Blackcircles

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I need a pair of tyres. Only baby 13" ones, so I can easily whip them off and fit new ones myself.

Over to Blackcircles and they are £30 each delivered, except they aren't, as they are actually £71.50 the pair including delivery.

Fitted, new valves, balanced and take the old ones away they are £86.50, so is it worth the hassle for £15?

I almost cracked and bought them, but National can supply the exact same tyres, fit new valves, balance and take the old ones away for £76 and some odd pence. (Actually, they want about 3p more to do a pair than 2 individual ones, but ah well....)

Gone for National as I'm certainly not getting the tyre levers out and running unbalanced for £4.

And everyone thinks Blackcircles are cheap....

Al1x

I have only ever got tyres through blackcircles fitted at a local garage and I don't remember any extra charges being added.

I agree that they aren't always cheapest, I have got a local garage to beat the black circles prices in the past.

andygb

I had a pair of 195/65/15 Avon ZV7's fitted through Blackcircles about six months ago, and the whole lot came to around £95.
I have never found Blackcircles to be more expensive than other places.

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Al1x wrote: »

I have only ever got tyres through blackcircles fitted at a local garage and I don't remember any extra charges being added.

They don't add anything to the "fully fitted" price, only to the "delivered" price, which is actually "ex-delivery". To be fair, most people want them fully fitted as they have no idea how to change a tyre, or the tools to do it, but I'm still living in the 1950s.....

Just shows it always pays to shop around, which is what moneysaving is all about.

Johnmcl7

I've got a good local National Tyres garage which I'd prefer to use but they've been nearly double the price of Blackcircles the last couple of times. I'm sure it varies on the tyre but they've certainly been cheap for me.

LandyAndy

When I needed tyres for my RX-8, at £300 a pop, my Mazda dealer matched the Blackcircles price

forgotmyname

My local tyre place will beat the online prices.

motorguy

forgotmyname wrote: »

My local tyre place will beat the online prices.

For common or garden tyre sizes a good local tyre centre should be able to beat black circles prices.

For odd ball stuff its harder as they wont have the economies of scale and will have to order them in.

Our 370z GT ran 275/35 R19s. Nobody stocks those so the online sellers are usually cheaper for stuff like that.

Also, i like to research and pick the tyres i want, not just what the local guys happen to have in stock thus the online sources can be better.

It does pay though not to "assume" and check various sources.

Gloomendoom

forgotmyname wrote: »

My local tyre place will beat the online prices.

I always gate a quote from the online places and ask my local place if they can match it. Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't. Either way, they always get the business of fitting them so they are happy.

n217970

The indy garage near my work, who I trust and are actually cheap, are a black circles fitter. Last time I had some black circles fitted there I was chatting with the owner and he said he would beat BCs price if I asked him. Indeed he gave me a quote there and then. It was more then BC. He was surprised.

I have been quite impressed by BC customer service, booked an Avon to fitted on the wife's car a few months back at a garage closer to home, sent the wife along to get it and she came back with some !!!!!! Chinese Ditch finder on instead. I don't want to speculate the reasons why this happened but BC were actually quite good about it when they eventually responded replacing the tire with the correct one, refunding me £30 and I have a discount code for my next order. Only downside is I am now having to rotate the tires on my car to make sure I need 4 at once.

fred246

For me buying tyres is a two stage process:
1)Buy the tyre. Choose the exact one you want and buy it for the cheapest price on the internet. This allows you to inspect it and check the date of manufacture. You don't want to be fitting old rubber. My car needs reinforced tyres and I once found a garage trying to fit one with a normal weight rating. I used to ask to inspect tyres before they were fitted but garages were always snotty about it.
2)Take your wheel off and take it to a garage with the new tyre and get them to fit it. Taking the wheel in a different car will avoid the embarrassing situation where they try and insist on putting the wheel back on your car.
This avoids:
Damage to your car caused by incorrect jacking at the garage. My sills are all bent from incorrect jacking by garages when having tyres changed.
Damage caused by not tightening the wheel nuts to the correct specification. You can do it properly with your torque wrench.
You can then inflate your tyres to the correct specification. I have never found a garage that has done this for me. Mine need 40 psi and they always put 30 in.
So that's how you do it. New tyres without getting your car damaged at the garage.