I recently bought a brand new car. I want to upgrade the original basic tires for nicer ones. I’ve only driven about 200 miles on the original tires.
Would some tire shops give some store credit if I trade in the ‘old’ ones to buy new ones from them? Or would they all tell me to sell them myself on eBay or Craigslist?
(Note: I live in an apartment. I really don’t want to keep the original tires in a bedroom closet in the small-chance I need them in the future).
Thank you for suggestions.
You can ask. Most shops around here don’t sell used tires for liability purposes so I doubt it. You are much better off trying to sell them yourself though I don’t like to do it either. In the past, I have gifted them to someone in need that I knew with a limited budget.
There are shops that sell used tires, usually in the lower income sections of most towns. They don’t pay you much for used tires nor would a tire store.
Craigslist has served me pretty well for things like that but it depends very much on the area in which you live. EBay reaches a wider audience and shipping a tire is really not a big deal. You don’t have to box them up for shipping. Places like Tire Rack ship them open with a label taped on so you can too.
Big Industrail tires can net you a pretty good credit,you used to be able to sell good casings to recappers,list them on Craigs List or the local Bulletin Board(bet you want have them long,if you sell them for say,half retail,I have no qualms about buying tires like that,besides I’m a pretty avid recycler too.
Visit a couple of “used tire” shops near where you live. See what they will give you for the OEM tires? Then see what you can negotiate with a new tire retailer. In the end you might end up getting tires from Tire Rack and the shop that is getting the OEM tires can do the installation of the new ones.
You will lose money on the deal so I generally just use up the OEM tires.
Shops around here have a limited supply of used but they sell for. $20-30 so there’s not much much margin. I think you’d be better off making a deal with the dealer.
HONDA GUY 70 asked for help buying a car, help for when deal did not go well, what to service if he did not use air conditioning, what does a LOJACK type system do, and now upgrade tires. Still has not told us what kind of car he purchased that I have seen. Me thinks Honda Guy needs a hobby.
“Still has not told us what kind of car he purchased that I have seen.”
Isn’t it obvious?
He bought a 1970 Honda!
;-))
This forum IS a hobby.
I believe my independent tire dealer may give an allowance for tires that have sufficient tread and are new enough not to have deteriorated from age. In 2005, I had a blowout on our 2003 4Runner. The 4Runner had a full size spare tire, but according to the owner’s manual and the dealer, the tires all needed to match. The tires were Dunlop and the dealer didn’t handle that brand. He said he would call around, but said a new,replacement would be over $100. I agreed to let him get a replacement from another dealer. In the middle of the morning I got a call from the dealer. A customer had come in and wanted his Dunlop tires,which were the same size and tread design as mine, replaced with Michelin. He said the tires had 75% of the tread remaining and I could have a tire for $35 installed. I grabbed the offer right away. I saved a lot of money for a tire that was to be used as a spare.
@HondaGuy70 - what tires does it have now, exactly (make/model/size)? They’d have to be REALLY bad before I’d spend the money to replace them.
It would also be nice to know what car. Some cars no longer come with spares and come with “run flat” tires to compensate. Some come with low rolling resistance tires and mileage might be compromised if the tires are changed. If you’re comfortable accepting the tradeoffs, then by all means get the tires you want, however we cannot speak for any tire store on whether they’ll give you credit for the current tires and if so how much. They might even charge you a “disposal fee”.
200 miles or not, those are used tires. Not many, if any, tire stores are interested in your used tires. Unless you have a warranty claim, they aren’t going to compensate you for swapping them out. The time to negotiate on tires was when you bought the car. Many times I have insisted on a tire swap prior to purchase. Sometimes I paid a slight premium for the switch, others, they sucked it up as part of the deal. Once you drive off on them, they are yours. Being in an apartment will limit your ability to sell them on your own. Some independent shops might pay you a token sum for the old tires when you buy new tires from them. I’d be surprised if it was more than a fraction of their actual residual value…
Good news! OEM tires don’t often last much longer than 40,000 miles. Use them for a couple of years and then change.
“OEM tires don’t often last much longer than 40,000 miles.”
+1
And, it is not unusual for some of those OEM tires to be ready for replacement after only 25k miles. I also recommend that the OP…wear-out the OEM tires…and then buy the tires of his own choosing.
@texases. I agree. Even the worse of many OEM still ride decently and may lack snow traction or have a short ltread life. Either way, depending upon where you live, you could just try to live with them for a while. After all, the tires are the most important aspect of any cars performance so they could not have been too bad if you bought the car. The Truck I bought last year has real crappy AT tires…but, I use snow tires during the winter and don’t expect a lot out of them. They ride comfy and are quiet but will fold up their tent early. That’s ok as we will keep them until then.
Many tire shops will take your slightly worn tires from you sure, but you’ll take a bath on the price they’ll give you for them. If you have the financial resources to absorb the $$-hit to your wallet, do a deal with a tire shop. My experience agrees with the posts above, the tires that come on new cars tend to not last a lot of miles. So if you trade those away and get new ones, you’ll have the tires you want, and they’ll last longer than the ones on there now.
If you do a craigslist search for tires among the car parts for sale, you will undoubtedly find used tire dealers. Many of them also sell new tires. Find one of those, and they will be likely to give you the best trade in on your slightly used tires. They call them “new car take offs” and they are quite common. Consider though that the tire dealer you deal with buys his new tires wholesale. He’s not likely to give you a lot for your take offs.
I tend to agree with the others who said to just run the ones that came with the car until they become dangerous. Can they be that bad?
It’s difficult for me to believe that the existing tires are so poor as to warrant replacement so this has to boil down to some personal preference issue.
Considering tire prices I think personal preferences could be shunted aside for 25k miles or so and then consider new rubber.
If this was on a high performance car or one used at the track now and then there could be some justification for a tire change but on a daily driver grocery getter new tires is a waste of money IMO.
It’s difficult for me to believe that the existing tires are so poor as to warrant replacement
I’m guessing you never had the continentals that came on early 2000s Camrys for example. ANY moisture on the road and they would slip on takeoff. They were checked and cracked beyond belief within two years and hardly any mileage on them. Replaced with Yokohamas and a complete world of difference in every respect.
This was one of the few cars I bought new and didn’t upgrade the tires before I drove off the lot. Regretted that decision but it cemented the practice for me from then on…