Costco Refusing to Fit Non N-Rated Tyres - Page 2 - Porsche General - PistonHeads UK

Has anyone experienced Costco refusing to fit NON N-Rated Tyres to their Porsche? They had a pretty decent price recently for PS5s, which I ordered. They've now arrived and they're saying they won't fit them as they're not N-Rated. I'm awaiting a call back from their manager, as I couldn't find anything in their terms that states this. I'm keen that they do fit them as they're quite a lot cheaper than from other places. This is the first set of tyres I'm fitting on my 2001 986.

Can you take them home/get them delivered, then find an independent to fit them?

rfn said: This is the first set of tyres I'm fitting on my 2001 986. You have 23 year old tyres on your car?

981Boxess said: You have 23 year old tyres on your car? I've only owned it about a year :-) Jim1556 said: Can you take them home/get them delivered, then find an independent to fit them? That's an option I'd not considered.

rfn said: 981Boxess said: You have 23 year old tyres on your car? I've only owned it about a year :-) Ok, well if you have only been driving it for a year they will be fine. I can see why them not being N rated might not matter to you

Something a slightly different happened when my wife needed 2 front tyres. They insisted on putting the new tyres on the rear and moving the rears to the front. I wasn't with her but when did this become a thing? They apparently said they wouldn't fit them unless she agreed. Not sure what their plan would be if I bought my tyres from them as my car has 19" wheels on the front and 20" on the rear!

Costco fitted 'normal' Michelin tyres to my 2008 997 Turbo a few months ago and it was no issue at all. As it should be, because what tyres you put on your car is none of their business.

rfn said: Has anyone experienced Costco refusing to fit NON N-Rated Tyres to their Porsche? They had a pretty decent price recently for PS5s, which I ordered. They've now arrived and they're saying they won't fit them as they're not N-Rated. Someone in that branch thinks N-rated are an insurance requirement, due to Porsche OPC service managers (of old?) implying as such. I once even had Camskill refuse to sell me non-N-rated.... that was a long time ago. I thought everyone had grown up by now? Just get them to give you the refusal in writing. The individual at fault will not, a more sensible manager person will get involved, and everyone will live happily ever after.

ziggy328 said: Something a slightly different happened when my wife needed 2 front tyres. They insisted on putting the new tyres on the rear and moving the rears to the front. I wasn't with her but when did this become a thing? They apparently said they wouldn't fit them unless she agreed. Modern thinking is that nobody can drive anymore. Therefore (in any given new-tyre situation) the newer tyres need to be fitted to the rear, to result in understeer in an emergency situation. But insisting and/or refusing? Perhaps an american has sued a tyre fitter for not doing the above?

All summed up by a simple word, ‘Jobsworth.’ I think it’s a synonym for ‘loser,’ but I may be wrong.

ziggy328 said: Something a slightly different happened when my wife needed 2 front tyres. They insisted on putting the new tyres on the rear and moving the rears to the front. I wasn't with her but when did this become a thing? They apparently said they wouldn't fit them unless she agreed. Not sure what their plan would be if I bought my tyres from them as my car has 19" wheels on the front and 20" on the rear! I can answer that - they’ll still try and swap them until you point out they’re different. Then they’ll refuse to fit the new ones to front until you get the store GM to over-rule them. They’ll then do it grumpily, but make a point of saying they absolutely wouldn’t do it if the rears were less than 4mm. The really daft thing is the car’s handbook (it was a 2005 Merc) said if fitting a pair of tyres then they’d be best on the front as Mercedes ESP can deal with the back. To be fair, they didn’t mention that the tyres needed to be MO versions. On Porsche, is current N rating really relevant for a 23yr old car?

I used Costco several times for tyre replacement on my old 2003 996, and found them to be very good. They never mentioned N-rating, even though I did use them to fit N-rated tyres. If I were you I would use the argument that PS5 is a better tyre than the ones homologated by Porsche when your car was sold two decades ago. I have heard them mention that they normally fit new tyres to the rear even if you are replacing a worn front pair, but obviously they can’t do that in any 911 since the wheels are different sizes. As this is a safety mandated policy, since oversteer is considered more dangerous than understeer, I doubt they would agree to ignore the policy for cars with the same size wheels all round.

G-996 said: . I have heard them mention that they normally fit new tyres to the rear even if you are replacing a worn front pair, but obviously they can’t do that in any 911 since the wheels are different sizes. As this is a safety mandated policy, since oversteer is considered more dangerous than understeer, I doubt they would agree to ignore the policy for cars with the same size wheels all round. It is industry recommended practice, it's just that few follow it. It makes sense on your average FWD car as otherwise they end up with old, deteriorating, tyres on the rear. The really daft thing is in the US tyre rotation is routine and Costco do it there free - so they're generally going to be putting the most worn tyres on the rear. They won't do rotation in the UK as a stand-alone job.

If you watch this it'll give you the reason why you should put new tyres on the rear https://youtu.be/ufau3V2Nc7c?si=R1UqyEjFHp5FMG2p

Yes, new tyres on the rear is correct, but Costco are very insistent that they won't do otherwise. It's a bit annoying but can be tolerated, can always just swap the wheels back.

scrounger73 said: If you watch this it'll give you the reason why you should put new tyres on the rear https://youtu.be/ufau3V2Nc7c?si=R1UqyEjFHp5FMG2p Very good. Thanks for the link.

A few years ago I had to sign a disclaimer before Blackcircles would arrange to fit non N rated Michelins on my 996. More recently I again purchased non N rated Michelins for the same car and Blackcircles didn’t mention any waiver.

scrounger73 said: If you watch this it'll give you the reason why you should put new tyres on the rear https://youtu.be/ufau3V2Nc7c?si=R1UqyEjFHp5FMG2p I watched it. The issue I have is that the tester says the tyres being compared are either 'new' or they are 'worn'. How worn? 90% 50% 10%? It's not particularly useful IMHO.

981Boxess said: rfn said: 981Boxess said: You have 23 year old tyres on your car? I've only owned it about a year :-) Ok, well if you have only been driving it for a year they will be fine. I can see why them not being N rated might not matter to you Do you fall for the marketing then ?

Gary C said: 981Boxess said: rfn said: 981Boxess said: You have 23 year old tyres on your car? I've only owned it about a year :-) Ok, well if you have only been driving it for a year they will be fine. I can see why them not being N rated might not matter to you Do you fall for the marketing then ? I think you missed the point.

981Boxess said: I think you missed the point. Which is...?

rfn said: 981Boxess said: I think you missed the point. Which is...? If they don’t want to fit them tell them to keep their tyres and buy them somewhere else. Is it really worth getting jerked around just to save a few quid?

981Boxess said: Gary C said: 981Boxess said: rfn said: 981Boxess said: You have 23 year old tyres on your car? I've only owned it about a year :-) Ok, well if you have only been driving it for a year they will be fine. I can see why them not being N rated might not matter to you Do you fall for the marketing then ? I think you missed the point. Maybe

rfn said: Has anyone experienced Costco refusing to fit NON N-Rated Tyres to their Porsche? They had a pretty decent price recently for PS5s, which I ordered. They've now arrived and they're saying they won't fit them as they're not N-Rated. I'm awaiting a call back from their manager, as I couldn't find anything in their terms that states this. I'm keen that they do fit them as they're quite a lot cheaper than from other places. This is the first set of tyres I'm fitting on my 2001 986. Were the tyres exactly the same spec ? Eg Load Index and Treadware as well as size ? I once tried to buy tyres that weren’t the right load index for my car…think it was Micheldever that refused to sell me the tyres. I know people think the N rating thing is a load of b ks but when you read independent info about the lengths they go to with testing they aren’t doing it just so we buy N rated tyres to comply with Warranty. My 50 year old 911 has N5 rated tyres on it. Porsche are still checking the tyres specs for cars that old ! When I bought it had N4 on the front and N5 on the rear….Center Gravuty told me why I should change the fronts.

From the AA website:- Can I fit tyres with a lower speed rating that I need? No, you shouldn’t ever fit tyres with a speed rating that’s too low for your car. It could cause steering and control issues or you might even suffer tyre failure. It’s not illegal to use a tyre speed rating that’s too low but it is dangerous and it could stop your car insurance from paying out.

Common sense has prevailed and they'll fit them now. Thanks for all of the replies.

Porsche do not insist on N rated tyres these days.

rfn said: Has anyone experienced Costco refusing to fit NON N-Rated Tyres to their Porsche? They had a pretty decent price recently for PS5s, which I ordered. They've now arrived and they're saying they won't fit them as they're not N-Rated. I'm awaiting a call back from their manager, as I couldn't find anything in their terms that states this. I'm keen that they do fit them as they're quite a lot cheaper than from other places. This is the first set of tyres I'm fitting on my 2001 986. Were the tyres exactly the same spec ? Eg Load Index and Treadware as well as size ? I once tried to buy tyres that weren’t the right load index for my car…think it was Micheldever that refused to sell me the tyres. I know people think the N rating thing is a load of b ks but when you read independent info about the lengths they go to with testing they aren’t doing it just so we buy N rated tyres to comply with Warranty. My 50 year old 911 has N5 rated tyres on it. Porsche are still checking the tyres specs for cars that old ! When I bought it had N4 on the front and N5 on the rear….Center Gravuty told me why I should change the fronts.

I've had a number of sets of non N-rated tyres fitted to Porsche's at Costco with no issue. The have mentioned it, but as long as load and speed ratings were fine, they were happy to fit. Sensible enough. andygo said: Porsche do not insist on N rated tyres these days. I'd read this on here but I'm not sure it is true. My Cayman has just been serviced by an OPC trained tech who recently jumped ship and now works for an indy. We were talking tyres and I mentioned that Porsche apparently don't insist on N-rated anymore. His response was that as you no longer need the 111 point check to extend warranty, cars had warranty extensions with non N-rated tyres on and people had concluded it was OK. He said when it came to warranty claims, different OPCs seemed to vary in approach, but that no, Porsche haven't dropped the requirement.

Costco have refused to fit tyres to my cars a number of times due to speed rating etc. If you take just the wheels in then it's fine as they don't know the car.

Costco Stevenage fitted PS5s on my 987 a couple of weeks ago. They didn’t even mention the n rating “Porsche tax”

Costco refused to fit anything to mine because I have centre locks, quite a few other preferred tyre fitters also refused. Luckily Porsche Swindon came up with a competitive tyre price.

Just watched this video, and at roughly 4'30" the guy says that N rated tyres are actually wider than the indicated size/ non-N rated tyre... New one to me....

I watched that too and was really surprised however I wonder if that's just the new NA marked tyres for the 911 or all N rated tyres? https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/Porsche-OE-N-R... Edited by cseven on Friday 23 August 09:48