Tiresome tyres - how to save some cash on your tyres

Buying tyres can be an entirely tiresome task - not to mention costly - BUT it doesn't have to be! Follow my list of tips and you can easily find yourself saving up to 30% off the cost of your replacement tyres! I've always followed this method with great success.


What you'll need:

1. Access to the YELLOW PAGES (or similar)
2. A checklist
3. About half an hour of time (but the satisfaction of knowing you've saved about 30% on each tyre should make up for the time spent)
4. A basic knowledge of your tyres

What you need to do;

Confirm the size and type of tyre you have. Briefly, a 155/80/13 means it's 155mm wide, has an aspect ratio of 80% of the width for the height from base to hub-cap, and it's a 13" wheel. So a 175/70/13 is 175mm wide, 122.5mm from base to hub-cap, and it's a 13" wheel, and so on. Go check out the car bible site for more information on tyres here.

Armed with the brand, type, and size of your tyres, you can now phone a few tyre places. I just did a trip down memory lane along the old Old Main Road (which is now Josiah Gumede or something), and then looked up the contact details of those tyre places in yellowpages.

First place we contacted told us about R550 for a tyre including balancing but not wheel alignment. REMEMBER TO ALWAYS CONFIRM IF IT INCLUDES VAT!

The second place I phoned gave me about R500. I then phoned a third place, who offered a different brand, but about R400. I then phoned some more, and told each place "so-and-so offered me the same tyre for X, can you help?" and slowly got each next shop (generally speaking) to offer a better price. I didn't make any commitments, and took my lunch break to head over to the cheapest place I could find (you don't need to book an appointment). On the way I decided to stop in at another tyre place and just said to them "I'm on my way to Y and they're doing my tyre replacement for X per tyre... can you do the same?" and they looked it up on their system, and said yes they could.

The end result was a shorter distance to travel, my tyre being replaced at R350 (yes, that's right) and my having saved R200 per tyre since the start of my day.

So, the key with tyres is simple - shop around! There's a whole bunch of tyre shops on Old Main Road in Pinetown and they're all competing with each other; they have to cycle their tyre stock as often and as regularly as possible, so they'll do what they can to secure the deal. It takes about twenty minutes at the most to have the process done, and you can often save a good deal of bucks on it. I'm sure other towns have the same sort of thing as Pinetown, so you should be literally spoiled for choice. As we go up in tyre prices, if I had replaced four tyres for R550 each, that would have cost me R2,200.00 for the whole lot, whereas with my savings, that could have been reduced to R1,400.00! R800 saved! If you can't be bothered about that sort of money, give me a shout, I'll sort out your replacement tyres with my own cash, and you pay me whatever your first quote was :)

A few quick tips of places to phone and ask (and their comparative pricing) to get you started if you're in the Westville or Pinetown area:

Hi-Q 031 7020351
Pinetown Tyre & Exhaust 031 7027386
Wheel 'N Steel 031 7025308