Author Topic: Advice on new tires for Camry  (Read 7637 times)

jeromedawg

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Advice on new tires for Camry
« on: August 26, 2015, 08:43:19 PM »
Hey guys,

Looking for some advice on getting new (or used?) tires for my 93 Camry... I just put down a good chunk of change on fixing the A/C as well as going through a DIY ordeal of replacing the fender/door. My dad just pointed out that my tires are balding, which I didn't really notice too much before but did after he pointed it out.

Anyway, if I don't want to DIY it, is it a good idea just to take it to Costco or Big O? I had my mechanic put tires on previously and I think they ran in the ballpark of $300-500 at most... I'll have to pull up the paperwork. Not sure if I want to take the car back into my mechanic (he's a bit further away) or if it's OK going to Big O whatever since it would be closer by.

Or are there other/better options? Again, this would not be DIY - first I don't have jack stands, and would prefer not to use the emergency jack 4x to change out the tires. Though it would probably be a great learning experience, we just had a baby and I don't feel like risking injury LOL.


KarefulKactus15

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2015, 09:40:10 PM »
Ill post,   first, you would be a heck of a person to change tires off the rim yourself. Its possible and people used to do it, but I see no value in that unless its a lawnmower of four wheeler tire. Then you would also need to balance the tires yourself, or they would vibrate your car to pieces, so on and so forth....  Now the next item.

Ive never used costco, but price is king. With that in mind, NOT ALL TIRES ARE CREATED EQUAL. I personally only use Michelins when possible. I swear by them. Ive never had a blow out, flat or anything, maybe nails are scared of michelins? IDK.   Other people will say they are too expensive, too each their own.

With that in mind, My understanding is that your car is old. If you think you may send it to scrap yard in 20k miles, then a top shelf tire really doesn't make since, but If you can squeeze another 50k miles out of it, I would splurge on good tires. Good gripping, quite, smooth, well balanced  tires can really make a difference on an old car.  Does to me anyway.

Im almost certain everyone else will recommend getting whatever is on sale that week. My wife works for Michelin so maybe thats another reason I like them so much?


dragoncar

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2015, 10:02:14 PM »
I usually wait for a discount tire special on slickdeals.  Usually some eBay deal with free shipping and discount installation at Americas tire (affiliated brick and mortar).  If you are in a hurry, just compare Costco to discount tire.

Don't skimp.  I usually pay a bit extra for Yokohama on my Honda... Basically going by the value reviews.  It's a safety item so don't just get the cheapest thing you can find, but you don't have to pay much to get quality

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2015, 10:52:10 PM »
Get them at Walmart or get them online at tirerack and get them installed at walmart. Costco can be good value but the tires they sell are always expensive models.

No one can not beat Walmart prices on the models they carry. I have used both these options before in addition to Discount Tire & America's Tire company. Walmart doesn't try to upsell you when you go for service (free life time balancing or warranty claims). I always found these other discount retailers to be deceptive and they use high pressure sales tactics.

jeromedawg

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2015, 11:14:58 PM »
Get them at Walmart or get them online at tirerack and get them installed at walmart. Costco can be good value but the tires they sell are always expensive models.

No one can not beat Walmart prices on the models they carry. I have used both these options before in addition to Discount Tire & America's Tire company. Walmart doesn't try to upsell you when you go for service (free life time balancing or warranty claims). I always found these other discount retailers to be deceptive and they use high pressure sales tactics.

Sweet! Looks like they offer the Kumho Sense and Kumho Solus (a little more expensive) for my Camry... not sure which to get though. I read some reviews about the Solus and people weren't too enamored with them. Haven't seen much on the Sense though. If the cheaper Kumho Senses are decent, I may just go ahead and order and have them installed there. Does the cost on the website include the installation fee(s)? Or is that additional when I go to pickup? Looks like it would probably cost under $300 if I went with the Kumho Sense tires.

BTW: I noticed my mechanic has been putting 205/65R15 tires on my car but Walmart's vehicle lookup shows I 195/70R14s are what I should use. Should I just go with the 195s?

« Last Edit: August 26, 2015, 11:33:16 PM by jplee3 »

jeromedawg

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2015, 12:04:15 AM »
I usually wait for a discount tire special on slickdeals.  Usually some eBay deal with free shipping and discount installation at Americas tire (affiliated brick and mortar).  If you are in a hurry, just compare Costco to discount tire.

Don't skimp.  I usually pay a bit extra for Yokohama on my Honda... Basically going by the value reviews.  It's a safety item so don't just get the cheapest thing you can find, but you don't have to pay much to get quality

LOL I just found a deal on Kumho TA11s on Slickdeals searching the forums after seeing your post. Just ordered four for $276 (free shipping) and there's an $80 rebate, so $196 after rebate no tax and free shipping. Just have to find a place that will install them for a reasonable price.

jeromedawg

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2015, 09:31:53 AM »
Came across this article - http://www.today.com/money/best-cheap-tire-services-wal-mart-sams-costco-or-sears-1D79823875

Seems Sams Club has the most comprehensive coverage and bang for your buck... but there's not one that's really that close to me and I'm not a member. Costco came in second and I am a member, but will Costco be OK with installing tires that you bring in?

Otherwise, seems Walmart would be the fall back. It just sounds like the chains and smaller shops won't really offer the lifetime rotation, etc at least...

Gone Fishing

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2015, 09:43:53 AM »
Not sure about the TA11's but I have run 3 sets of the KR21s over the years.  I usually get 50-60k out of them, mostly highway, but some agressive mountain driving as well. They run smooth, and seem to grip fine, no strange blowouts or anything. The caveat being that tire reviews are terribly subjective when it comes to grip and noise, but I think you should be fine.  Around here, you would probably pay around $15 per tire for mounting and balancing, maybe new valve stems as well.     

dragoncar

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2015, 09:46:02 AM »
Congrats that looks like a good deal and I wish they fit my car

FYI Costco will NOT mount outside tires.  YMMV, but I brought some in because they used to do this but recently they told me no.  Since I got them from discount tire, I still had them mounted at Americas tire for something like $10/tire.  Apparently Americas tire wil charge more for outside tires too

Let us know how much Walmart is if you check.  I think a local tire place is a good option too if you are willing to call around.  I do like the free rotations provided by many places but I'm usually too lazy to do it.  Luckily it hasn't caused much uneven wear

Jeremy E.

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2015, 09:57:16 AM »
When I need tires, I check my local tire shops for used tires, and if there isn't a good deal I buy brand new Toyo Tires from Amazon and then have the tire shop mount/balance them.

Jeremy E.

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #10 on: August 27, 2015, 10:00:34 AM »
Get them at Walmart or get them online at tirerack and get them installed at walmart. Costco can be good value but the tires they sell are always expensive models.

No one can not beat Walmart prices on the models they carry. I have used both these options before in addition to Discount Tire & America's Tire company. Walmart doesn't try to upsell you when you go for service (free life time balancing or warranty claims). I always found these other discount retailers to be deceptive and they use high pressure sales tactics.

Sweet! Looks like they offer the Kumho Sense and Kumho Solus (a little more expensive) for my Camry... not sure which to get though. I read some reviews about the Solus and people weren't too enamored with them. Haven't seen much on the Sense though. If the cheaper Kumho Senses are decent, I may just go ahead and order and have them installed there. Does the cost on the website include the installation fee(s)? Or is that additional when I go to pickup? Looks like it would probably cost under $300 if I went with the Kumho Sense tires.

BTW: I noticed my mechanic has been putting 205/65R15 tires on my car but Walmart's vehicle lookup shows I 195/70R14s are what I should use. Should I just go with the 195s?
If you go with 195s you will need to buy 14" wheels too

Cole

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #11 on: August 27, 2015, 10:08:25 AM »
Get them at Walmart or get them online at tirerack and get them installed at walmart. Costco can be good value but the tires they sell are always expensive models.

No one can not beat Walmart prices on the models they carry. I have used both these options before in addition to Discount Tire & America's Tire company. Walmart doesn't try to upsell you when you go for service (free life time balancing or warranty claims). I always found these other discount retailers to be deceptive and they use high pressure sales tactics.

Sweet! Looks like they offer the Kumho Sense and Kumho Solus (a little more expensive) for my Camry... not sure which to get though. I read some reviews about the Solus and people weren't too enamored with them. Haven't seen much on the Sense though. If the cheaper Kumho Senses are decent, I may just go ahead and order and have them installed there. Does the cost on the website include the installation fee(s)? Or is that additional when I go to pickup? Looks like it would probably cost under $300 if I went with the Kumho Sense tires.

BTW: I noticed my mechanic has been putting 205/65R15 tires on my car but Walmart's vehicle lookup shows I 195/70R14s are what I should use. Should I just go with the 195s?
If you go with 195s you will need to buy 14" wheels too
The camrys of this era had two rim size options. A 15" and a 14"

I paid $300 out the door for a set of 205/65/15's at discount tire. They were the fp6000

They are one of the cheaper models but I have driven them all over the mtns summer and winter. Expensive tires have never seemed like a worthwhile expense to me.

Gone Fishing

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #12 on: August 27, 2015, 12:03:09 PM »
Where did you order them from?  I might get a set while the rebate is still active...

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #13 on: August 27, 2015, 12:09:00 PM »
At our local walmart, installation with life time rotation and balancing costs 12$ per tire. Costco charges 9$ per tire, but they may not install tires not purchased from them. It depends on the location.

Glad you got a good deal on the tires!

Gone Fishing

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #14 on: August 27, 2015, 02:51:58 PM »
Where did you order them from?  I might get a set while the rebate is still active...

Went ahead and pulled the trigger on some TA11s from Tire Crazy. Should be $172 after rebate and before install.  I can mount them, but will just need to have them balanced.  Not quite ready to try the airsoft BB method yet...

jeromedawg

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #15 on: August 27, 2015, 10:17:17 PM »
At our local walmart, installation with life time rotation and balancing costs 12$ per tire. Costco charges 9$ per tire, but they may not install tires not purchased from them. It depends on the location.

Glad you got a good deal on the tires!

There's a clause on their site that says it's $5 extra on top of the basic $12 installation/rotation/balancing service if you bring your own tires.

jeromedawg

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #16 on: September 05, 2015, 04:00:43 PM »
So the TireCrazy shipment is taking longer than expected. There's a Discount/Americas Tires sale going on right now where I can get Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus tires out the door for $503 but there's a $100 rebate for installation, $70 rebate for the Bridgestone tires, and another potential $30 rebate if I choose to finance [and pay it all of the next day or whatever]. The rebates come back in the form of prepaid cards.

Today is the last day to get in on the deal and for whatever reason, even though I placed an order online (but didn't pay), I have to actually go to the location where I'd get the tires installed and pay TODAY. They also sound like they're super busy. It seems like it'll be a big hassle to drive over there and wait in a long line just to get this deal. And who knows when the tires will actually arrive. Granted, they are better tires from what I've read and heard, but the difference is that I'd be paying $60~ more than the Kumho's I've already ordered. Of course, if I went with the Discount/Americas Tire deal, I'd cancel the TireCrazy/Kumho order.

Ughh...decisions decisions. I have until 5pm to go in and place the order. I'm feeling a combination of lazy and not wanting to leave my wife and 2wk old newborn at home for more than half an hour.

dragoncar

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #17 on: September 08, 2015, 02:16:32 PM »
So the TireCrazy shipment is taking longer than expected. There's a Discount/Americas Tires sale going on right now where I can get Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus tires out the door for $503 but there's a $100 rebate for installation, $70 rebate for the Bridgestone tires, and another potential $30 rebate if I choose to finance [and pay it all of the next day or whatever]. The rebates come back in the form of prepaid cards.

Today is the last day to get in on the deal and for whatever reason, even though I placed an order online (but didn't pay), I have to actually go to the location where I'd get the tires installed and pay TODAY. They also sound like they're super busy. It seems like it'll be a big hassle to drive over there and wait in a long line just to get this deal. And who knows when the tires will actually arrive. Granted, they are better tires from what I've read and heard, but the difference is that I'd be paying $60~ more than the Kumho's I've already ordered. Of course, if I went with the Discount/Americas Tire deal, I'd cancel the TireCrazy/Kumho order.

Ughh...decisions decisions. I have until 5pm to go in and place the order. I'm feeling a combination of lazy and not wanting to leave my wife and 2wk old newborn at home for more than half an hour.

I was regretting missing out on that kumho deal (I stupidly thought they didn't have my size), so I'll check out the discount tire deal.   Thanks

PatronWizard11

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #18 on: September 08, 2015, 04:27:09 PM »
I got Fireston to price match online tire prices.  As long it was the same exact tire. The tires were cheap  and I didn't have to pay shipping. 

dragoncar

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #19 on: September 08, 2015, 08:06:51 PM »
Ok, here's my dilemma... what you you guys think? 

I don't drive that much -- maybe 3k miles/year.  Up until now, I've figured my tires would "Age out" before the tread wore down too much.  They are 8 years old and I'd probably change them at 10 years due to age.

However, I just checked my front tire tread depth, and it's at 4/32 -- this is where I would want to replace it due to reduced wet stopping distance.  The back tires have a lot of tread left -- not sure exactly how much.  Basically I didn't rotate my tires and the front ones wore down.

So in theory I could just buy 2 new front tires, but then my per-tire cost will be much higher.  But I'd be able to delay buying the other two.

On the other hand, I can get 4 good tires at a good price using this sale -- say a set of 4 for $400, minus the $100 discount.

If I buy the four tires, I could move the 2 rear tires to the front, put 2 new tires on the rear, and keep two in reserve.  After 1-2 years, I can then replace the fronts, which will wear much faster.  Then I would start rotating them properly.

Or I could just replace all four at once -- this means I don't have to store 2 extra tires.

What do you think?

Left

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #20 on: September 08, 2015, 08:11:06 PM »
how much longer do you plan to keep the car? another option, not sure how good of one though...

buy 2 "used" tires for $100, then drive on them until you need all 4 replaced and do it then. Yes, you'd spend that $100 now, then another $400 later... not a good value for money but at 3k/year, it could be another 2-3 years?

edit: or just use the spare tire if you have a full sized one? and use the better of the two bad ones as the spare tire. Then remember to replace it later. Then all you would need is 1 tire for the time being. Probably not a good idea but hey, spare tires should be used before they expire setting there
« Last Edit: September 08, 2015, 08:14:16 PM by eyem »

Gone Fishing

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #21 on: September 09, 2015, 07:03:53 AM »
Order from Tire Crazy is still not here despite an estimated arrival date of Saturday.  Tracking info is at home, if they don't show up today, I'll have to dig in...

jeromedawg

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #22 on: September 09, 2015, 04:54:57 PM »
Order from Tire Crazy is still not here despite an estimated arrival date of Saturday.  Tracking info is at home, if they don't show up today, I'll have to dig in...

Supposedly they got an order in and started shipping them out today. lol it's funny because I emailed and left a VM yesterday requesting cancellation. Finally got through to someone today and requested to cancel and he made sure to submit the request. However, I got 4 tracking notices from Fedex that the tires would be shipping. I called back and he clarified that the orders will still be canceled and I'll be refunded... I'm heading to Discount/America's Tire after work to get the new tires on. Good timing too cause it just started pouring rain here in SoCal after 90+ degree and humid weather :O

jeromedawg

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #23 on: September 10, 2015, 10:31:36 AM »
I got my tires installed at America's Tire yesterday after work. Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus tires for $503 out the door and I should get $170 back in rebates (prepaid cards) so $333. LOL, I submitted for all the rebates while waiting there. They tried to upsell me a warranty for $54 more but I declined - others have reported success negotiating down pricing on warranties but I had no such luck, unfortunately. I was pretty impressed with their operation: was in an out in under an hour. No frills, fast-ones, or sales gimmicks attempted or pulled while I was there either. Just a straight-up tire change. But regarding the warranty, you do need to pay attention to what they charge you - he kind of tried to sneak the warranty in on me and as soon as I told him my exact quote was $503, he pointed out that it was the warranty and had no problem removing it. It could seem like a snake-move but I think that's just something consumers need to be aware of, as with shopping anywhere.

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #24 on: September 10, 2015, 10:37:49 AM »
Got my tires in yesterday, but no receipt attached, I guess I'll use my order confirmation printout to mail in for the rebate. 

jeromedawg

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Re: Advice on new tires for Camry
« Reply #25 on: September 10, 2015, 10:39:14 AM »
Got my tires in yesterday, but no receipt attached, I guess I'll use my order confirmation printout to mail in for the rebate.

I heard the Kumho rebate dept says the email order confirmation is fine BUT just in case I'd send both the email AND the invoice. Just email TireCrazy customer service for an invoice.
« Last Edit: September 10, 2015, 10:42:48 AM by jplee3 »