Profit on car tyres?

rubble2

This is not a moan, just after some general information.

I need two new tyres for my car, the cheapest I could find the ones I wanted was from an online supplier (£87 each) by the time you factor in delivery it came to a total of £180.

Contacted a local independent garage that I have used before for a comparitive price and to check that if I supplied the tyres they would be willing to fit them. They said that they would fit them for £11 +vat per wheel - total cost now £206.40

Garage rang me back with a fitted price for the same tyres of £230 so I asked if they could match the cheaper price, said that they couldn't and that I would be better buying them on line and getting them to fit.

So the question - is the profit on tyres so small that if they price matched the cheaper price ( a reduction of £12 per tyre) they would make no extra profit on supplying and fitting the tyres?

I can't believe that the margin on tyres would be that tight.

Anyone know how much the trade pays for tyres?

BenL

Did you ask for a specific brand?

I don't know about the specific profit on a tyre, but the tyre place next door to my wifes work has keen prices on stuff like Khumo and they shift loads and loads of them at a good price.

If you want another brand specifically they are quite expensive.

Did the fitting garage mention other tyres that they could do in the same size?

Have you tried a few more online suppliers? I prefer http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/ as they also do the fitting. They are the online presence for National Tyres so you go to their fitting centre.

Ben

rubble2

Yes, it was for a specific make and model of tyre. What surprised me was that although the local guy could supply and fit the same tyre they couldn't (or wouldn't) price match the other deal.

As the difference was only about £12.00 per tyre that would suggest that by discounting the tyres by £12.00 they would make nothing extra on the deal (they will be getting paid for the fitting costs anyway).

Just suprised that there would be so little mark up on a new tyre. I would have expected at least 40 or 50% mark up.