Not Costco, Not Sam's Club: This Woman Swears By A Cheaper Way To Buy Tires

When the time comes to replace the tires on your vehicle, there are a few different ways to get the job done. Some car owners might have their tires replaced at the recommendation of their dealer service department without giving it a second thought. Others might make a stop at their local retail tire chain or big box store like Costco or Walmart, where you can easily buy a new set of tires and have them installed, often while you wait. Though these methods have less guesswork and bring more peace of mind, they are not always the cheapest solution.

That's where a recent viral TikTok video comes in. It' reminding vehicle owners that there are other ways to buy new tires that could be substantially cheaper than the aforementioned methods — and it simply involves buying them from an online seller and having them delivered to your door.

While indeed this method could save you money at the time of purchase, and for many car owners has been a proven option for saving money, the cost of the tires themselves is just one thing to consider. There are plenty of other factors to think about before buying tires from a discount online seller. These include extra mounting and balancing charges as well as the potential of being sold defective, outdated, or incorrectly-sized tires — not to mention possible customer service issues in the event you have problems.

In the viral "lifehack" video, which currently has over 56,000 likes, TikTok user teeraymond1123 shows a brand new set of tires that have just been dropped off at her door. She says that she shopped around for tires for her vehicle, getting prices at small tire shops and big box stores alike, with quotes ranging from $450 on the low end to $700 on the high end. 

While it's unclear what kind of research she did before buying tires online, she ultimately went with an online seller that had the set of four tires for $350, which she had shipped to her house. She doesn't say what brand or type of tires they are, or which company she ordered them from, but she recommends both Amazon and eBay as places to shop around. 

Though she points out that it was "way cheaper" to buy the tires online, she doesn't mention whether the quotes she got included mounting, balancing, and installation, which some tire retailers like Costco include with the price of a tire purchase. In the video, she mentions that it was going to cost her about $100 when she takes the tires to the tire shop to be installed, and this is where a fairly major risk with online tire buying emerged for her.

While the video preaches the benefits of buying tires online, it actually undermines its own premise almost immediately. Below the video, the caption states that the tire shop she went to refused to install the tires because they weren't the correct size for her vehicle. She hasn't clarified how or if the situation was resolved, but it's hard not to see this as anything but a major warning sign as it means one of a few different issues occurred.

Either the woman didn't do enough research and accidentally ordered the wrong size, she chose a different size because it was cheaper than the stock size, or she was incorrectly shipped tires in a different size than she ordered. No matter what it was, all these are potential problems that could pop up when buying tires through an online seller and then taking them to a third party for installation. 

While it's possible the tires would physically fit on her car without issue, there's something called the 3% rule for tire sizing; many shops won't install tires that are more than 3% larger or smaller than your original ones because of potential liability and safety issues. Now, all this isn't to say that you shouldn't buy tires online or that you can't save money doing it, but that there's more to the decision than just price. Given the importance of tires when it comes to vehicle safety, it's crucial to research extensively and choose a reputable seller if going this route.