6 Of The Best Tire Retailers (And 6 Of The Worst)

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Buying new tires for your vehicle can be quite a stressful experience. You have to think about whether you should buy all-season tires versus winter tires, how much of a hit your wallet is going to take for a full set of tires, whether you should prioritize overall performance or mileage estimates, and so much more.

To lessen this stress at least a little bit, you can research tips for buying new car tires, find out which tire brands reign supreme, and perhaps most importantly, discover which tire retailers offer the most rewarding tire-buying experience. It's pretty common to spot popular brands, like Goodyear or Michelin, at major tire retailers, but stock will vary among stores, and some smaller tire retailers may not always have the specific tire model or brand you're looking for.

Some tire retailers offer top-notch customer service, great selection, and multiple free perks to keep you coming back for the life of your tires, while other tire retailers leave a bad taste in your mouth with shoddy service and tires past their prime. Ultimately, the retailer you choose can truly make or break the tire-buying process, so we've got you covered with six great tire retailers to consider and six retailers you should likely avoid.

Discount Tire, also known as America's Tire in some parts of the country, is a go-to tire retailer for many people, thanks to great discounts, speedy and reliable service, and a hassle-free warranty. One Redditor asked if Discount Tire was a good place to buy tires from and received multiple comments outlining positive experiences with the chain, including the tire-buying and installation processes.

Past anecdotal customer stories show that most Discount Tire locations in the Denver, CO area have above a four-star average (many with a 4.5-star average) and over 1,000 reviews on Google Maps. Star averages are similar on Yelp, though with fewer total reviews. Turning to Trustpilot, Discount Tire has a less exciting 2.3-star average with just over 600 reviews. The chain also isn't BBB-accredited, either, if that's important to you when shopping for tires, though it does have an A+ rating from the BBB.

That said, Discount Tire is generally great at honoring a tire's warranty, as multiple Redditors confirmed, and it's one of a few tire retailers that offer free tire rotations, free air checks, and free flat tire repairs for any tire purchased from them. Plus, Discount Tire ranked third highest in overall customer satisfaction in Consumer Reports' survey.

Discount Tire acquired Tire Rack at the very end of 2021, so to Consumer Reports, their online stores are considered one and the same when surveying members on overall satisfaction at tire retailers. Both Discount Tire and Tire Rack sites rank as the third best tire retailer in this survey when pitted against 23 other retailer options.

Past this positive survey ranking, Tire Rack is also a BBB-accredited business with an A+ rating and has an impressive 4.8-star average with over 9,000 total reviews on Trustpilot. Plus, you can spot multiple positive reviews for individual tires on Tire Rack's online store. Interestingly, Tire Rack only has a 1.3-star average with just over 300 reviews at Consumer Affairs, but this doesn't seem to reflect the common opinion among online customers.

When you purchase tires through Tire Rack, you have a few options for installation. You can have them shipped to a nearby independent retailer, have Tire Rack deliver the tires to your home and install the tires on the spot, or choose a Discount Tire location and get free services for the life of the tire, including rotations, flat repairs, air checks, and balancing.

In Consumer Reports' survey on overall satisfaction among 24 tire retailer options with over 17,000 member responses, Les Schwab Tire snagged first place. In addition to a great selection of tire brands and styles and top-notch customer service, the chain offers a slew of free services, including free air for your tires regardless of whether or not you purchased them from a Les Schwab location. If you buy your tires from Les Schwab, you can also snag flat repairs, tire rotations, and rebalancing at no extra charge to you for the life of the tires.

That said, it's worth noting there aren't any reviews on Consumer Affairs for Les Schwab, the tire retailer isn't BBB-accredited, and a few comments on a recent Reddit thread suggest that the quality of Les Schwab locations has gone down in recent years. Like many chain retailers, Les Schwab customer service can vary greatly based on location, so it's worth checking out local reviews on Google Maps. For what it's worth, Les Schwab Tire Center locations in the Denver, CO area average around 4.4 stars with between 200 and 500 reviews.

Costco can be one of the best places to buy tires from, though experiences can vary based on the location you go to. Among the roughly 17,000 members surveyed by Consumer Reports on overall satisfaction at tire retailers, Costco ranked seventh highest out of 24 total retailer options. However, it's worth noting that Costco Tires has an average of 1.5 stars with over 450 reviews on Consumer Affairs and an average of three stars on Google Maps in the Denver area, though a few locations have between 4 and 4.5 stars.

Another perk to Costco is that it tends to have great deals on popular tire brands, and the company offers multiple free services with the purchase of new tires, like free rotations, balancing, inflation checks, and flat repairs. Other wholesale clubs, like Sam's Club and BJ's, also offer free rotations and other services when you purchase tires from them, but they rank lower among Consumer Reports members when it comes to satisfaction.

Considering Goodyear ranks highly on our list of every major tire service company, it's no surprise the company landed a spot here as one of the best retailers to buy tires from as well. Customers on Google Maps seem to agree, as the chain has between a 4.1- and 4.5-star average, at least at locations in the Denver area. However, it's worth pointing out that these reviews are for all services performed at a Goodyear center, not just tire-buying experiences.

Similarly, Goodyear is BBB-accredited with an A+ rating, and has poor reviews at Trustpilot and Consumer Affairs, though with only about 100 to 200 reviews. When it comes to overall satisfaction with buying tires specifically, we can utilize Consumer Reports' survey of its 17,000 members for a good estimate. Customers favor Goodyear well, ultimately ranking it at the high end of the middle against 24 total retailers.

For many people on Reddit and other forums, your local mechanic is the most recommended place to shop for your tires. This will require more research on your part, like discussing word-of-mouth recommendations with friends and family or poring over recent reviews on Google Maps, Yelp, and other sources to find trusted independent mechanics, but you're ultimately supporting your local community and likely getting better service than you'll find at chain tire retailers.

If you're on a budget and your local tire retailer has to mark up tires quite a bit, or if your local shop simply lacks options, there's a workaround mentioned by multiple customers online. People suggest purchasing your tires from an online tire retailer, like Tire Rack, and having them shipped to your local mechanic's shop to have them installed and balanced. This way, you snag the best prices on the tires you want while supporting a local shop.

If you're shopping for new tires on a budget, Walmart might be one of the first places you want to check, but you may want to think twice. In the Consumer Reports survey on overall satisfaction among tire retailers, Walmart ranked dead last when pitted against 23 alternative options. You shouldn't steer clear of Walmart just to avoid buying cheap tires; instead, Walmart's Auto Care Centers typically aren't recommended due to poor quality service and questionable tire selection.

Looking at the retailer's online store, Walmart sells tires from lesser-known brands that aren't nearly as reliable as popular favorites. According to multiple comments in a Reddit thread, it's a good idea to prioritize reputable brands over deals that seem too good to be true. It's generally okay to buy Goodyear, Michelin, or other top-brand tires from Walmart, but a few mechanics have recommended getting them installed elsewhere to avoid poor service.

Every location is different, but all of the Walmart Auto Care Centers in the Denver area average around three stars on Google Maps, at the time of writing. Granted, some disgruntled customers on Google Maps went in for an oil change or another basic service, not buying a set of new tires.

According to Consumer Reports ' conducted survey, Walmart might be the least satisfying tire retailer to shop at, but Pep Boys is close behind as the second-worst retailer you can buy tires from. Pep Boys is a BBB-accredited business with an A+ rating, but that singular positive feature doesn't tell the whole story.

On Trustpilot and Consumer Affairs, Pep Boys has an unimpressive average rating of 1.8 stars with about 200 reviews and 1.6 stars with over 1,000 reviews, respectively. Of course, these average ratings include experiences from customers receiving an oil change, brake service, and other repair or maintenance services in addition to buying tires.

One Redditor buying tires from Pep Boys mentions a shady experience in which the store tried to replace working shocks, and unfortunately, many Pep Boys customers and even former employees say this isn't uncommon, and that the store is often encouraged to upcharge and sell unnecessary services to its customers. In addition to this dubious business practice, another Reddit user describes a tire-buying encounter in which the seemingly new tires they had ordered from Pep Boys were actually seven years old.

When it comes to outfitting your vehicle with new tires, a dealership typically isn't the best place to shop. Granted, customers awarded dealerships a relatively favorable overall satisfaction score in a survey conducted by Consumer Reports, but it's still middle of the road when compared against a total of 24 tire retailers.

Generally speaking, people on Reddit report seeing higher prices when shopping at dealerships versus major tire chains, like Discount Tire. Of course, this isn't always the case, and a dealership might occasionally have a better deal running on a specific tire, so it's always worth checking around before purchasing new tires anywhere.

If you've recently purchased a vehicle from a dealership, it's entirely possible you could get your tire or tires replaced under warranty for free. It is ordinarily covered only if you've run over a nail or encountered another road hazard that shortens the typical life of a new tire. For new tire purchases, expect to pay full price at a dealership.

Mavis Discount Tire has a mix of positive and negative customer reviews as a tire retailer. On one hand, thousands of customers on Google Maps in New York, over 5,000 people on Consumer Affairs, and a whopping 30,000 customers on Trustpilot seem to love the chain, awarding between 4.4 and 4.7 stars on average. On the flipside, Consumer Reports conducted a survey with 17,000 of its members and Mavis Discount Tire ranked third to last with overall satisfaction.

A few Reddit users seem to share opinions with Consumer Reports members, including one Redditor expressing annoyance at seemingly being scammed by a Mavis Discount Tire location in New Jersey and another Redditor revealing a strange warning their girlfriend received after getting new tires from Mavis, in which an employee told her to get the lug nuts checked after about 25 miles. Some comments suggested this is a common practice, mainly to cover the chain liability-wise just in case, while others assert that a tire torqued to spec shouldn't need to be re-torqued.

National Tire & Battery, or more commonly referred to as NTB, is a decent middle-of-the-road tire retailer if none of the best options on this list are available. When looking at multiple locations on Google Maps in the Dallas, TX area, they tend to average between 4.1 and 4.5 stars with at least 700 reviews each. However, it's impossible to know how many of these reviews might have been written in exchange for a coupon or potentially added just to boost the overall score.

Turning to Consumer Affairs and Trustpilot, NTB's average rating drops to 3.9 stars with nearly 900 and about 100 reviews, respectively. This rating appears to more accurately represent findings from Consumer Reports in its survey on overall customer satisfaction at tire retailers. In this survey, NTB Tire & Service Centers was in the bottom 10 when compared against 24 total retailers. The chain sells some of the longest-lasting tires people tend to seek out. However, when it comes to installing and servicing them, customers tend to have issues, according to multiple one-star reviews on the various platforms mentioned.

To its benefit, Amazon offers fantastic deals on tech, power tools, household appliances, and so much more. However, it's not the best place to buy tires. One Reddit user reports getting "counterfeit garbage" through Amazon, with misspelled words and transposed digits in the max load number indicating they weren't actually from the manufacturer the customer ordered. Other Reddit comments agree with this assessment, saying they got tires that look used or tires that were more than three years old, with one person specifically noting that their local tire shops won't even install tires that old.

Some tire-buying Amazon customers on Reddit have had positive experiences, snagging great deals and actually receiving the correct tires ordered. However, these positive situations seem to be much less common than the negative ones, despite many highly-rated tire options from reputable brands popping up when searching for tires at Amazon's online store.

According to Consumer Reports' survey of overall satisfaction with 24 total tire retailers, Amazon ranks roughly in the middle. Amazon is BBB-accredited with an A+ rating, though the company has three alerts regarding marketplace conduct on its profile. The company has poor rating averages of 1.7 stars on Trustpilot and 1.3 stars at Consumer Affairs, but this is for the company in general, not specifically the tire portion of the retailer's website.

To compile this list of the best retailers to buy tires from, we started with a survey by Consumer Reports to find the most and least satisfying tire retailers. With that information in mind, we looked at these tire retailers (as well as some others not mentioned by Consumer Reports) in depth in reputable databases, including Better Business Bureau (BBB), Consumer Affairs, Trustpilot, and a few other aggregated review sources.

Furthermore, we paid attention to anecdotal experiences from tire-buying customers and mechanics through Reddit and other forums, looking closely at the specific reasons people liked or didn't like a tire retailer and whether other customers shared these experiences.

Multiple tire retailers offer free life-of-the-tire services as a bonus for purchasing tires from them. When compiling this list, whether or not a retailer offers these free services was also considered.