Confessions of a Tire Salesman

Edmunds.com

Confessions of a Tire Salesman

The tire salesman's tricks and traps to get you to pay more for your tires or related auto products.

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jmylcraine

I am intrested in starting a tire store.
How much yearly income can a 4 bay store earn for a honest man?

joe2468

I know that some of these comments were "How Ya'll used to do it". But this article is also a scare tactic in some instances.
Just because you need a tire repaired and it turns out to be un-repairable, does not mean the store will over charge to match a set. There are multiple distributors in almost every area and with the internet, cuwstomers can compare and shop immediately. Just ask to see the damage.

I have been in the business for most of my life and I NEVER used some of these tactics the author used.

Find someone you trust and stay with that the person!

crystalwright

I'm just about to get some tires and this was REALLY helpful. I mean really. I'm printing it out now.

isoopto

Good information, but you'll have to decide for yourself when it is useful. I have been buying tires for 40 years and franchices are the most driven to take as much money from you as possible. It is simply part of their business model to ramp up the total.

guest2011

Just went to Mavis "Discount" Tire in NJ. Had a flat conti-POS-nental tire that could be replaced under Road Hazard warranty. Mavis didn't want to go through filing a claim. Too much paperwork, headache, patched it instead for free. Tried to upsell. It does seem like they make more money on service than rubber. With upsell comes attitude. I don't know what's worse the stealership or tire shops.

carboy21

Use Tirerack to find out the best tire for your vehicle. They will ship it to the installer of your choice. Single flat tire replacement can be put on the rear wheels and the rear tire moved to the front to match the other tire on the front. No need to buy two tires as some dealers will tell you.

zandor

Sometimes you need two or even four or have to have one shaved. That's generally for AWD or 4x4 vehicles though, and must match all usually means a high performance car. A typical FWD or RWD car with an open differential can have all 4 different and not really care (meaning the random assortment of tires won't break something and generate a big repair bill) aside from some degradation in handling. A matched set is still best though, and I think shaving doesn't happen often enough.

Personally when I need tires I start by looking at the reviews (particularly the customer reviews) on TireRack and making a list of acceptable tires. Then I see what I can get locally. A lot of times Tire Rack isn't the best deal. The problem is you have to pay shipping and you lose all the freebies a tire shop or car dealer might provide, so check the total cost first.

thecardoc3

zandor said:

Personally when I need tires I start by looking at the reviews (particularly the customer reviews) on TireRack and making a list of acceptable tires. Then I see what I can get locally. A lot of times Tire Rack isn't the best deal. The problem is you have to pay shipping and you lose all the freebies a tire shop or car dealer might provide, so check the total cost first.

This is worth repeating. "A lot of times Tire Rack isn't the best deal." and as you point out that goes beyond just what the tire's price might be. Losing all of the other services that shops would provide as they try to compete for your business amounts to a lot of value that has to be sacrificed to shave a little off of a price. Some have tried to twist that by claiming that some shops will still provide those services when required and may even do it at a pricing level that can only be considered as cut throat as they try to earn all of your business back. As a consumer you need to know that was a mistake by any business owner that attempted to do that and there is a cost for that mistake that is getting to be more evident everyday.

Question. Ten years ago how many shops where in your area? How many are there now? How old are the techs then? How old are they now? If you have a newer vehicle how many places can you take it for every possible issue that could arise? What are you going to do as those choices continue to dwindle?

Oh, you didn't know that your choices are going away? Articles like the one that started this thread were never about taking care of you the consumer as much as they were about attacking shops and the people that work in them. That has served to erode profits, which resulted in poor wages, and that has turned into a significant lack of qualified technicians across the country. That cost is acutely seen in one small town shop where its owner wants to retire. He needs to sell the business and the building to do that only to find that nobody wants the business. What's worse is the handful of techs that would be potential candidates don't have the business, nor the technical training that it would require even if they did have the money to lay out for the initial investment, which of course they don't. This by the way is a story that is being repeated all across the country. There are some good techs left, but most of them have been groomed to specialize so they aren't ready to work in let alone own a general shop. Most of them that have the drive to be successful and do more with their lives quickly realize that the career path is broken and that serves to chase them out of the trade well before they get good enough to do all of the work that you, the consumer may need them to do.

The real question that needs to be asked is why was it so important to vilify techs and shops on such a repetitive basis and end up where we are today? Why was it necessary to keep trying to drive a wedge between the shops and the consumers? Who benefitted from that? Certainly not the techs. It's clear that it isn't you the consumer either as that can be seen in any number of the threads in these forums where someone needs to take a car back over and over again because of a fault that just doesn't get diagnosed and repaired. Somebody had to benefit from all of this or else there would never have been a reason to do it.

The question to ask is who wins when a consumer can't get a car repaired and therefore bails on it. Answer that and a lot of the other issues will make more sense.