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Reason to buy new tires: FREE rotate balance!

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by naterprius, Nov 7, 2005.

  1. naterprius

    naterprius Senior Member

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    So, the final carrot for me to buy new Michelin Hydroedges for my 1 year old (12,000 mile) Prius is the dealer charge to rotate and balance tires: $30. If I do this every 5000 miles like tire manufacturer recommends, I'll pay $540 over 90,000 miles. My new tires come with a 90,000 mile tread life warranty. Over that same time, I'll pay nothing for rotate/ balance, only the $400 or so for new tires now. If I had been really smart, and traded in the Integrity's on day one, maybe I would have gotten $100 or so off.

    Given this math, and the fact that you upgrade tire quality, I urge everyone to consider this.

    Nate
     
    #1 naterprius, Nov 7, 2005
  2. notsure

    notsure New Member

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    What tire dealer? discount?
     
    #2 notsure, Nov 7, 2005
  3. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    That's a really good point...one I hadn't done the math on.

    I got my HydroEdges through Sam's Club. I think they charged ~$10/tire to mount and balance. But this includes free rotation and balance every 7500 miles.

    Like you say, figuring that charge into the equasion, even if you only actually did the rotate/balance every 10k miles with the Integrities would save you $100 on the HydroEdge over the realistic life of the Integrities.
     
    #3 efusco, Nov 7, 2005
  4. naterprius

    naterprius Senior Member

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    Forgot to post which dealer, I'm going with Costco. They want $109 per tire, but were offering a $60 discount if I buy four (special that comes and goes at Costco). That puts me at $94 per tire installed (plus tax, but in fairness, I pay tax on the $30 rotate and balance as well!)

    As for trade in, you may only be able to trade in at Discount or Big O or something like that, and you may only be able to trade for other Good Years.

    Nate
     
    #4 naterprius, Nov 7, 2005
  5. Maytrix

    Maytrix Member

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    The only problem is that while your math works out, it doesn't take into consideration, spending $400 NOW vs. spending $30 every 5000 miles. For someone who drives 15k miles a year, they'd only spend $90/year for the rotation. So, why give up perfectly good tires?
     
    #5 Maytrix, Nov 7, 2005
  6. onerpm

    onerpm New Member

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    or, just keep the Integrities for another 30k miles (or whatever), and don't rotate 'em. (or rotate 'em yourself once in a while.) tires really don't need to be rebalanced, although it couldn't hurt.
     
    #6 onerpm, Nov 7, 2005
  7. tmorrowus

    tmorrowus Member

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    I found the free balance and rotation at costco was useless to me when I had it. I tried making use of it twice but it always took an hour or more longer than my shopping experience for them to rotate the tires. Sometimes when I went in they weren't even able to take my car.

    Most third party oil change places will rotate the tires for $10 or less (often free) while doing an oil change, and doing so only adds a few minutes on to the service time. That was a much better option for me than trying to sync up my shopping with rotations and waiting hours for "free" rotations.

    Also, if you use coupons for scheduled services at your Toyota dealer like I do, it's highly unlikely you will get them to take off $30 to not rotate your tires.

    And final death-knell for "free" rotations is that I purchased a lifetime free alignment contract for my Prius, and so the rotations get done automatically for free whenever I get an alignment.
     
    #7 tmorrowus, Nov 7, 2005
  8. tumbleweed

    tumbleweed Senior Member

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    I agree with onerpm, tires most likely will never need to be rebalanced if they are balanced correctly to start with. Only if there is a vibration or something. Someone posted what I thought was a good idea, I can't find it to give them credit but basically the idea was rotate the tires at 10K miles and again at 30K miles. If they last 40K they will have spent the same amount of time on the front as on the back. The only thing I would add to that is check the tread depth using a penny or something every 5K or so to be sure there are no alignment problems.
     
    #8 tumbleweed, Nov 7, 2005
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