It's time for tires and I'm looking at 245/75 r16 for size but I am having a really tough time when it comes to deciding which brand/make of tire I want. I'm hoping a little discussion will help, and perhaps someone else may benefit from my experience.
I started off at Les Schwab on my way home from work last week, just stopping by because I've always bought my tires there in the past, seemed like a good place to start doing my homework. I gave them the size I was looking for (either 245/75 or 265/70) they wrote me up a quote for the Toyo Open Country MT 265/70's that included charges of $3.50ea for valve stems? Grand totall for 4 tires, valve stems, mounting and balancing and sales tax came to $1,027 and change! Crazyness...
So after a few choice words expressing my disapointment, I headed to the next store on my way home which happened to be Goodyear. I had heard a few good things about the MT/R and wanted to check them out. I spoke with the manager, a very nice guy, told him about my experience with L.S. and he said "No problem" offering to get me into the MET/R's for $200 a tire and that they always include the valve stems for free. So mounted, balanced, all said and done $850 out the door... after the Schwabbing earlier this didn't sound that bad but I still wanted to check around (and this is why it pays to do your homework)...
The next day I got ahold of a friend of mine who manages a local Discount Tire. I told him my tire tale and he promptly laughed, shook his head at the L.S. quote in disbelief, then laughed some more. (After quite a bit of homework on my part I've become fairly certain that I want either the Goodyear's or the BFG MT, but I'm still torn as to which is going to be the better tire for me) My friend at Discount looked up the Goodyear tires and informed me that for that size, retail price is $146... ... A HUNDRED AND FOURTY SIX BUCKS!!! remember a few lines ago when the nice man was going to get them to me for $200 a piece? Anyways, so my buddy being the friend that he is said $150 a piece including everything (mounting, balancing, and tax) Which is fantastic news, I love saving money! ... One catch... Goodyear is on strike, everybody is having problems getting the tires in. It's been a week and we're still not sure of a ETA for the tires coming in, and in case you don't live in the NW, it's snowing. Around my house it's snowing a lot, and I have the original factory tires on my rig with about 70k on em... not fun, but I digress.
So the point of my problem is, I can get the BFG's and be on down the road, or I can wait for the Goodyear's.
I was curious if anybody had any insight that may help me make up my mind, and like I said hopefully someone can benefit from my experience with this.
So if you have an opinion on the matter let me know, please.
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