Tyre fitting costs

Buying tyres online and then finding it's £20 a corner to fit and balance pretty much makes the online purchase, waiting in for them to arrive, completely pointless for any potential cost saving. Tyres on the Drive were always an option for me, but now they've been taken over by Halfords, their prices have gone up. I used to pay around £10 a corner here at my local. Been using him for 23 years, only to now discover he sold out to ProTyre. Pretty much became useless and expensive overnight...
 
But does it not just work out cheaper to tell the garage what tyre you want and get them to fit it ?

If the tyres you want are £50 each, surely they'd only whack a small amount on top to fit cos they'd make a profit on the tyre ?
 
MadMan-JaMeS said:
But does it not just work out cheaper to tell the garage what tyre you want and get them to fit it ?

If the tyres you want are £50 each, surely they'd only whack a small amount on top to fit cos they'd make a profit on the tyre ?
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Exactly this. When I've then asked the price of a tyre, it might be £120 per tyre including fitting, balancing and disposal. Not worth the hassle when the alternative online tyre price is £118, and I've had to wait in, maybe pay £5 for quick delivery, then £20per corner to get them fitted. The margins of saving buying online and getting fitted are no longer as large as they were 5 or even 10 years ago.
 
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In my instance I bought the tyres when ebay was doing a 20% off voucher, so there's no chance the tyre fitter could have got close to that.

Anyway I went to a place I used to use when I lived locally, it was a little further than I planned to travel but I combined it with another trip. They charged £15 a tyre and their work is good.
 
£10 a corner is the max any more is just silly price to pay. My normal fitter says it costs him £1.50 a tyre to dispose of upto 18". So if doing all 4 corners thats £36 in his pocket for 30mins labour.
 
pigeonguyuk said:
£10 a corner is the max any more is just silly price to pay. My normal fitter says it costs him £1.50 a tyre to dispose of upto 18". So if doing all 4 corners thats £36 in his pocket for 30mins labour.
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30 minutes for four tyres seems rather fast. Perhaps if you don't have them balanced.

It's £34 based on your £10 a corner and they're pocketing the cash avoiding VAT.
 
Is there balancing, and balancing, though, too ?

in terms of, do you always expect just one weight on inside, and, one on outside of rim, so they need a full weight range?
even if you feel nothing through the steering, does that mean its good, with electric steering (never driven one), I guess, it's more isolated.
 
Electronic steering will hide a lot of it. For something with direct and unassisted steering it needs to perfectly balanced, so you need a good machine and someone competent to do it.
 
7.50p a corner under 17 inch. 10 quid a corner if bigger. includes new valve and balance. those who are paying 20 quid a corner are getting ripped silly and doesnt make sense to buy tyre online when you can get ripped at those prices at your local tyre shops. even costco are cheaper.
 
Tenner max, any more and it's just not worth it, just as well to buy the tyres including fitting. Using quidco etc the price tends to end up competitive at the high street places in my experience.
 
My local tyre place will get close enough to Internet prices that any saving is outweighed by the fact that if you buy the tyres from them they'll do it straight away or let you use the courtesy car. As opposed to the guy who had to wait for 2 hours to have his Internet tyres fitted. If I'm paying £200 a tyre then an extra few quid for convenience and keeping a good business running is a good trade for me.
 
ebay apparently -
but, I can't say I've seen a decent uncapped voucher of 20%, even 15%, that would make any tyres I'd ever bookmarked (goodyear efficient grip)
competitive against KwikFit, with £10/corner to add on.
 
Nasher said:
Electronic steering will hide a lot of it. For something with direct and unassisted steering it needs to perfectly balanced, so you need a good machine and someone competent to do it.
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How can electronic steering hide an unbalanced wheel? The wheels are still mechanically connected to the steering wheel....

Are you talking about steer by wire? That's something totally different and almost unheard of, there can't be more than a handful of producion model cars that have steer by wire.
 
Lopéz said:
How can electronic steering hide an unbalanced wheel?
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after I'd posted that, this article elaborated

https://old.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/92noiw/what_is_it_about_electric_power_steering_that/
The difference is in how hydraulic vs electric works. In hydraulic systems, the pump pressurizes fluid which goes to either a pitman arm box or a hydraulic piston or something. In any event, a valve senses the torque the driver applies to the wheel, and sends hydraulic fluid one way or the other, turning the wheels, assisting the direct link from the rack and pinion from the wheel. A really sensitive system can feel numb, but there's nothing mechanically damping forces from getting too the wheel.

In an electric system, you can either have a column mounted (CMEPAS) or rack mounted (RMEPAS) motor. CMEPAS is generally worse for this. The motor is small, about the size of a soup can. It is connected to the steering column by a high ratio reduction gearbox. A sensor detects the torque applied to the steering wheel and directs the motor controller to apply voltage to the motor one way or the other, in proportion to the torque. The problem is that to transmit road forces back to the wheel, that motor has to spin. Perhaps dozens of revolutions for a few degrees. All for an event that lasts maybe a tenth of a second. Short of hitting a curb, not much has enough power to really do that.

In RMEPAS, the motor is mounted directly to the steering rack and either doesn't have a reduction gear or is a much lower ratio. It's also, thanks to reduced packaging constraints, usually a larger motor. Even though the motor's rotating assembly is larger, it's much easier for road forces to spin it as the real kicker wasn't the mass required, but the velocity.

Additionally, such higher end RMEPAS systems are generally found on higher end cars, which these days, tend to be equipped with variable ratio steering. This puts a higher steering ratio at the center of the rack, lowering towards the rack's ends. This produces more stable highway driving, but more deadend on center feel, with a lower ratio as lock increases and noticeably better steering feel as lock increases.
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I mean it seems a lot of hassle to buy them online and have them delivered. Then cart them to your garage, pay for fitting. But i guess if you can make a decent saving it worth it.

Might not be for all of us though.
 
MadMan-JaMeS said:
I mean it seems a lot of hassle to buy them online and have them delivered. Then cart them to your garage, pay for fitting. But i guess if you can make a decent saving it worth it.

Might not be for all of us though.
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I usually order mine online and they get delivered to a National Tyres store for fitting/balancing etc. I pay online, with online prices, take the car wait 30 mins then drive away. On 2 occasions the store has called me after placing my order and told me that they have the tyres already in stock and I've had them done the same day, basically using their stock for my car then replacing with the ones I've ordered the next day.

The car is currently wearing a full set of Avon ZV7s and I got them £12 per corner cheaper than Black Circles who don't offer fitting inclusive.
 
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