site to edit snow photos with a blue tint. That really makes a big improvement to the images!
Have a wonderful weekend, Mike, and stay warm. 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for the info since you have shared at right time 🙂
Like I started looking new tires for my Acura MDX and we know dealer quotes always on sky and not my preferred option at all.
Already I started digging net to research with specific brands and found few options. Tire rack concept really make sense since they put all users data from real time users and would surely help to narrow down more. The filter criteria options looks quite interesting as well.
Let me surely visit and check the site. Thanks for sharing the info.
Hi Manickam, I am so glad that this article was helpful to you! I know when I go to buy tires I am clueless as to which ones to get. But tires are vitally important for performance and safety, so I was very excited to discover Tire Rack. I hope it helps you find the right tires for your car and save money too!
Have a great weekend, Manickam!
Being a total tire and wheel junkie I had to check out your post. One of the coolest pieces of technology on the Tire Rack site is their View on Vehicle feature that displays a picture of your car model so you can see what the wheels would look like on your car. I’m highly visual and it allows me to get a feel for whether the wheel works or not. You can even adjust wheel size to see if a larger fitting of the wheel looks better than a smaller one.
Nice post Carolyn!
Hi Rich, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Wow, View on Vehicle is a very cool feature that I hadn’t yet discovered on Tire Rack. I went back to check and didn’t see that as an option. Perhaps they only offer View on Vehicle for certain models? I like the idea of actually seeing the tire on the vehicle, that’s a great idea!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your knowledge with us, Rich!
Hi Rich, Just wanted to let you know that I figured out why I missed View on Vehicle. That feature is available for wheels, but not for tires. I guess Tire Rack doesn’t think we will be purchasing tires based on their appearance. I’m guessing they don’t sell too many white wall tires?
Thanks so much again for bringing this wonderful feature to our attention! :-bd
Carolyn,
I have to admit purchasing tired is something I never particularly enjoy (but of course I am old enough to remember when you didn’t have the internet to do research). I know for myself, I have generally bought tires based on recommendations of family and friends (then research them). It sounds like this site could take out a lot of the “extra” work of trying to find each individual tire that I might want to purchase. Thanks so much for bringing it to my attention!!
Aaron 🙂
Hi Aaron, Yes, I always felt at the mercy of the person who was selling me the tires to recommend the ones that were best for my car. I like it better when I can do my own research to figure out what I want to buy.
I hope you don’t need tires for a while, Aaron, but if you do, Tire Rack is a great place to start!
Have a wonderful weekend, Aaron!
My biggest client is a car dealership, and Tire Rack is something I will need to look at in details to see what I should be doing with their site in order to make it better and sell more tires 🙂
Thanks a lot Carolyn, this was perfect reading for the weekend.
Hi Jens, That’s very cool that your biggest client is a car dealership. It would be really cool if they had an interactive website that matched customers with tires and perhaps car models. Customers could go online and have a good idea of what car and/or tires before they even walk into the dealership. If they could order the tires online and then just bring their cars into the dealership to have them mounted, even better!
In the US you can search dealerships for availability too. Lots of potential for tech marketing! 🙂
Don’t really need tires at the moment since I need a real car first. (I don’t really consider my car a real car…if you know what I mean).
Anyway, just wondering what are the regulation on snow tires in the US? Do you guys are obligated to change the tires once winter comes? Or do you do it for your own safety. Just curios, I’m obligated to buy snow/winter tires once winter is here, if I get pulled over by the cops and I don’t have them they can give me a huge ticket.
Hi Christian, Wow, no wonder you don’t have a real car. The snow tires and the ticket would both be expensive. There is no federal requirement for snow tires in the US, which is a very good thing for the residents of Hawaii and Florida. I live in Pennsylvania and have snow tires on my car (from Tire Rack), because you can never be too safe, right? :-bd
Great news for car enthusiasts! Choosing car tires has never been this easy and convenient. Sometimes it’s quite difficult to decide which tires are suitable for your car, but tire rack will make it easier.
Hi Shalia, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, car enthusiasts and everyday drivers can both benefit from the information available on Tire Rack. The site is a useful resource for anyone needing new tires.
Thanks so much for this tire resource, Carolyn. Your timing couldn’t be better as I’m going to need new tires when I pull the snows off in the spring. It will be so convenient to have these drop shipped directly to my mechanic.
Hi Nanette, I’m so glad this resource is helpful to you. Even if you’re an expert on tires, you could still benefit from reading the user reviews on Tire Rack. But few of us are tire experts or even know someone who is. I hope that Tire Rack helps you to make an informed purchase of tires in the spring!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us, Nanette. 🙂
Interesting; I have a business relationship w/ a large local tire dealer and they usually take care of me, I don’t shop them. Worth checking out though, thanks for sharing.
Hi Bill, Yes, by using Tire Rack you can still use your local dealership (probably, I found almost all local dealerships and garages near me participate with Tire Rack). Tire Rack can give you pricing information as well as user reviews so you will be an educated consumer.
My local garage said they had a lot of customers using Tire Rack and that they used it themselves to order tires. They were big fans of Tire Rack and happy to get the business from them.
I hope your dealership does participate with Tire Rack. If not, you might suggest that they do. 🙂
My son got me onto Tire Rack last year and I was very pleased with the results and with the installer Tire Rack recommended.
Hi Jerry, That’s great to hear! Getting comments from people who have positive experiences with the tech I review is very helpful.
I’m glad your son steered you right when he recommended Tire Rack! :-bd
I am intrigued. I am relatively car savvy so I have a pretty good understanding of what needs to be done to keep my car running the way I want it to.
I pay attention to prices for parts and service but haven’t considered purchasing tires online, but I kind of like the idea.
I am going to head over and check it out.
Hi Josh, Yes, car fans will really enjoy Tire Rack. The site sells other accessories besides tires, but I think tires are an especially difficult area to know which brand is the best fit for our particular vehicles.
I like that Tire Rack allows you to shop online but have the tires mounted locally. That way we get the best of both worlds and support local businesses as well as get Internet pricing and reviews.
Carolyn – This is the perfect article for me at the moment…i have a toyota prius which i have driven for almost 80K miles and need to change all the 4 tires immediately!!! I recently went to costco and saw that they had a $75 off when you purchase 4, sounds like a good deal, but then they are so short of staff that they hardly find time to speak to you about the various options and what suits me best.
Now, this website is really covering all those aspects, glad you brought this up….am already onto their site, exploring some of the “Best Sellers” out there.