OK, you got the correct size tires. But you paid Michelin money for about the cheapest set of tires you could get. The Discount Tire shop near me would install a set of Michelin Defenders for $633 on your car, out the door (no alignment). Tires equivalent to what you got would be around $400 out the door (no alignment).
You’ve just learned a lesson, next time you’ll know better. Happens to all of us.
+1
If the OP had done some comparison shopping, rather than buying whatever the dealership had available, he would have found that those tires are…let’s just say…not top quality, and the price is totally out of line for tires of that quality.
And, consider this question…Have you ever before heard of Ironman tires?
If an electronics store was selling Little Gem computers, would you buy one, or would you reject that unknown name in favor of a computer made by a company about which you had heard?
Thanks All:
Despite those tires being low quality, are they still safe for me to use on my vehicle? And if they are indeed low quality, why would a dealership have them in stock?
Also, the brand name on my previous set of tires was a name I didn’t know either (and they came with the vehicle). I want to say they may have been “Kumho” brand, but I don’t think that’s correct.
Furthermore, @texases mentioned “The Discount Tire shop near me would install a set of Michelin Defenders for $633 on your car, out the door (no alignment). Tires equivalent to what you got would be around $400 out the door (no alignment).” How much would an alignment typically cost? I would think that’s an important aspect of car maintenance – are wheels alignments something that a person can do by themselves?
I contacted my local Pep Boys, and asked them if that brand is good, and if the price I paid was appropriate, they said that the price is what the average cost would be, and that the brand is a really great one. :: shrugs shoulders :: 
Asking the personnel at Pep Boys for advice regarding tire quality is tantamount to asking the cash register clerk at CVS or Walgreens for medical advice.
While we are beating a deat horse, let me add that 1010tires.com sells these exact tires for $108 each. Add about $60 per tire to mount them, get an alignment, and drive away and that’s about $675. They do not have owner reviews of the RB-12, and no tests by the staff. The price is higher at the dealer, but not really out of line for Hercules RB-12s.
Like any business, they stock a range of tires in different price points/performance.
What strikes me as odd is they didn’t offer you any choices if I just consider what you wrote as how it went down. Service people can be very good at reading body language and may have figured you were pinching pennies but should have still given you options. Once they later saw your exasperation, it may have left no doubt but even so, most people want to know options…this may be their most profitable tire and so their go to choice. If customer doesn’t ask… but I think that’s worse. Now you’re asking and perhaps not as satisfied as if they had told you up front it was a budget tire.
The better brands are well known. Pretty sure Ironman is like the store brand of other products. Not name brand but still functional. They may not give the same level of performance (noise, life, traction…) but are not a death trap. They have to meet a certain level of performance to be sold. Just a lesson for the next time- which may come sooner than if you bought Yokohamas for example 
Good point.
While those tires will certainly be serviceable, their tread life is likely to be shorter than a better-quality tire, and/or their wet-road traction will be less, and/or their noise level will be higher. Ergo–safe, but with some potential compromises built-in.
A coworker put Ironman tires on his truck two weeks ago, he was interested in a low cost tire. They are not the worst tire, just don’t compete well with the top brands.
Hercules/Ironman tires are manufactured by Cooper tires, I trust them over the off brands that are coming from China and Vietnam.
3 hours waiting time on an oil change, a little long, but that’s probably what I’d expect if I had one done at an inde shop. I’d just plan to have other stuff to occupy my time for 3 hours. There’s no need to buy tires from a dealership. At the minimum you should compare their cost to other vendors. Every city seems to have a street with a lot of tire stores. Next time you need tires, drive there and take a little walk up and down that street stopping at each tire store. Try to visit at least 4 tire stores. Last time I did this, I visited 8 stores. Do a little research beforehand so you have a short list or 2 or 3 make/models of tires you’re interested in, read what Consumer’s Reports says in their most recent tire report, see what those tires cost at TireRack.Com, Walmart.com. And check the brand’s websites, see if they are offering any discount coupons or rebates. As you walk from tire store to tire store you’ll likely notice the tire prices aren’t that much different store to store, but the quality of service during your visit, and the perks they offer on the tires may be enough to sway you to one store vs another. If you are a Costco member, they usually offer competitive pricing on tires and have done a good job for me anyway. Ask if you try Costco if they honor manufacturers rebates though. I’ve heard they may have stopped.
The result of my tire shopping, I purchased 4 tires at $53 each. $2/tire Calif excise tax. And sales tax. '$240 total. That was the total amount as I mounted and balanced the tires myself. 13 inch tires aren’t nearly as expensive as the bigger ones, but they are still just as round.
I just read that Cooper manufactures Hercules, too. It appears that Cooper does it for Hercules. Hercules is not a Cooper brand. It looks to me that it is probably like OEM tires, where Hercules provides Cooper with a purchase spec and Cooper delivers.
All tires sold in the U.S. must meet Department of Transportation safety standards. Yes, you can count on them being safe.
My suggestion is to enjoy your ride and, during those lazy periods at home, familiarize yourself with various tires for your vehicle on the Tirerack website, for future reference. 1010tires used to have good reviews as well, but I haven’t visited there for some time. www.carbibles.com is a good primer on tire information as well. It’s a teaching site, and it’s free.
Just because they are cheap though doesn’t meant they aren’t any good. Might be noisier, wear out faster, etc. as said above. The big thing is you paid too much.
Like I said before, I had about a year to go with my Riviera and needed tires. I also needed white walls so my choices were limited. I didn’t want to invest in Goodyear tires for a year before I junked it so they sold me some no name tires I assume were from China. It was about $400 out the door and I never could figure out who made them. But they were very nice tires. Good traction in snow and rain, quiet, etc. I actually liked them. No idea how they wore though since the car got junked.
The amount paid is rather foggy, not sure if it was too much as $60 for a wheel alignment and oil change is unrealistic.
Where I work the tires would have to be approximately $400 to have a final bill of $760.
Mounting and balancing, wheel alignment, sales tax and shop supplies would come to $300.
Thanks everyone for your feedback. Next time I’ll definitely keep track of my tire treading to see if they need to be replaced & I’ll be sure to shop around first to see if I can find better deals.
One last thing: Is there a way to decipher what the following codes/terminologies mean for future reference:
• Ironman Radial RB12 (I take it this is the particular brand name?)
• DOT YCMK HPCR 2017
• Treadwear 440 Traction A Temperature B
• 215/65R16 98T M+S
Here’s a link to a primer on tires.
http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html
Yep, from the DOT number you should be able to tell the date of manufacture and the actual plant the tire was made in. I used to have a site book marked with all the plant codes but couldn’t find it again. Those letters though didn’t seem to bring many results but I didn’t try very hard.
Does anyone here ever buy used tires? I got to thinking maybe you could buy used tires on the cheap, like from a wrecked car at the junkyard, or sometimes people replace their tires for a non-tread-wear reason, didn’t like the appearance, etc. Or they replaced the tires early, just to be safe, when there was still 15,000 miles left on the old ones.
I seem to remember people talking about buying used tires years ago, like in the 60’s. But I don’t recall any conversations here about that topic now.
I would be as likely to buy used tires as I would be to buy used condoms.
I’m sorry, but my desire to be thrifty ends as soon as health or safety issues are involved.
I did a Google search and there’s several stores that seem to sell used tires here in San Jose, one is called Farmer Jones Used Tire Store. I’ll have to stop and check them out.
Why would you even consider that?