OT--saved $200 on a set of tires

With the cost of supplements and higher priced protein rich foods, I found it very distressing when I had to purchase tires for my Saturn Vue. The stock tire is a 235/r65/16 at a cost of almost $165 per tire before taxes, mounting balancing, new stems, etc.  I do shop on ebay for some things, so I checked there. I found a store called discout tire direct, and put in my size tire.  They had 4 of these 235/r65/16 Cooper CS4 tires for $420, with FREE shipping.  Tires ordered on Monday (after I spoke with them on the phone to ask questions), and UPS delivered them on Thursday morning.  I took them up the street to a local small tire shop, and for $56 I got all four tires mounted, balanced, valve stems and paid the tire disposal fee.  Tire guy there said his price on that tire was $135.  Between no taxes, tire "hazard policy" (which I found useless in the past) fees, less fees on mounting, etc. I saved $200.  Pepboys carries these same tires, and the cost would have been about $675 for the exact same tires.  First time I've ever gotten tires this way, but the speed and heat rating is higher on the new tires, as well as the tire wear is at 80K whereas the Bridgestone tires I had was only 36K miles.  DAVE

It irritates me that TIRES cost hundreds of dollars.  I remember when pep boys or merchants would sell tires for $29 to $49 bucks.  Does rubber really cost that much more these days???

I got lucky a few months ago when I needed new tires. I have a very small car and it would have cost about $350 but I happened to see a targeted ad for America's Tires since I had been Googling tire store. They had a rebate special that ended that day and I got my new tires, mounted and all for $150. The sucky part was that I had to wait 6 weeks for a Visa card but it was worth it. I was real worried about going into winter with nearly bald tires.

Thats likely the same co. When I spoke to the ebay co., he told me that discount tire was their name outdside of CA, but they had to use Ameriaca's Tire in CA since the Discount Tire business name was already taken.  Ebay offers another alternative to locating good prices on tires, especially when they include free shipping. The tires I got came from Dallax, TX.  So no State sales tax either, since shipment came from outside of CA.  DAVE