I have Acura RDX 2015, at 36,000 miles now. At last service (at 31,000 miles), they recommended changing tires. At the upcoming service, they will definitely ask to change. Especially when I am in Washington state, the next few months will be the wet season.
I will be leaving this country and I will sell it after 3 months. But I don’t want to take risk of driving with bald tires in rainy state.
Instead of buying ‘excellent’ tires (like Goodyear or Bridgestone), if I get installed some cheap tires, would it impact my re-sale value?
Something like these tires -->
If my car goes to some car-sale-shop, do they check tires carefully and can reduce a big price?
Thanks
This is the first time for me, I would sell any car, so trying to have some idea.
If it has reasonably new tires there will not be enough price reduction to even matter . When used dealers have to put tires on the trade ins they certainly don’t use expensive tires.
It’s only a hundred bucks or maybe two between marginal and very good tires. Wouldn’t you rather have some tires you have confidence in - and that show good sense and not penny-pinching?
BTW the new Consumer Reports tire comparison ratings are now available, as they are every November.
If you have some no-name Chinese tires, some eyebrows might be raised, it really depends on the place, an independent lot probably wouldn’t care. A chain or a dealership that’s part of a larger group, might not be thrilled about it.
I can tell that if you try to sell the vehicle yourself, that cheap tires are a definite red flag in my book. Cheap tires (especially on newer/premium make), would make me wonder what other corners were cut when it comes to car care. And If I were to make an offer on the car it would be reduced by how much it would cost me to put higher-quality tires on the vehicle. But that’s just me.
Tires that don’t do the car justice may cause problems with a private sale because a test drive may reveal the tires’ weaknesses. You may also endanger yourself for that 3 months you will be driving it. Take a look at the reviews at TireRack.com to get an idea of the differences among the available tires. Granted, they don’t carry cheapo off-brand tires so you won’t be able to compare those.
Yes, TireRack is a good place to make your research.
You do not need to go Michelins or some top-brand, but it’s no reason to go low-end either.
Probably you will be able to get some quite reasonable balance with somehting like Sumitomo, Kumho, General or such, where you can find quite decent models for much less than Michelins.
Check other online retailers like SimpleTire or DiscountTireDirect for example.
I would avoid Continentals, I’ve read before that they often need a special (“road-force”) balancing due to often misaligned uniformity, but dismissed that.
Regular balancing did not help me, so I needed to shell out $100 for road-force balancing, at which point all “savings” evaporated.
I paid about $1000 to put tires on my RDX. I wouldn’t put Walmart tires even on my trailer. Cheap tires on a low mileage car like that I think will be a mistake. Too bad you have to buy tires but I’ve got a feeling you’d rather drive on the bald ones in the rain than the new cheap ones.
If you’re selling it anyway, new tires (of any brand) are going to look better than bald Michelin’s, in my opinion. The average buyer isn’t going to read the brand name off the sidewall and know the quality of the tire, much less give you more or less money because it has Michelin’s vs. Fusion’s (or whatever the cheaper tire brands are). I’d say go ahead and buy some mid grade tires. You might risk balancing issues with the super cheap tires which could hurt the sale. But there’s no way I’d buy high end tires for a car I planned to drive for only 3 more months.
Most places with a road force balancer will do it as part of the tire install these days. And yeah, I agree with @bing. I paid around a grand to put tires on my TL - that’s how much good tires cost. $400 tires on an RDX - I can’t imagine how bad that quality would be.
This would seem to be a case to buy a set of used tires with 1/2 to 1/4 treadlife left.