Even buying tires has to be an adventure now, eh?

Had a blowout Friday. So I was down to two tires on the OEM wheels and two on the bullits I collected to eventually put on. Hey, might as well take care of it over the holiday weekend, right? Riiiiiiiiight!

The short version, apparently they expect you to order tires and come back later. Unless you'll settle for "Guo Chin" or some other name brand you've never heard of before. Gee, with a name like that, I wonder where they're from. As tempting as it was to settle for 'Douglas' radials. . . .

So if I want some conventional sized Goodyear, Firestone, Cooper, etc., this to fit a Ford Mustang, they'll let me know when they're in. Oh, these are presensor wheels, so I might be in for some shock when it turns out to take awhile for the TPMS to come in. For a spare I do have a tire that doesn't hold air long, that looks like it might let go if I put it on. And it'll be that way for awhile. (Sigh.)

i prefer shinko s241 http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/18730/i/shinko-sr241-front-rear-dual-sport-tire . I really have no idea what you are ranting about here :|

Don't know about where you are, but we've gone to a weird distributor model, where basically, tyre fitters no longer buy directly from the manufacturer, but buy from distributors who guarantee 4 hour delivery of virtually any model tyre, and so the stores don't have to keep any stock. Probably a good thing overall because it means better cash flow, and fresher tyres.

I just book the day before, and it still is just a 1 hour job. They don't even require you to leave a deposit. I guess they can return any tyre they don't use within a certain period.

I'm not ranting, I'm complaining, basically about the not being able to get tires for my car, as mentioned. I wonder if Shinko makes car tires.

As for how they're doing it in Australia, maybe that is it here, but they're not talking next day. It depends on what tire I want.

So I ordered a desulfator, but they say it'll take a month to come and it hasn't been a month yet. If it gets me out of buying two batteries for my truck maybe I'll just put off getting car tires until I'm good and ready, but I don't want to drive off in it the way it's dicey starting it right now.

I think I'll go out and get some Kentucky Ga Chien. :lol:

Amazing how odd size your "regular car" can use nowdays. I have found in my state, Discount Tire tends to stock more stuff than most others. They build the store with a larger tire storage area. But still the best bet is choose your tire on line, then make an appointment if they don't have 4 at your location. They'll have that tire there the next day for sure, and if you call early, that afternoon.

My Subaru takes a pretty narrow size for an SUV, and not that many in town, so I had to wait till later that day to go get em mounted. They had to get one tire sent from a city an hours drive away.

I go with guys that will have my tire for at least a few years, so if I shred one I can get another fairly quick.

As for the pressure sensors, if they aren't broken, why wait to fix em? It doesn't sound like they have that much time on them. 3rd set of tires maybe, but not the first.

Buying tires is a different game to that of 20 yrs ago .
With the huge range of wheel sizes, (10" - 32" Dai ?), tire widths, profile ratios, and manufacturers to chose from, I would say it's near impossible for any retailer, or even one main wholesale warehouse , to stock every combination...let alone in multiples of 4 or more !
And that is before you start looking at commercial vehicle, special, or competition tires !
As Dogman says, shop online ( EBay is good as most tire dealers seem to advertise with prices on there) then arrange a time for fitting. But most local tire shops can get quick delivery if you want to support local guys at a small premium.
Even the now common 18", 235, 40 series that my car uses can be had in several different versions from just one manufacturer and at prices ranging from $65 to over $500 per tire if you look ar different manufacturers.
I seriously take wheel/ tire size (cost) into account when car shopping.
Those fancy big alloys with wide low profile tires look good, but a minor kerbing can make a major hole in your budget !
Note: some OEM fitment alloy wheels are hard to find and can cost $1+k if you have to buy a replacement from a dealer!

Shop on line and wait a week, or more.

What I meant was shop where you can see what's in stock on line at the store near you. If you have a discount tire, they actually do show what's in stock at your local location, and even more amazing, it's up to date.

So if I'd seen 4 in stock, I could just pop down and get em. I saw three, so I called and went when they would have 4, later that afternoon. In my case, with a really big city an hours drive away, what you need is in stock at the other stores.

Back when I was still driving I'd been buying used tires for a long time, the last half of the tread squirms less and wears less quickly then the first half. Get a good relationship with someone who deals with used tires and they'll find the nicer stuff for you and you'll pay pennies on the dollar.

In fact that should be my user name, Pennies on the Dollar, food and personal care items are about the only things I regularly buy new at retail.

Now my cute little Cabrio is just sitting and doesn't need tires any more, I crank it up and drive it up and down the private road we live on every couple of weeks or so but at this point I have to pay three years back tags/ad valorem to put it on the road again as does anyone else who buys it and tries to title/tag it.

Have I mentioned that Ebikes rock?