Tax Rebate: Spent!

Hopefully it will arrive soon...

Back in August, we were contemplating taking the TSX on our trip to Utah rather than the Pilot. The day before leaving, I got an oil change and was told there was a nail in my tire. The Auto Doctor told me to go to a tire place and they would patch it. After we got back from the trip, I went to Discount Tire, and, surprising to me, the patch is a free service.

Two weeks ago, another nail in the tire was found (this time by me), so I go to DT to get it fixed. But this time the nail is too close to the sidewall, so the tire has to be replaced. Since the tire wasn't leaking much, I got the quote on a tire replacement and pondered my options.

The TSX has ~37,000 miles on it and the tires still had some useful tread, but not enough to deal with the inconvenience of mismatched tires, so I got Joanne's OK to get a set of new tires.

Previously, whenever I got tires, the purchase process involved going into a tire store, asking what the options are, and making some determination based on mileage warranty versus price. But that wasn't to be the case this time!

All the time I spent researching our vehicle purchases also led me to forums and sites about our cars with specific product reviews/discussions about our cars. Admittedly, these are enthusiasts who are much more into their cars than we are. In the case of my car, the posters at AcuraZine generally viewed the stock tires with disdain and the consensus best tire was the Yokahama AVID V4S.

Since the Discount was nice enough to fix my tire, I checked their prices--about $680 installed! 17" tires ain't cheap. In my "car" phase, I found a lot of people used Tire Rack, not just for research, but to purchase as well. TR ships tires to certain installers, so you get internet pricing on the tires and just pay the car place for installations. That worked out to about $580. Called Discount Tire for a price match, which they did without any real haggling. In fact, they beat it by $5.

So how are the new tires? Do they live up to their reputation? Honestly, I don't know. I think they're a little quieter. Joanne noted acceleration and braking are better. And I haven't really pushed them in the turns yet. I just don't think I'm in tune with the car enough to make be wowed by these marginal differences that may have more to do with the extra tread than the tire itself. But my point isn't so much about the outcome, as it is the process of planned replacement of something that may catastrophically fail.