I have ordered the new tyres for my GS

[serbarry]

After the retirement of my trusted tyres garage 3 months ago, I have been looking for another garage and I have enquired about prices and tyres brands knowing that now at the end of the month I would have to buy new tyres for my car. Well, after visiting 4 different tyres shops and been told that every one of them had top quality tyres, even though the brands were unknown to me (but also to tyre reviews websites), and unless I went for premium brands at crazy prices (170-230 euros per tyre), these unknown brands were priced at 110-130 euros per tyre. So I eventually ordered online 4 Nexen N Fera SU4 (after suggestion of a friend who has tried them and after reading many positive reviews) which were labelled B on fuel consumption and A on wet grip. I paid 459.20 euros in total with free shipping to my new trusted garage which will fit them for an additional 23.50 euros per tyre. I found ridiculous that many tyres garages refuse to fit the tyres which they do not sell and a few of them charge for fitting according to the size of the tyre and in my case it would have been 33.50 euros. I think it is ridiculous that the size of the tyre changes the price for fitting like if it was an enormous extra work to fit my 245/40/18 compared to 185 or 195. Just stupid for me.  

[Linas.P]

Never heard anyone in UK charging extra for fitting any standard sized tyres... perhaps some 24" or "stretched" set-ups, but not for 18" 245 tyre... an Irish thing? 

As for the choice of the tyres, it is always compromise. My first experience with Nexen was as it happened on my first Lexus and I was massively disappointed and never consider Nexen as a brand again. That was very long time ago and if memory serves the tyres model were something like N2000 or N5000, I literally could not accept the tyres and replaced them less than 100 miles later (I think it was exactly 200km). Main issue was unpredictable understeer on wet and noise... obviously that means nothing when talking about N Fera SU4, which is completely different tyre design 10 years later.

I know for a fact that Nexen has improved significantly since my experience, but I still consider them budget brand perhaps trending to mid-range now, which is why I just can't accept their pricing... as they price themselves like premium tyres.  

[serbarry]

Edit

[serbarry]

On 10/16/2023 at 2:54 PM, Linas.P said:

Never heard anyone in UK charging extra for fitting any standard sized tyres... perhaps some 24" or "stretched" set-ups, but not for 18" 245 tyre... an Irish thing? 

As for the choice of the tyres, it is always compromise. My first experience with Nexen was as it happened on my first Lexus and I was massively disappointed and never consider Nexen as a brand again. That was very long time ago and if memory serves the tyres model were something like N2000 or N5000, I literally could not accept the tyres and replaced them less than 100 miles later (I think it was exactly 200km). Main issue was unpredictable understeer on wet and noise... obviously that means nothing when talking about N Fera SU4, which is completely different tyre design 10 years later.

I know for a fact that Nexen has improved significantly since my experience, but I still consider them budget brand perhaps trending to mid-range now, which is why I just can't accept their pricing... as they price themselves like premium tyres.  

I suppose that if you bring the tyres ordered online any garage would charge you for fitting them. What I find ridiculous is that the price for fitting varies according to the size of the tyre for some garages. As for Nexen 111.36 euros per tyre does not seem to me a premium price given the size. For same label on wet and fuel consumption all other brands I checked were between 130 and 180 euros and were mostly famous brands.  

[Linas.P]

Yes - I got that, but in UK it is usually £10-20 per tyre regardless of the size. 

Sorry - I misread your statement, for some reason I thought you paid 130 and 170 respectively, as if you had staggered set-up. 111euro is firmly in mid-range for 18", I have recently paid £363 for set of Yokohama tyres (+fitting), but it is staggered set of 225s and 245s, 225s were ~£78 per tyre, but 245s were more like £102. As well I would trust Yokohama more than Nexen in general, but again that is based really on having very poor experience with Nexen like 10 years ago, so not exactly rational.

[HighlandJohn]

I have in the past run both Nexen and Falken tyres on a variety of BMW models and found them 'adequate', given that they were regarded as mid-range.That said, I live where the nearest motorway is c 150 miles away and drive like I'm not in a race - NOT suggesting you do].

Garages here charge c £20>30 for 'customer supplied' tyres, in fact some refuse to fit either tyres or parts not bought from them, as there is the disposal fee to cover and the possibility of liability if there's e.g. a crash and they're found to have fitted defective parts supplied by the customer.

Life used to be simple.....

[J Henderson]

I was charged £20 to have a loose 245/40R18 tyre fitted a couple of weeks ago.

It just seems like that's the going rate now. One of those things that cost £10 forever, and now it's suddenly £20.

Years ago it might be prudent to order tyres online and then get them fitted locally, but now, not so much. That's if you can find someplace that will actually agree to do it.

[Littorio]

If you order tires from Black Circle you pay for the tires to be delivered to a selected garage of your choice from a list on the site with fitting included in the price. Used them several years ago on my old Volvo XC70 which had not very common SUV rated tires so most garages I visited didn't have any and didn't even offer to order any.

https://www.blackcircles.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvOKmre79gQMVRYRLBR3rAwyEEAAYAiAAEgIJAfD_BwE

[HighlandJohn]

1 hour ago, Littorio said:

If you order tires from Black Circle you pay for the tires to be delivered to a selected garage of your choice from a list on the site with fitting included in the price. Used them several years ago on my old Volvo XC70 which had not very common SUV rated tires so most garages I visited didn't have any and didn't even offer to order any.

https://www.blackcircles.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvOKmre79gQMVRYRLBR3rAwyEEAAYAiAAEgIJAfD_BwE

All well and good, but their nearest fitting garage to me involves a 45 mile round trip - with fuel currently at £1.57 per litre you're looking at a couple of gallons.....

[serbarry]

5 hours ago, HighlandJohn said:

I have in the past run both Nexen and Falken tyres on a variety of BMW models and found them 'adequate', given that they were regarded as mid-range.That said, I live where the nearest motorway is c 150 miles away and drive like I'm not in a race - NOT suggesting you do].

Garages here charge c £20>30 for 'customer supplied' tyres, in fact some refuse to fit either tyres or parts not bought from them, as there is the disposal fee to cover and the possibility of liability if there's e.g. a crash and they're found to have fitted defective parts supplied by the customer.

Life used to be simple.....

For me the liability of the garage in case of crash is just an excuse: it's actually the opposite: they can't be responsible for the tyres exactly because they didn't provide them but they only fitted them. If there's a crash is the only responsibility of the customer who ordered them online. How can a garage be liable for something he didn't sell? The truth for me is that by refusing to fit the tyres ordered online they try to discourage people from buying online hoping to sell them their tyres. Obviously most of the profit for a tyres garage comes from selling the tyres and only fitting them is a minimum profit.

[serbarry]

1 hour ago, Littorio said:

If you order tires from Black Circle you pay for the tires to be delivered to a selected garage of your choice from a list on the site with fitting included in the price. Used them several years ago on my old Volvo XC70 which had not very common SUV rated tires so most garages I visited didn't have any and didn't even offer to order any.

https://www.blackcircles.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvOKmre79gQMVRYRLBR3rAwyEEAAYAiAAEgIJAfD_BwE

The website I used, tirendo.ie, also has a list of fitting garages with affordable prices for fitting. Unfortunately the list is not updated and I have personally informed the website that most of their partner fitting garages simply refuse to fit the tyres ordered from tirendo.ie and the few ones which fit the tyres charge a fee which is at least double or even triple of what advertised on tirendo.ie.