Continental Tyes

My 996 C2 has had 3 punctures since Sept 2001 and 13000 miles. I have always had Continental SportContact tyres. Has anyone else had a similar frequency of puncture or is it just the price for having low profile tyres. Good to have a forum at last. Mark

Mark, I think maybe you are just unlucky. You don' t live near a buyilding site or anything do you? I had plently of punctures when I had a new house from nails and screws left lying around!

Gary, No I dont live near a building site, so I guess its just bad luck. Mind you the Kwik fit Mobile peaople did a good job and only for £160. Mark

Mark, Can I ask what size Contis you got for £160, I have just bought 2 new ones for £195ea (285/30 ZR 18) Conti-sport 2

Gary, My tyres are the same size as yours. AFN at Reading gave me the Kwik fit Mobile number so I dont know if they have some sort of deal. The main thing was they did a good job and didnt mark the wheels at all (Sport Design). I must admit tyre pricing is a mystery to me, but hopefully I wont be finding out any more for some time. Mark

I also find tyre pricing a bit confusing and a bit of a hit and miss affair. Most peoples buying decision is based primarily on price, since the product does not change, hence the adverts that don' t include a price, and force you to phone. Perhaps the following will help to explain the price difference issues, and I have a suggestion that might help us all. In a business where you don' t sell to the consumer yourself, especially as an international business, you have a number of stages in your distribution. You might have an international distributor, a national distributor and a local retailer. Each wants a cut and this can be 30%, to cover shipping, warehousing, costs and a profit margin. If we make a product, it might contain £8 of raw materials, our manufacturing process may cost £1 and our overheads another £1. This makes £10, but we want a profit margin of say 15%, so we sell it for £11.50. The international distributor sells it for £14.95, the national distributor for £19.44 and the retailer for £25.26 + VAT = £30. So an £8 product costs £30. Clearly removing a stage from the chain, or better still, buying direct from the manufacturer can equate to significant savings. The problem is that you can' t buy from the tyre manufacturer since they want to manufacture and sell in bulk to keep their operation efficient and can' t be bothered with the retail side. They don' t see it as part of their core business and use established retail channels, since most people prefer a range of brands in one shop, rather then having to go to a Conti shop, a Pirelli shop, etc. I am not in the tyre industry, so I don' t what the margins are or how the money gets sliced, but this is the general model. Individually we have little scope to get a deal, but collectively there may be a chance. As a club we could perhaps manage a deal, but there would need to be sufficient interest. I noticed that on the membership card Michelin is on the back, and in P Post I noticed that Michelin send a truck to track days I think. The best solution would be for either the club or Porsche GB to do a deal direct with Conti. If the numbers were high enough, they could pass on the savings while making money themselves. What makes the issue harder is having to support multiple brands (Conti, Pirelli, etc.). The problems also mount due to buying in bulk which requires warehousing (with suitable security), suitable distribution around the country and fitting charges. None of which may be a core competency and may have to outsourced, all incurring additional costs and reducing our savings. However, I am sure that providing enough people were interested it must be possible to use the collective purchasing power to get better deals. 1800 911' s are sold in the UK each year, just taking 10 years worth this is 18,000 cars who need say 4 tyres every 2 years (some use more, some low mileage cars less), this is 36,000 tyres a year or c. £4.5m worth, add in the other models and it is a modest business. The only slight issue with this is some are 17" , some are 18" , and 255-295 wide, and not everyone who owns a 911 belongs to the club (although a good deal on tyres might be a sufficient sweetner). Maybe this has been done or tried already, or perhaps it just isn' t viable. Any comments? Stuart.

You make a good point Stuart. I feel that we, as a club, should be able to provide benefits to members given the buying power we have. I' ve mentioned this to club officials in the past but little has happened. I believe that if a member buys parts at an Official Dealership they can get 10% discount. That said, I can' t see this on the website under Club/Benefits. Are you going to the AGM? Perhaps you could raise the topic there. Bob

I was considering going, but in " observer" mode. Since I am new to the club and have yet to take delivery of my car (MY03 996 C4S - should be in April but will know next week), I am not sure if I am allowed to make any representation or table anything for discussion. The club is of course what people make it, and if you want anything done you normally have to do it yourself. In order to make anything happen we need to have some evidence that other people are interested. One of the best potential features of this forum is the ability to run polls - you do of course require people to be bothered to click on a box, but if they can' t manage that, then they won' t manage to use any scheme that gets put in place. Rgds, Stuart.