Originally Posted by
Mark
165/65r14 Federal tires can be found for $40-50 most of the time. For some odd reason their price on the Walmart site really varies. Thus, it pays to check the other sites. Amazon's prices do the same thing. They are constantly changing their suppliers, & I am sure that is part of it. My small hometown tire shops will often do better than large discount chains, because they don't overcharge for their services. Competing with Walmart, however, is always a challenge.
Tires are one of the few consumer goods where the price is never the price. Tires are more like a commodity like grain, or oil. Notice that you will never see a Tire manufacturer list an MSRP? That's why. Supply and demand plays a huge part, purchase quantity plays another huge part... its all variable. Walmart is in its own little world, because they buy in such huge quantities partially, but in reality because their products are often a special SKU made just for them. The supplier thing holds some weight, because your local shop deals with multiple distributors, and sometimes product just needs to get moved and good deals can be had. Its really a weird product on a business level...
Originally Posted by
Mark
If a person needs to take on some snow with their all-season tires, the Vredestein Quatrac 5 may be the best alternative to snow tires in 165/65r14 tires. There are hundreds of reviews on these tires on tirerack.com, & customers are putting them on other vehicles like Subaru, BMW, & other vehicles.
I noticed a set of Quatrac 5 tires on a Pontiac Vibe while my driving student was parallel parking behind it the other day. It's not a tire company I had been aware of in the past, but anyone who offers 165/65r14 tires may get a look from U.S. Mirage customers.
Vredsteins have traditionally been exceptional tires.
To the OP, as the resident tire engineer, I always tell my friends to buy the best tire they can afford, from their preferred brand that they have heard of. 9 times out of 10, if you haven't heard of it, it's probably best to avoid if you can afford something else.
Resident Tire Engineer
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