Buying tires at Costco?

We recently got a Costco membership for the first time in our lives(shocking I know). I learned they are pretty competitive on price and don't charge for installation. The price also includes 5 year road hazard warranty.

I've been a loyal Discount Tire customer but I'm curious if anyone would recommend Costco instead.

Discuss.

 

I’ve always stuck with Discount basically because they are more convenient location wise. It seems like you see them everywhere. If Costco is closer to you, and check all the boxes for what you want, then why not. Go for it!

 

I have bought at Costco before, and would buy again. I just tend to buy at Discount, just because of location over Costco... Costco is 5 miles, discount is 1/2 mile, then again in 1.5, then another in 4.

 

I've only bought new tires from costco for about 10 years. Best in class.

 

Bought my last set of tires at Costco and have no complaints. To me, it would just come down to who has the tire at the best cost. Both Costco and Discount have good warranties so I don't really think one outweighs the other.

 

100% Costco is a great place to purchase tires. No customer service issues whatsoever. BUT, compared to Discount Tire they will have far fewer locations and far fewer choices of tires. Also, if you plan on oversizing Costco doesn't like to venture to much from OEM sizing. If your simply looking to replace your OEM with something of the same/similar size then Costco is perfect.

 

Does anyone just buy tires from Discount Tire with no install?

 

Have you ever used their warranty? What all does it cover?

That's true but the warranty is extra at Discount, not included. I don't buy the Discount Tire certificates.

 

I buy the certificates, and have used them several times.

 

I would never buy from Costco again. Yours may be better. The tires were wearing bad alignment was checked by Toyota and verified and they would not do a thing to replace the tires. I even had the manager at Toyota call and talk to them. The rest of my Costco is great just not the tire department.

 

Like wearing unevenly? Who made the tires?

 

I bought tires from Costco. It was easy and the most affordable option. Only downside was, I got the first appointment of the day, and the store wasn’t open yet. I had planned to get some shopping and wander around killing time.

 

I've recently been more of a Costco client for my Tundra as I use OEM sizes... Drawback is my local Costco doesn't have my SC's OEM size in stock ever so I do Discount/America's tire for them. My Celica has aftermarket 17s so it's mainly Discount/America's tire for it.

I've replaced tires with both and was pro-rated the amount. After 5 years both insurances/Warranties go away. If all options were offered, I'd stick with Costco tbh. My local customer service is superb, they couldn't find a replacement tire for a couple of days but once they got it it was replaced when I was ready. Manager apologizes monthly for the delay everytime we cross paths.

 

Does your location use a torque wrench or just ugga dugga?

 

ugga dugga once off the lift they use a torque wrench.

 

I've bought tires from Discount Tire, Costco, and from a couple other local shops. I can't complain about any of my purchases, however, the last 10 years I've only bought exclusively from Discount Tire. The reason, I bought a full set and a spare for an F-150 SuperCrew I had about 12 years ago. I wanted nothing fancy and chose a highly rated Pathfinder LT AT tire. Their inventory showed 5 tires in stock but they physically only had 3. The manager approached me and showed me all the LT AT tires they had in stock. Told me to chose what I wanted and they would honor the price of the Pathfinders. I drove away with the best they had in stock at the time, a full set plus spare of Yokohama Geolandars. The customer service of my local Discount Tire from that day won my business...and their customer service has continued to be outstanding.

 

I've bought a few sets of Michelin LTX AT2s (OE size for the '08) from them; most do charge for install, but it's nominal... Overall, their prices on tires are very competitive, but selection is limited.

If you're buying Michelin or Bridgestone, wait for their sales (they swap brands every other month).

Their pricing on TPMS if you need replacements is reasonable (couple hundred for all 4 installed).

Most (but not all) will only install within 5% of OE size.

I've used the warranty a couple of times; road hazard on one (handled as expected), and the other was an early wear on bridgestones. It was the first time I decided to use them instead of the AT2s, and they wore prematurely. I also I was under-impressed with their wet performance and they seemed to need re-balancing more frequently. So, I asked if I could use the warranty credit (pro-rated) toward AT2s, and they had no problem taking care of that request.

The last factor is the crew working; most are great and have a decent attention to detail (careful to not damage wheels, proper lug torquing, etc...), but I'm sure every location is different.

New sales seem to get handled a bit faster than re-balance, rotations, etc.. but they are still done in a reasonable amount of time usually (I think most shops take this approach, so the point is kinda moot).

 

Typically I stick with DT but I bought Blizzak tires for the Tundra and Sequoia at Costco because they were on sale and DT was out of stock.
Both sets were "oversized" but they let me bring in my wheels, they just couldn't mount them on the vehicle.

 

I have used both and been very happy with both; just comes down to who is cheaper at the time I need tires and has what I want in stock

 

I've bought tires from Costco 3 times. First 2 times were for my Civic, a set of winter tires on a smaller rim so I had to bring the wheels in off the car which isn't a big deal and a set of summer tires that I had just had the OEM rims powder coated and they scratched one, which they did pay to have fixed. I bought another set of tires a couple years later for my wife's Yukon and had them mounted onto a brand new set of rims, they scratched 3 of them. The first guy I was talking to at the time was cool about it but as the conversation went further more people came to see and the guy that did the work decided to argue with me. At that point I told them to keep the wheels and I'll be in touch. Costco ended up paying to have all the rims powder coated. So I probably wouldn't buy tires from my local Costco again but Costco did make it right both times and their prices are good.

 

Every time they touch my fiancee's car to rotate her tires they bend the rotor shield so it makes noise driving away, but other than that, they've been solid otherwise with no wheel damaging here.

 

sorta

I buy "spares" for our Tesla Model S. as they are not stock items for either Costso or Discount.

and when the wife has a flat...which is often...we don't have to wait the 3 days to get a tire.

and discount tire is very hard to beat for all the reasons listed above.

 

Costco changed up a few months ago and removed the installation fee. It is now included for no extra cost with the tire purchase.

 

I got some Micheline's from them and they were trash and on 2 cars, lasted me about 30K miles. The experience was horrendous and it took forever to get them balanced and rotated every 5K miles. Never again and it may be a local store issue not general for Costco.

By the way Discount Tire will price match + 10% off any competition. Can't go wrong with them.

 

I’ve used both. When out west discount was everywhere and convenient. In VA the closest one is in Fredericksburg. Depending on traffic it’s generally about a 45 minute drive. Costco is fine but not as quick as discount.

 

Costco is fine for stock size tire replacement, though I do not like them doing balance/rotation. They are not as good as discount tire for that.

YMMV, but I have found myself and also read posts about them refusing to install any tires larger than stock size, if you are inclined to do that. So they might refuse to install anything larger than what the sticker says in the door.

 

If they won't install 33's on my truck then I guess I'll stick with Discount Tire.

 

Yeah they're hung up on stock sizes. I had to do some fast talking to get them to put LT tires on at stock size even, since OEM is P. But they did it, and it's what I wanted, so it's been fine, but Discount Tire will do basically whatever you request.