New Tire Installation - Costco or Discount Tire OK?

I've got a 2002 996TT with 19" aftermarket wheels. I purchased a set of 18" Turbo Twist Wheels from an earlier Rennlist Classified ad and am now interested in switching out the wheels. Just checking to see if there would be any reason not to use Costco Tire or Discount Tire for new tire purchase and installation?

I use Tire Rack online, huge choice of tires and they will ship the tire to the tire shop, you could even use one of their recommended shops that do work with them or they own. I use them for all my vehicles.

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I've used Costco many many times, they are a great tire shop at most of their locations, very professional imo. Also used Tire Rack many times. Compare price after mounting&balance install. Costco is picky on using the exact oem tire size and oem wheels. Some/most Costco locations will not install anything other than stock size on stock wheels... Tire rack has a great choice of tires and recommended installers. Price can be very low with great deals or not low at all. Depends on tire and tire age/availability. Some TR deals are for tires that might be a year or 2 old but still with full warranty and brand new stored in climate controlled warehouse they say. They list the tire manufacture date on TR site. So, if you are a daily driver that will use up the thread on tire before it ages out,,, a couple year old tire set for a very low price can be a good deal for ya. Lots of good tire info on TR site, check it out....

Craig, I buy all of my tires from TireRack and have them shipped to my Indy to put them on. The reason is that my Indy specializes in Porsche and understands low profile tires with stiff sidewalls. I would be very careful using Costco, Discount Tire and Tire Rack install shops. The reason is they may not have the experience nor equipment to put on a low profile tire with stiff sidewalls. Ask me how I know.

FYI - Discount Tire (aka: America's Tire) bought Tire Rack in mid-2021, then in late 2021 Bridgestone bought Discount Tire. All are operated independently but buying from Tire Rack will get you either the same price or price matching with Discount and Discount will be a preferred installer for Tire Rack. (IOW, might as well just buy from Discount). I've got ~15k miles on my Costco purchased Michelin PS All Season 4 so I'm starting to look around. I like Costco but their selection is lacking (no PS AS 4 currently) and their prices have gone higher than Discount. So, for the moment, I'll be looking at Discount. Also on tires, I just bought 4 Kumho tires for my Chevy Volt from Giga-Tire delivered for $320 got installed for $100 (same were $710 at Discount). They were mfg 4 months ago and made in USA. I'm impressed. Expecting to sell the car soon and didn't want to put junky odd named tires on it. Will I consider Giga-Tires for the 996? I will but I think any warranty issues would be difficult to address.

I had my turbo twist wheels fitted with new PS4S tires at Costco back in September on my 02' C4S. All went well, they did a great job overall. I have also used Tirerack and they are great also, there is a local mobile installer who is one of their approved installers. I ended up going with Costco because the deal was slightly better at the time.

Yeah, I had a set of Bridgestone RE71RSs sent from Tirerack for their mobil installer to install at my house. No problems getting the old Toyo proxies off, they were able to get the Bridgestones on my Carrera 2s, but couldn't get them seated due to the stiff sidewalls. They then took them to 2 different Discount tires who couldn't do it, then to Firestone who couldn't do it. I had a track day in 2 days so I figured I would try out the mobile service to save some time instead of going to my indy which was 45 min away. Luckily my indy said bring them by and they will take care of it in a few minutes of which they did. Something to be said about old school experience and knowledge about how to get a seal on a low profile tire with stiff sidewalls.

I purchased tires from discount. I set up my install appointment and received a call back offering me mobile tire install. I can do a follow-up on my experience if anyone is interested.

Many of the discount tire shops will scrape up the rims when installing tires. Most people don't care about that. I bring my wheels and tires to a local exotic car shop to get them mounted. Yes they are 50% more expensive - getting rims refinished is even more expensive. Once in a pinch I had Firestone mount a set of rear tires I needed for a track day. Obviously they had no idea how to balance them for a performance car; they were fine up to 80-ish mph, at 135 they made the car vibrate so bad I thought it was going to come apart. A competent rebalance fixed that. Each Firestone is an independent contractor so you don't know what you might get until you get it.

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They do? Where?

Tire Rack with Discount Tire installing is how I've replaced the tires on my 2003 C4S. Just buy straight from Discount Tire for other vehicles

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Probably should have explained better. When tire is more than usually a year old or so, they list it like below. And many times , like in below pic, offer a pretty good deal on it., These type deals are only good for the daily driver that will put on 15,000 miles a year or so in the case of below tires. As in 2 years the tire will be 6 years old but probably will have the tread worn out by the 30,000 or so miles put on a 220 TW rating and knowing how 996 eat tires... Just a side note about this. Supposedly the 6 year age out of most tire manufacturers recommendation only starts when tire is mounted and run, and stored/parked in ambient environment... TR told me all their tires are stored in a climate controlled warehouse. Never verified this.

I've had good experience at Discount Tire. There's two that I frequent that seem to service their share of performance/vintage cars (locations in your area may vary). FWIW, Regardless of where I go, for my 911 + Cayenne I always bring with: � jack adapter � few bucks for tip � 19mm rubber trimmed socket for bolts- I kindly offer this + the adapter to the installer, if they decline it's at least clear I care enough about the car that the installer knows to be careful handling their metal ended socket when handling the wheels. It's not for me to tell them how to do their job, but best case they'll give my car to their most seasoned installer. Last fall when I had the 996 wheels rebalanced at Discount Tire, the installer saw I had spacers all around and instructed the two working on it to hand thread the bolts in on re-fitment. Porsche Henderson did an excellent job fitting fresh Scorpions on the Cayenne (comparable tire price to Discount Tire and they successfully went to bat for me on an issue out of warranty). On the other hand Porsche Beverly Hills really did a number on one of my rear wheels (said nothing) last summer. At least they didn't fight me on the repair. 🙆🏻‍♂️

Have used Costco many times and agree with previous posts, they are fine but the selection is hit and miss. I have also experienced the issue with them only agreeing to install OEM spec. In the end they're installing tires...not the most technically challenging operation under most all circumstances...they can certainly mess up/damage things if they're very careless, but yeah, they're installing tires. I myself have never used Tire Rack. Seems like purchasing tires, having them shipped and then paying another outfit to mount/balance would be more costly than one stop shopping, but obviously there are millions of folks that use them...

I use Tire Rack for all my tire purchases now because they're a known quantity. I've also used the Tire Rack Mobile Service to install the tires on my C4 Cab with good results.

@Blacksquid thanks for the link. The website states that prices start at $40/tire, was there a significant upcharge for the p-car?

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No additional charge for car make. The tires were installed and balanced with no damage to the wheels.

Thanks to everyone that commented, looks like the majority of folks have used Tire Rack/Discount Tire but Costco is fine although less options for tires.

I would not ever buy tires from Discount Tire in my entire life. They destroyed my 996 rims putting tires on. Customer service gave zero poops and the store manger didn�t give a poop either.

I like using a reputable independent. We have a sports car specialist down the street who beats Discount's pricing and I can't help but think they care more to do a good job then the guys over at Discount. Nothing against discount, just my thoughts. Trenton O. Gibson [email removed] Highline Autos Direct: [phone removed] Office: [phone removed]

Wow, I'm a bit surprised at 2ata's comments. Must be the location. I will only use Discount Tire from now on. I'm a bit biased as my nephew is an ***'t mngr but they have always taken care of me. I did the Tire Rack deal last go around and bought the latest Sumitomos, Discount installed. They are careful with the rims around the Seattle area as far as I know because my nephew tells me about high end cars they do and if they do any damage, they replace the rim. No questions asked, no issues. 1 week after my last install, i got a screw in the sidewall. The tires had less than 80 miles on them!!!! The store said they didn't carry the tire but could source it for me and sold me a new one (at a great price I may add) and even offered me the roadside damage for all 4 tires! How crazy is that. If I toast any tire, they replace it. All my vehicles go to DT now since they are everywhere.

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That reminds me, had a set of Michelin installed on my F350 by Costco. About 6 months later got a screw/leak in tire between sidewall and tread. Not repairable said Costco. So they ordered a new tire and installed for $0.00. Was also very pleasantly surprised as hadn't read the fine print on my purchase order/contract. All tires purchased at Costco include a 5-year Road Hazard Warranty at no extra cost, covering damage like punctures, cuts, or impact bruises, provided tread not worn out. So, one has to add that 5-year Road Hazard Warranty at no extra cost, into the equation of tire shop deals and decide if that type of warranty automatically added into the price is worth it for them... If i can get the right tire at Costco for a reasonable price will always go with them... For a 996 That is a big 'if'...

I generally love Costco, but tires are a mixed experience with pluses and minuses Pluses : 1. Usually friendly people involved with the process 2. They fill the tires with nitrogen for free (slower leakdown due to larger molecules, reduced pressure variation with temperature changes -- the latter is good for track, in theory, but bleeding hot tires after a run and refilling with air can result in uneven nitrogen/air mix over time which means that pressure can be less predictable across tires with different mixes versus pure air) 3. I think they hand torque bolts instead of using machine 4. Included road hazard Downsides : 1. They don't seem to stock almost anything -- I've always had to order in advance and wait a week or more for the tires to arrive before I can make an appointment 2. The above is true even in the event of road hazard replacement (I had a blowout -- had to wait more than 10 days before the tire was in) 3. As others have said, they have limited tire selection and will only install OEM spec tires 4. I don't think Costco's tire prices are necessarily better than a tire store, which is normally not the case for Costco All in all, even though I'd recommend Costco for anything else, I think a tire store is generally better. We have used a Firestone store or TireRack tire install -- including RE71RS and they did a good job at reasonable price (and lifetime alignment was something $225, which I thought was very reasonable). This is a one-off event, I think, but I'll mention that my Costco road hazard experience was horrible. I ordered the replacement tire before going on a 10-day vacation, it still wasn't there when I got back. There were no email updates to inform me when the tire was in (I think because it was road hazard). I had to keep calling and they'd put me on hold, said they would call back, did not. Their tire store is super busy all the time when I'm there -- so I get it and I think they were genuinely looking for the tire, but just could not get status. Never could get a straight answer, so I just took the wheel in and said put the tire on when you find it or it comes in. When it was finally done, they wouldn't honor the tire hazard -- they said they couldn't validate the tire condition before it the road hazard occurred -- even though the tire was fine every except where the cut is (the tire only had 10k miles). Then they said it could have been underfilled -- I said I had TPMS -- it would show underinflated. Then they said tread wear was uneven. Then he pulled out a tread meter and they were even all across. Had to escalate to the manager, that process took longer than it should have before they finally approved it. It was the worst tire experience I ever had by a wide margin -- I attribute a unique one-off situation (still don't know why, the guy generally seemed nice, but he had objectively absurd reasons for trying to disqualify the road hazard, and that was after the tire taking much longer to come in and their staff being able to tell me if was even there or when it would arrive. Needing to wait a long time for a road hazard replacement tire at Costco probably is the norm though, at least in the two stores I have used. I'll probably use a regular tire store next time.

One advantage of TireRack, that is helpful for track use at least, is that they offer an option to "heat cycle" the tires for an extra fee. I had RE71RS shipped from TireRack to Firestone for installation. When I checked prices later, I found out that the RE71RS tires would have been cheaper if I just bought them at that Firestone store. I don't think a regular store can do the heat cycling though.

It sure sounds like its alot of one off situations. My local Firestone couldn't get RE71RSs at the time. Forget about getting them seated on the Carrera 2s when the mobile tire rack guy came by for help. Same with Discount. I dont think there is anything wrong with Discount or Firestone tools. Its a matter of experience. If an old school guy happens to work their and knows how to use a strap and air pressure, they can get it seated. If not, they cant. I have no issues with taking my Audis to Costco or Discount tire. But I learned my lesson on the 996. Better off shipping the tires to my indy and have them mount and balance them, not to mention tape the weights. One less thing to worry about.

Local Firestone here couldn't figure out how to mount stock sized tires on my Ranger. As said, each store is different.

I have been buying tires from Discount Tire for more than twenty years. Tires for my Porsches, dailies, motorhome and trailer. Always good experiences. They did not have a problem mounting slicks on my Fuchs. i highly recommend them. They have not damaged my rims and their prices have consistently been lower than other tire retailers. Costco, as others have mentioned, offers a limited range for tires, so if they have the type and size that you need, it is a good choice, but still not as price competitive as Discount Tire.

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My local firestone could not mount their own Indy 500 tires on my M3, rears 275/30/19, not that crazy of a size. They can sell you the tires but not mount them, they told me its because they got a new tire machine, I said to go get the old one back.