Horsepower, future cars and good old fashioned hot rods

Do you need new tires? Let me tell you a personal story. Most of you know about Tire Rack, you’ve seen the ads, you know you can buy tires online, but you still drive to your local tire store for replacements. Just like you, I was doing the same thing, … until this week.

I needed new snow tires for my wife’s car, nothing exotic, a Ford Taurus, and while getting an alignment at a local tire store I thought I would order a new set. Easier said than done. They had a lot of off brands in stock but I like to put good rubber on our vehicles so I asked them to order a set of their company’s high end snow treads. After a couple of weeks, they called and said they couldn’t get what I wanted but ordered another tire that was almost as good. Well, I didn’t want “almost as good,” I wanted very good, period.

Just to see what it was all about, I thought I would try Tire Rack. If you’ve never been there, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. I entered the make and model of her car and the correct tire size is indicated. Then I looked at what snow tires were available, well, they’re all available. It isn’t a mix of last year’s tires or discontinued tires, all of the current tires are listed.

Tire Rack helps you make a smart choice
If you’re like me, you might not know which of the current crop of snow tires are best, no problem. All of the information you could want is right there, there’s an overview of the tire, the results of tests against other comparable tires, a huge number of customer reviews of each one and survey ratings showing how pleased buyers were with each tire, how it performs, whether they would buy it again, and how that tire rates against all of the others.

We had previously been happy with Bridgestone Blizzaks and in the comparisons the latest version for our car, the WS60, stacked up very well against the competitors, so I decided to go with those.

The first thing you’ll notice is the price, if you shop your local stores, no one can beat Tire Rack, so you’re already ahead. Of course, you have to add shipping, which will vary depending on your location, but with multiple warehouses, they’re usually pretty close. I paid $46 to ship all 4 tires UPS, very reasonable.

Tires where you need them
You can have them delivered to your home or direct to your installer, which you can choose by zip code right on their site. I chose the first one on their list of approved installers, located just 10 minutes away, all of the install prices were listed and their price was guaranteed.

Tires when you need them
I ordered the tires on Tuesday afternoon, had a receipt emailed immediately and within an hour, I received an email confirming shipment. The order said they would arrive Thursday so I called the installer around noon on Thursday and he said the tires were in. I set up an appointment for Friday morning and when I arrived, my car was immediately taken inside and about 30 minutes later, I was on my way.

Smooth, no hassle service, just like the old days, maybe even better
On my way home, I marveled at how well everything worked from start to finish. I’ve purchased a lot of tires over the years, I’ve never had such a no hassle experience. It was fast, simple, the prices were great, the service from both Tire Rack and my local installer were superb. I’m still amazed as I write this.

If you are even thinking about tires, you owe it to yourself to check out Tire Rack. If you need tires really soon, don’t settle for what you might find locally, order exactly what you want and you’ll have them in a couple of days.

When I purchase a product and everything works out this well, I want to tell everyone about it. Based on my own first hand experience, I recommend Tire Rack without reservation. You really should try them for your own car. I have a hunch they’ll win you over, too.

Link: Tire Rack