Buying the cheapest tires possible

Keith Tanner said:

Be aware that cheap ebay/Amazon tires may be cheap because they're old.

For example, I just got off the phone with Simpletire.com about the new tires for my Vanagon. Tires for these things are a little hard to find as they have an unusual combination of size and load rating. They had some Nokians I wanted - but when they showed up, two of the tires had a DOT date of 4415. Now, Nokian doesn't say specifically how old is too old (they say "condition is more important") but I'll bet a local installer would probably refuse to mount these. I have requested replacements and they didn't hesitate when I mentioned it. Going with an anonymous storefront like Amazon or eBay would be a little more challenging in this case.

To follow up with this, I called Simpletire on Monday morning. Turns out they have a "no more than 4 years old" policy and are taking the tires back no questions asked. They also offered to let me keep them for a 50% discount. They're currently trying to help me find an alternative.

 Giga-tires.com also offers the same Nokians, but doesn't feel manufacturing dates are important and they don't have that information anyhow. They do offer free return shipping (on tires!) so I could order a set and see what happens. That could get old in a hurry.

I'm going to have some Michelin Pilot Sport AS4's installed on the E39 at Costco.  I was just looking to see what I could get through Costco and I saw that I had a couple days left to order in time to get a $150 discount on a set of four.

So, best solution is very good tires at a very good price.

If it was for me, I'd drive on sketchy, cheapo rubber.  But my kid drives the BMW, so Michelin.  

And speaking of the cheapest tires... I was searching my size last night and saw an ad for some NOS four season tires, 40 bucks a piece. Crazy.

I had not heard of Jinyu

In reply to John Welsh :

I did the same search last night

That sounds like a marketing opportunity for The Challenge....

In reply to Claff :

Out of couriousity  why 3 cars that are each under used?  

frenchyd said:

In reply to Claff :

Out of couriousity  why 3 cars that are each under used?  

I was waiting for this question.

One car can definitely go away, the '08. But it drives very nicely and I'm afraid that if I do get rid of it, I'm going to need another cheap NC for who knows what reason. I actually use this one the most during the winter because I don't really care if it gets dirty and rained on. Having said that, the '08 doesn't really figure into this discussion since it has its own set of wheels and tires (stock wheels and Conti DWS06) it rides on year-round. The last time I put other wheels/tires on it was a year ago when it got the ECS for a rainy autocross day.

The '10 is my autocross/track/cars & coffee car. I like it a LOT, can't see ever getting rid of it. But it doesn't get used much in the winter, probably because it gets trapped in the garage by other cars cluttering up the driveway (I haven't mentioned the two NAs also on the property).

The '13 is the wife's nice weather commuter car, and she takes it to the track a handful of times a year as well. It's automatic, which makes it the perfect commuter here in the DC area.

She can't drive the '10 with the manual either on a commute or on track (she can handle the clutch in autocross once she's out of physical therapy, which is still a few months down the road after her sixth (!) surgery on her left foot back in December).

I don't want to drive the '13 on track or autocross because the automatic sucks a lot of fun out of it. It's not terrible, but, given a choice, I'll take the '10 and its 6-speed.

So at a minimum, we'll always have two NCs that get plenty of use over the summer, but not so much over the winter. Summer tires aren't a problem: the Conti ECS on her car are just a year or so old, and I have a bunch of half-gone RE71R take-offs waiting to get used up as well. Winter tires are the issue at hand because they start dry-rotting well before the tread gets even remotely close to worn out.

I promised myself I wouldn't be critical of whatever reasons you had. I'm building a race car at age 73 and what reason could I justify criticism?  
         His and hers makes sense. His summer and  winter also makes sense ( and as a spare). 
   So no criticism there.  
    If they are inside out of sunlite I wouldn't get very wound up  until dry rot starts. But I wouldn't just buy cheap tires. 
  You obviously enjoy the capabilities of the Mazda's don't cripple them with cheap tires.  Set a schedule for replacement and just consider it the cost of ownership.  
   I'd probably use a semi decent all season on the O8 and good on your wife's but keep your summer car in  track tires and just use care when you bring it out in the winter.