Best Places to Buy Tires in 2024 - Car Talk (2024)

• Written ByCraig Fitzgerald
• 6/11/2024

Car Talk's top recommendations for the best places to buy tires in 2024 can be broken into three clear categories:

• Online Tire Retailers Like Discount Tire, SimpleTire or Amazon
• Direct Tire Brands
• Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Like Costco or Walmart

Most drivers shop for tires the same way they did in the 1950s. They arrive at either a big box retailer or a local tire shop, read the 30-year-old copy of Road and Driver and drink the 5W50-weight coffee burning on the bottom of the coffee pot and drive out hours later with a fresh set of rubber mounted to their car. You can still do it that way, and there are still some good reasons to -- we’ll get into that later -- but you’re really missing out on some of the best tire deals available and some fantastic advice if you’re not shopping for your next set of tires online.

Our 7 Favorite Online Tire Retailers

1. Discount Tire

Discount Tire is one of the biggest names in the tire industry. The company got its start selling tires out of multi-page ads in popular magazines. It was slower to capitalize on the internet, but still offers a ton of information through its website. It also offers a wider range of brands, from household names all the way down to brands you’ve never heard of before, and probably wouldn’t want to mount on a car you intended to keep. Discount Tire’s advantage over Tire Rack is that while it does ship directly to your house, it also manages a number of stores in convenient locations around the country that can handle the mounting and balancing duties.

Pros and Cons of Discount Tire

For more in-depth information, read our full Discount Tire review »

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2. SimpleTire

SimpleTire is pretty new to the game, but they are rapidly making a name for themselves. This company was created as a one-stop-shop for tires, in an effort to make the process as easy and hassle free as possible for their customers. On the SimpleTire site, you can get everything done, all at one time. Choose the tires you want, compare and contrast, schedule installation, have the tires sent to your chosen location and pay. The only thing left to do is arrive at your installation appointment. Very simple, as the name suggests. We like this company because they have a very intuitive website, which helps you make the best decision for your car. We also like SimpleTire because they have maintained a rare concept in online sales. They do not have an AI. When you contact SimpleTire online, or by phone, you will always be talking to a person. Always.

Pros and Cons of SimpleTire

For more in-depth information, read our full SimpleTire review »

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3. Amazon

Amazon.com is relatively new to the tire industry, but it’s quickly making some headway against the more recognized brands. On the plus side, if you have an Amazon Prime membership you get free shipping, which is kind of a big deal with tires. Shipping at some of the other sites can be costly, but most have eaten the cost of shipping themselves and built that into the price of the tire. Selection is sort of a plus for Amazon, too, although we say that with a caveat. Amazon will sell you a quality tire from a brand you recognize, but it will also sell you off-brand garbage that you could only call round in the most generous sense of the word. So just be sure which tire you want when you start shopping.

Pros and Cons of Amazon

For more in-depth information, read about our Amazon deals here »

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4. Goodyear

Goodyear is unique from almost all of the other tire brands we researched in that it will allow you to purchase tires via its own website, and ship them to your door, or to a local Goodyear retailer. In all honesty, we haven’t heard a lot of feedback with Goodyear’s direct tire retailing, but this is a company with a legendary brand to protect. A search of some popular tire sizes indicates that they’ll ship out a set of tires and have them mounted in two days. The downside with Goodyear is the absolute lack of anything other than Goodyear tires. Goodyears are generally great, but if you’re interested in other brands, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Pros and Cons of Goodyear

For more in-depth information, read our full Goodyear review »

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5. Tire Rack

Tire Rack is one of the largest online tire retailers. The Indianapolis, Indiana-based company got its start mail ordering tires through multi-page ads in all the enthusiast magazines. When the internet really began to take off, Tire Rack was the first retailer to capitalize on the fact that we were all goofing off online when we were supposed to be working. We bought our first set of winter tires through Tire Rack back in 2000 for a 1988 Volkswagen Jetta and they seemed to arrive before we’d even ordered them. Their site is an amazing resource of everything you could possibly want to know about tires.

Pros and Cons of Tire Rack

For more in-depth information, read our full Tire Rack review »

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6. Walmart

The retailing giant has been in the business of selling tires for years, mostly through its larger stores with garage facilities that can mount and balance your new tires, and dispose of your old ones. More recently, though, Walmart will sell you a set of tires through its website and ship them to your door for free. If you’d rather, you can have them shipped directly to a Walmart store where you can have them mounted, though not every Walmart store has a garage. The other thing to keep in mind with Walmart is that along with all of the nationally recognized brands, they also supply a startling number of questionable brands lacking anything to recommend other than the bottom-dollar price.

Pros and Cons of Walmart

For more in-depth information, read our full Walmart tires review »

7. NTB

NTB stands for “National Tire and Battery” -- the “B” added in 1997 when Sears consolidated Tire America and National Tire Warehouse and began selling its DieHard brand of batteries through the new chain. In one of a series of wrong decisions, Sears sold off the chain of 226 stores in 2003, leaving it to prosper ever since. NTB offers a wide range of popular brands and unlike some of its competitors, there aren’t any weirdo off-brands in its stable. You can buy online via its website and have the tires shipped to you, or you can ship to any one of its service centers to have the tires mounted and balanced, and your old tires disposed of.

Pros and Cons of NTB

Honorable Mentions

TireBuyer

TireBuyer is a similar business model to Tire Rack and Discount Tire. This popular option in the tire space allows you to shop tires, purchase them, and have them shipped to an installer near you.

Costco Tire Center

Costco is a membership-only big box store that offers low prices on some of the best tires in the industry. Costco members can book their tire appointment online, over the phone, or in the store. You can read more about Costco Tire Center in our thorough review here.

Big O Tires

Big O Tires is most similar to Discount Tire, as they offer both online tire shopping and an in-store experience. The company has over 450 locations in 23 states and offers excellent deals on quality tires.

Why buy tires online

There are at least five great reasons to choose an online tire retailer:

• Price
• Selection
• Customer service
• Fast shipping
• Excellent information

Price

A lot of your purchase decision is probably going to come down to price. If there’s a $50 difference between an online retailer and your local tire shop, that’s probably going to be reason enough to select the online site. But it’s usually not that easy. Recently, we were looking for an odd-sized 13-inch radial tire for a 1965 Corvair and managed to beat one of the major online retailers on price when you factored in the cost of mount and balance.

In reality, pricing on the most popular, brand name tires are going to be very similar from one place to another.

Selection

Here’s where an online retailer can often beat the pants off of a local shop, even some of the larger regional chain stores. Say you’ve been reading reviews on winter tires. The Michelin and Pirelli offerings seem good, but the reviews for the Nokian Hakkapeliitta IIs seem like they’re right up your studdable alley. The only problem is that you live in Jackman, Maine, and the closest Nokian dealer is 85 miles away. An online retailer will typically offer a wider selection than Joe Bob’s Tire Emporium in town.

Customer service

We’re not knocking local tire shops at all, but a lot of online tire retailers have gotten customer service down to a science. FAQs can generally answer most of the simple questions, online chat functions allow you to ask questions and get answers instantly, and if you’re more of a telephone person, you can ring up a customer support specialist during business hours and early on a Saturday.

Fast shipping

A few years back, my wife bought a 2003 BMW 5 Series over the Christmas/New Year break. By the time we got it home and registered, I was two days away from boarding an aircraft with the Car Talk team to fly to Havana for a week (yes, work related). Hours after our flight was due to leave, a major winter storm was headed to Our Fair City, which would’ve left my wife stranded on the performance “all-season” tires the BMW is equipped with.

Tire Rack really came to our rescue. They shipped out a set of Michelin X-Ice winter tires, mounted on a set of aluminum wheels, and they arrived at our house in ONE DAY. It felt like all I did was think about ordering them and BAM, there they were in front of the garage. I put the new wheels and tires on in an hour and left for my flight knowing that while I was on my 10th Cuba Libre in a cafe in Havana, Lisa was home shoveling out a car that could get her to work safely and confidently.

Excellent information

The least appreciated aspect of a lot of online retailers is the volume of information they provide on available tires. Knowing nothing other than the year, make and model of your car, you can research the original equipment tire, suggested replacements, winter tires, and reviews from people who have paid their own hard-earned money for them. Even if you decide to purchase from a conventional brick-and-mortar retailer, there’s no substitute for the information you can glean from an online retailer’s site.

Why we trust these online tire retailers

Collectively, we’ve got more than a century of experience buying tires for everything from the cheapest high-school beater to relatively expensive sports cars. We’ve purchased tires from just about everyone you can imagine, including the local gas station, and even once a towing company. We have also used these specific tire retailers ourselves, and many others.

We examined how each of these tire retailers stack up in terms of price, customer service, easy of use, online ratings and our own personal experiences. Car Talk researches referenced review sites and the Better Business Bureau to determine the validity and worth of these online tire retailers.

We also surveyed price, user experience, delivery and installation offerings and all the pertinent information available to us to help you made a good decision on which retailer will best fit your needs while staying within your budget.

Our methodology

Our methodology is based on over 30 data points. Car Talk researchers took an in-depth look into the tire industry.

• Consumer Satisfaction: Consumers provided data about what their experience was using tire models within each of these brands.

• Industry Professionals: Car Talk researchers performed a nation-wide survey of over 800 mechanics and industry professionals for their opinions.

• Government Reporting: Statistics reported for safety and durability.

• Tire Quality and Engineering: A tire brand’s overall quality and engineering or innovation influenced a consumer’s decision to purchase.

• Performance: Car Talk looked at how tires from these particular brands performed in a variety of weather conditions.

Car Talk Community's favorite tires

Car Talk's very active online Community has many interesting and thoughtful perspectives on the best tire brands in the industry, based on real life user experience and knowledge.

Read more on the Best Tires in the industry according to the Car Talk Community here.

Read more on the Best Tire Deals available here.

See our overall recommendations for Best Tires

See our recommendations for the 10 Best Tire Brands for 2024

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