Crazy as it sounds, I saved a whopping $352 on my last set of tyres – for my regular road car!
In this article I’ll tell you exactly how I did so. With common sense, zero trickery, and no pyramid schemes either!
The truth is most Australians pay hundreds of bucks extra for no real gain on a regular set of tyres. Most of the time you’ll even drive away thinking you got a great deal or discount, but did you?
We used the online tyre retailer Tyroola to buy these tyres, but it’s not just about online discounts – to really save money all you need is a few simple tips to choose the right tyre for your needs (read on and you’ll find how easy it is to really save money!)
Ready to save money on your next set of tyres?
Buy your tyres online, and have them fitted by a local tyre fitter!
This is my first tip, but not my best tip!
Consider the last time you bought tyres from a big name tyre shop. Were you aware it wasn’t just tyres you were paying for, but the following:
- Fancy premises in a premium local location.
- A comfortable waiting room, complete with plot plants and coffee you believed was “free”.
- Customer-facing service staff.
- You can also argue big name tyre shops can capitalise on their reputation by charging you a little more for your tyres.
Online tyre retailers don’t need any of that stuff, which is great for us as we don’t want to pay for that stuff either!
“But I like to support local businesses!” I hear you say!
No guilt required, as not only are online tyre retailers cheaper, they support your local tyre fitters as well.
With Tyroola, you can choose from a list of local tyre fitters based on what works best for you, and the tyres will be shipped directly to them. Many of them will come to you and change the tyres on your driveway.
This means you’re supporting a real local independent business, and saving money in the process!
But read on, as you’re going to save even more money with our next tips!
Why do we spend too much on tyres?
Did you know most of us spend significant money on tyres built for speeds up to 270km/h?
I don’t know about you, but when did your speedo needle hit north of 110km/h? Even in the NT you can’t legally go over 130km/h, so why would you buy tyres built for over double those speeds?
Most premium tyres from big name brands like Michelin, Bridgestone or Pirelli are utterly pointless on your Honda Odyssey, but a tyre shop won’t tell you this – these are the tyres they make the biggest profits on.
In fact, most of the time a tyre shop will convince you you’re getting a great deal on tyres you didn’t really need in the first place!
Did you know all of those brands sell tyres far more appropriate for your daily, for far cheaper, and most of us would never be able to tell the difference!
Keep this in mind:
It’s not a bargain if you didn’t need it anyway.
Technical stuff: Understanding tyre ratings
If technical stuff bores you to tears, don’t worry. Skip this part and scroll down to the section How I saved $352 on a set of tyres for my road car where I kitted my Honda Civic out with a set of Kumho’s from Tyroola (which are fab, by the way).
If you’re a true car geek, let’s take a look at tyre ratings…
All brands and types of tyre must undergo tests to determine key performance factors such as treadwear, durability, traction, resistance to temperature, and so forth. These are important metrics, but if you research a little further you’ll find almost all tyres sold in Australia are perfectly safe for road use. We can use this to our advantage.
Ask yourself this: What’s the fastest you plan to drive on Australian roads?
Don’t worry, I won’t judge – you can keep your answer to yourself.
Now consider this: Most Australians opt for tyres rated V or W. V is rated up to 240km/h and W up to 270km/h. Both over twice the top speed of a Cheetah chasing a Gazelle!
The chart below shows various tyre ratings and the max speed they’re capable of:
You can see from this chart that even a lowly N rated tyre easily caters for Australian speed limits.
Personally I wouldn’t recommend buying the cheapest budget tyres. Some won’t give you enough grip on the corners, and some won’t last as long as you expect. It’s therefore better to consider an H rated tyre a good middle ground, and we’ll look at which tyre brands are best later.
Keep in mind a V or W rated tyre will provide little benefit over cheaper tyres unless you plan on hitting the track or supermarket carpark at weekends or early hours.
Can you guess how much cheaper an H rated tyre is compared to a W rated tyre?
Something for you to research…!
Brands – Which tyres are best?
In Australia we’re lucky to have a great mix of tyre brands, from big name premium brands, reputable Japanese and Korean brands, and also budget tyres made locally or sourced from China.
Which tyres are best for you depends on application. Do you drive your Suzuki Ballina to Coles once a week, rarely topping 50km/h, or do you spiritedly drive your Nissan Skyline as much as Aussie road laws allow?
Let’s take a look at which tyres are best for you…
Premium tyre brands – Pirelli, Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear
It has to be said premium brands such as Pirelli, Bridgestone, and Michelin make the most scientific advancements in traction, dispersing water, and ensuring an F1 car can hit an apex at stupid speeds, and those brands may offer you the absolute best drivability on the road – for a price.
Perhaps you will only buy those brands, which brings me to a fantastic money-saving tip:
Top Tip – Did you know all premium brands offer perfectly good mid-range tyres suitable for pretty much all Australian road conditions, for a much more affordable price?
These mid-range tyres are often much cheaper than the flagship tyres on offer. You will often find excellent discounts on these tyres simply because most people are busy spending hard-earned cash on flagship brands, unnecessarily.
Goodyear are definitely up there with the best, and did you know the Dunlop brand of tyre is owned and operated by Goodyear in Australia? That means you can consider Dunlop a pretty decent tyre without having a Gucci-esque price tag.
Reputable tyre brands – Yokohama, Toyo, Kumho, Hankook
Yokohama, Toyo, and Kumho are decent brands of tyre. Anyone into the JDM (Japanese domestic market) scene usually opt for these brands, and often swear by them.
Most of the times these brands of tyre can be bought with bigger discounts if the AUD is in favour of the Yen. Kumho tyres are actually made in South Korea, a country who has made huge headway in quality over the past decades – you can even argue Korean cars are better than some Japanese cars these days for build quality and reliability.
You can consider that a fact as it come directly from my wife, who’s Korean. According to her, Korean brands are better than all other brands.
I grew up owning and racing numerous Honda CRX coupes (the wedge kind, not the hairdresser kind), and I swear the Toyo Proxes R888r tyres were the grippiest, most fun tyres I ever ran on a Honda CRX. Even back then I would find the best discounts on premium Toyo’s like the R888r by simply shopping around, and you could always get better discounts on quality Asian brands than you could with the more “premium” brands. You’re still buying quality, but without the premium price tag.
Hankook are another South Korean tyre brand worth mentioning, and although possibly not on-par with Kumho are still very usable and can often be bought with a fantastic discount.
Budget tyre brands
There are various budget tyre brands in Australia, and although some are good and may serve your purpose, I personally opt for mid-range tyres rated appropriately for my vehicle and driving needs.
Budget tyres may well be fine, but keep in mind it’s not just about tyre rating – it’s about grip, handling, and stopping ability. If you research, you may also find some budget tyre brands wear out much quicker, which can cost you more in the long run.
You may get a better discount on a budget tyre, but there’s only so far you can go before compromising quality and noise. If I were you I’d stick to the reputable tyre brands above, or the premium brands if you find a good discount.
4×4 tyre brands
I’ll skirt over this quickly as the purpose of this article is more to discus getting a discount on tyres, but if you drive a 4×4 then these are popular choices:
Premium 4×4 tyres:
- Bridgestone Dueler A/T
- BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 (I drove around Australia with a set of these and they were badass)
- Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure
Other popular choices which are cheaper & still good:
- Mickey Thompson Baja MTZ P3
- Cooper Discoverer STT Pro
- Toyo Open Country M/T
Cheaper 4×4 tyres:
- Falken Wildpeak A/T3W
- Maxxis Razr MT
In Australia there are deals to be had on 4×4 tyres, but from personal experience a tyre shop will always get away with charging good money on any 16″ on larger tyres. For example, kitting out my Delica on 15″ KO2’s cost me half the price for the same tyres in 16″ for my Land Cruiser.
The reason – tyre shops know how much we’ll spend on our Land Cruisers!
Anway, the tips below will still save you hundreds of bucks, so keep reading!
How I saved $352 on a set of tyres for my road car
I conducted an experiment to find out how much we pay for tyres, and how much we pay for fitting. I discuss the experiment at length in the article How Much is Tyre Fitting, Really, but I’ll summarise the experiment here as it’s the perfect example of saving huge money on an average set of tyres.
Saving $352 was as simple as this:
- Buying tyres online instead of a conventional tyre shop
- Buying tyres suitable for my needs rather than the best I could buy (and I still ended up with very good tyres!)
Here’s how:
Step 1: Find what tyres are available, and for how much
I used Tyroola, which is so easy you’ll be amazed you didn’t use them sooner.
First I typed in my tyre profile – just type in the values on your current tyres. For me this was Width: 195, Profile: 60, Rim Size: 16.
Tyroola gave me a range of options including premium, mid-range, and budget, along with tyre ratings, noise ratings, and customer reviews.
The premium option was Bridgestone ECOPIA at $167 a corner, and cheapest option a set of Winruns (budget tyres) at $60 a corner – that’s a difference between $668 for a set of Bridgestone or $240 for the Winruns.
The nice thing about Tyroola is they tell you the price you pay just for the tyres, not including fitting. When you go to Bob Jane T-Mart, Tyrepower or K-Mart you never really know.
I actually skipped the highlighted options, and by scrolling down the page a little found a great discount on Kumho tyres:
Perfect!
31 positive 5 star reviews as well.
The Kumho tyres were also V rated, so more than enough for Australian roads, and a great deal cheaper than the Bridgestones. At $67 cheaper per corner that’s already a saving of almost $267 – and guess what, the Bridgestones were only H rated.
Much better rated tyres, for much less money!
Add To Cart!
Step 2: Choose the best local tyre fitter
When buying tyres online you first pick the tyre, then pick a local tyre fitter.
The tyres will be shipped to them, and then you either take your car to the tyre fitter or they come to you – simple.
Tyroola gave me numerous options locally (in Perth) along with feedback from people who had use their services:
This is what I love most about buying tyres online – you can pick and choose the best local tyre fitter for you. Not only that, you can see exactly how much you’re paying for fitment, and read other consumer reviews as well.
The difference in price of fitting was $108 to $192, plus the variation of wheel alignment which can be optional or included. I managed to save a fair bit (around 4 or 5 Perth-priced pints) in choosing the right tyre fitter for me, and they turned out great.
A quick summary – how much would you have spent?
Did you know most people like to be told what to buy?
Nobody likes to think.
Obviously you’re different because you’ve read this guide, so congrats – you’ll have more money in your bank to buy your girlfriend flowers when she gets annoyed at you buying car parts.
Fact is, in the scenario above, most people would’ve bought the Bridgestone ECOPIA despite being an H rated tyre at a much higher price. Usually people opt for the first option.
Those people would’ve spent $352 more on H rated tyres when you got a stonking discount on a decent set of South Korean V rated Kumho tyres, Gangnam Style!
You also know exactly how much you’re paying for the tyre, how much discount you’re really getting, and how much you’re paying for fitment and wheel balancing.
If you went to your local tyre shop, how much would you have paid for fitment?
Do you even know?
Nope!
And more than that, how much of your money would’ve gone to the upkeep of waiting room pot plants and prime-location premises?
Hopefully this guide has shown you how to get a real discount on tyres. If it has, you can say thanks in the comments!
