Tire Rack vs Discount Tire Direct & Tire Road Hazard Warranty??

[RShea]

Like many of the "insurance" or extended warranty programs, sometimes they are not worth rolling the dice because of hassles collecting on the claim, other times you wish you had done it. So in the last 3 years in this vehicle or so I've picked up 2 pieces of metal that punctured the tires on my vehicle and required repairs at different times. The tires came on the vehicle when I purchased it used, so had no option for any road hazard. So getting ready to pull the trigger on new tread.

Tire Rack used to charge shipping fees that killed at least some of the savings, so the last few rounds of tires I did through Discount Tires Direct and they have been great with good customer service in prior years. They have always offered free shipping. But they charge basically 10% of the tire price for 3 years of road hazard warranty.

Last vehicle I had 2 tires that wore down much faster than they should have based on the warranty mileage on the tires at the time. Warranty was higher mileage of 80K at only half the total miles and they were getting down in tread when I called and discussed they shipped me 2 new tires at prorated 50% no questions asked and nothing to give them other than the date of the original order and what the odometer read when installed at my local garage, and the mileage at that time, then where I wanted them shipped.

Just to compare, I looked up Tire Rack and they now have free shipping and are pretty much identical price per tire. They also sometime ago have started including road hazard warranty for 2 years for free. Fine print states:
Repairs reimbursed up to $40 per tire per occurrence
Reimbursement of the original purchase price or replacement purchase price, whichever is less, for all 24 months (if not repairable)
Complete roadside assistance including tire changing, fuel, lockout, battery jumping and up to 25-mile complimentary towing to the nearest tire service facility

So 1 year less but has anyone had hassles dealing with Tire Rack on replacement or them handling warranty after a period of time past the first year or so?

[El Chupacabra]

FWIW, Discount Tire is buying Tire Rack. So I'd expect some consolidation of DTD and TR.

[adrenalated]

No experience with Tire Rack warranty.

Discount Tire has always taken care of me, and I've had a LOT of tires repaired by them.

[evdog]

No info on vendors in question, but an interesting observation at Costco. Bought a set of tires for my truck there last summer. While I was being waited on a woman was in trying to make a mileage warranty claim on her tires. The tire center manager denied her claim on the basis that she didn't have tire rotations regular enough. He based that on the history in their computer, meaning they only counted rotations done at Costco. Woman argued she had them done along with oil changes elsewhere. Costco didnt' seem to care. I don't think the mileage she got to was much less than the warranty amount so that may have played into it. It would have to be pretty egregious for me to try and claim under mileage warranty.

[Beaver]

Ive bought from tire rack in the past in Canada, it was a PITA. Sure it was a great price but i had to pick them up and take them to be mounted. I bought tires locally and ripped the shit outta a sidewall on a hunk of rebar. They replaced it same day for $0. They fixed a couple flats and swapped summer/winter wheels for the life of the tire $0. I buy local now, it's great when I have a shitty bead or leaky valve or screw in the tire.

[gravitylover]

The tire shop I go to encourages customers to have Tire Rack tires delivered to them for install if the customer is price sensitive. They'll say, straight up, that they can't compete solely on purchase price but they won't tell you that you don't get free flat fixes, free rotations and some other little stuff. They also refuse to deal with TR on road hazard claims because they say it's a terrible experience and they probably won't cover whatever it is anyway.

[RShea]

Ive bought from tire rack in the past in Canada, it was a PITA. Sure it was a great price but i had to pick them up and take them to be mounted. I bought tires locally and ripped the shit outta a sidewall on a hunk of rebar. They replaced it same day for $0. They fixed a couple flats and swapped summer/winter wheels for the life of the tire $0. I buy local now, it's great when I have a shitty bead or leaky valve or screw in the tire.

Both companies in the USA have at least 2 options. Ship directly to you and you take them anywhere you want to get mounted. Or they ship them to some selected approved garage in your area that they have an agreement to do the mounting (and you pay them for the mounting as part of the order not the garage directly), or Tire Rack has a pick up your tires at their warehouse to save $10 per tire (but their warehouse is 2 states away from me) and is not going to be an option for most obviously unless you live down the street from said regional warehouse.

Years ago I had a 1 month old set of snow tires on a vehicle. The local dealer sold them and installed them. I was going down a drive with an incline, slid into a stone retaining wall on some ice and damaged the sidewall. Snow tires from 90% of the companies out there have no warranty at all (for any amount of miles)- at least back then it was very hard to get any warranty. The dealer did nothing, and basically did not even have another single of the same model available so I had to purchase 2 new tires from them. So in some cases it does or does not pay off.

[Jong Lafitte]

No experience with Tire Rack warranty.

Discount Tire has always taken care of me, and I've had a LOT of tires repaired by them.

Same. I guess it’s not the OP’s Q but, same here. Since 1991, EVERY single vehicle in my immediate family EVERY single set. I’ve even taken a new car down to their shop and paid for their warranty for the tires that came on the car, which, they’re happy to do. I’ve gotten plugs at indie joints and done my own rotations here and there but I basically leave my tires up to them and take their advice when it comes to wear issues or “replace 1 or 4” awd issues.


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[RShea]

Same. I guess it’s not the OP’s Q but, same here. Since 1991, EVERY single vehicle in my immediate family EVERY single set. I’ve even taken a new car down to their shop and paid for their warranty for the tires that came on the car, which, they’re happy to do. I’ve gotten plugs at indie joints and done my own rotations here and there but I basically leave my tires up to them and take their advice when it comes to wear issues or “replace 1 or 4” awd issues.


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There is no close by Tire Direct shop anywhere close to my address (I know they have them in other parts of the country), so it is not an option for installation.

[Obstruction]

Not the question asked but some soap boxing on the topic of tire warranties. I never ever buy tire warranties. In fact I have never bought an extended warranty on anything- car, stereo, toaster or auto parts. I refuse to bet against myself.

Have I had some of the hundreds of tires I’ve purchased go bad before their time or get badly damaged? A few but no where near enough to justify the big outlay in $$$ that it would have cost to pay for the additional warranties to say nothing of the hassles of trying to get the vendor to cough up if I had to make a claim.

I do the research and buy the best goods that I can find and use my many years as a cheapskate to self insure against the occasional loss.

[Cruiser]

As a data point, I have $330 tire in the back of my truck right now and an appointment at discount to have it installed tomorrow cuz I picked up a screw too close to the sidewall to repair. I also never buy the certificates. Wishing I had this time though because this set of tires only have 5k miles on them...

[SumJongGuy]

I've NEVER been successful collecting warranty credit/money for treadwear of any kind from any vendor in 40 years of driving. They always give some technicality that can't always actually be proven. It was driven under inflated over inflated, alignment off, rotated too soon or too late, etc...

DT most definitely won't replace a tire with a nail/screw too close to the sidewall without the extra $$coverage. I still don't pay for that. So far only twice in the past 20 years of dealing with them has there been unrepairable damage.. And last time it was ALMOST time to replace all 4 anyway so really just once I wish I had paid the extra 80 bucks.. to get ONE 100 dollar tire... So I would have come out 20$ ahead??

Another issue is they only replace ONE and not all 4 when one gets wrecked.. I'm not a fan of driving an AWD with one brand new tire and 3 others halfway through their useful life. I've heard some places will shave the new tire tread down to match. but that sounds sketchy too..

[Danno]

Discount Tire replaced a tire for free when I blew out the sidewall shortly after purchase, and I didn't even have the road hazard warranty.

At first blush, their over the top customer service approach seemed fake to me, but after years of experiences, I've learned to just buy from them because they're good.

[SumJongGuy]

Discount Tire replaced a tire for free when I blew out the sidewall shortly after purchase, and I didn't even have the road hazard warranty.

At first blush, their over the top customer service approach seemed fake to me, but after years of experiences, I've learned to just buy from them because they're good.

Agreed. I keep going back. Brand new tire sidewall fail could very well be defect. If there is any question they do the right thing. If it's obvious damage on something that's been rolling a year I don't mind paying since I opt out of that coverage.

[Danno]

I was 4 wheeling, it wasn't a tire defect, lol. Just my driving was defective, I guess.

[bagtagley]

No info on vendors in question, but an interesting observation at Costco. Bought a set of tires for my truck there last summer. While I was being waited on a woman was in trying to make a mileage warranty claim on her tires. The tire center manager denied her claim on the basis that she didn't have tire rotations regular enough. He based that on the history in their computer, meaning they only counted rotations done at Costco. Woman argued she had them done along with oil changes elsewhere. Costco didnt' seem to care. I don't think the mileage she got to was much less than the warranty amount so that may have played into it. It would have to be pretty egregious for me to try and claim under mileage warranty.

That sucks. I've had great luck with Costco. If the mileage warranty doesn't apply, they've always given me a "corporate discount" instead. They also include road hazard with a tire purchase and I've never had issues with a claim.

[gravitylover]

I wonder if the Discount Tire > Tire Rack merger will lead to more good tire shops available. I like most things about TR and have gotten a few sets of tires from them now but am still left dealing with local shops after the purchase. We have a good chain here in the northeast, that actually started in my town, but they are conniving, scheming thieves like most corporate shops are nowadays and will tell people that don't know the difference that they need lots of work they don't actually need. A shop that only focuses on tires, brakes and suspension (the things that TR sells) with TR availability and prices and DT service and policies would be nice to have available.

[MontuckyFried]

I think that the Discount Tire experience can be highly dependent upon the individual shop, as I've had good and bad experiences with them. Recently put on a new set of tires and they gave me a great price and thankfully I sprung for the warranty because not even a month later I must've run over something on the highway that gouged it pretty bad. No blowout or flat tire (wow! They held up!) but they swapped it out for me for free with no fuss. I've never been impressed with their pricing in the past, but seems they've gotten way more aggressive lately as they beat Tire Rack on price this time. By a lot actually. I was honestly surprised, so I was glad I stopped by to give 'em another shot.

[MontuckyFried]

I wonder if the Discount Tire > Tire Rack merger will lead to more good tire shops available.

Hopefully after they've gobbled up their competition, they won't start hiking the prices back up as so often happens after mergers are successful.

[54-46]

Discount did Jack shit for me on <1000 mi tires after I hit something and had a blowout.

[RShea]

I think that the Discount Tire experience can be highly dependent upon the individual shop, as I've had good and bad experiences with them. Recently put on a new set of tires and they gave me a great price and thankfully I sprung for the warranty because not even a month later I must've run over something on the highway that gouged it pretty bad. No blowout or flat tire (wow! They held up!) but they swapped it out for me for free with no fuss. I've never been impressed with their pricing in the past, but seems they've gotten way more aggressive lately as they beat Tire Rack on price this time. By a lot actually. I was honestly surprised, so I was glad I stopped by to give 'em another shot.

I have no Discount Tire locations near- Always have dealt with the web site and customer service if needed.

The tires I am looking at are $2 price difference (without the 3 year added road hazard on the DT side.) One of the 2 had a $2 fee for old tire disposal claiming it was required by the state, but I would be the one disposing of them or the installing garage that mounts them up for me and balances them. So the state gets a few bucks from that company forwarded to them and are not going to take the old tires anywhere. So price is only pretty much different because of the 2 year road hazard from Tire Rack vs no road hazard unless I pay the 10% on top of each tire price for their 3 year warranty.