I am/was going to buy the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo 2 tires at Costco for $850, but apparently bridgestone is all out of stock/back order for these tires. I got ahold of a set from a dodge dealer and they are for $1035 (thats with a employee discount too - i think cost price since i know someone that works there).

Apparently the guy at the dodge dealer said that they are more in price because Costco carries a lower quality tire of the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo 2. Basically that the quality isn't the same and that the dodge dealer carries the real deal for the tire. He said its the same type of thing for t.v.'s that costco carries.

Is this complete bull****? I did look for the t.v.'s and noticed that futureshop and best buy don't carry some of the t.v.'s costco has (futureshop/best buy carrying a newer model).

Anyone got some good information on that?

 

I've heard to opposite, that the tires put on new vehicles are the cheaper ones of the same brands, case in point, I had bf goodrich radial long trail ta's on my frontier i leased new. those tires are rated 60,000 miles but i had to replace them at exactly 36,000 miles, they were down to the wear bars and i do highway driving.

 

yea it always seems that stock tires are the bottom of the line tire

 

From what I have heard, stock is a low-grade tire with a brand name on it.

I would trust an actual tire shop over a dealer any day. The tire shops normally order from a big local warehouse that has every brand of tire and thats how they can get you tires so fast sometimes. Tire shops dont stock all the tires they carry or order them online normally .... not cost effective. I doubt tire companies would allow some tire shop to put tires with their name on them that werent quality. Putting tires on a new car though .... possibly an advertising thing?

 

i don't know what costco is like in the states but i know the customer service/warranties here in canada at costco are about the best you can get. If the dealer told you that costco has a cheaper version of the same model tire im guessing they are full of it and trying to get a sale.

As for the TV's costco has some costco specific models, as does stores like best buy and future shop, they are no less in quality they just have some different specs. I know my LG TV is the exact same as the ones they carried in future shop/best buy but with a different model number and a couple extra inputs.

 

Actually, its a little more complicated. Tires, especially the OEM (ala stock) tires, are a custom business for the most part. On certain cars/trucks, the manufacturers may specify a known tire, or a variant of a known tire that is packaged as an OEM type tire. Generally, stock tires are totally fine, and are designed to the car manufacturers specification. Compounds can be softer for noise and ride comfort considerations, rather than a nearly identical tire bought in the aftermarket.

As far as Costco (Walmart, Sears, etc), these are what in the trade are known as "Club Tires". They are nearly identical in design to the "brand name model", but may differ in compound or tread depth (usually both) so these big box retailers can hit a particular price point. The brand name tire dealers hate the Club Tire business, but they have to put up with it. And yes, most likely the Costco version is a cheaper version, with a softer compound or shallower tread or maybe a lighter casing.

The names will usually differ by some little bit too (Goodyear Track 2 or Goodyear Tracker or Goodyear Tracker 2, etc). This doesn't mean that the tires are bad though, as they all need the same DOT safety compliance characteristics. It does mean that they may wear much faster than the "same" type tire bought at a specialty tire store.

Interestingly, if you look at many major tire store chains, they now seem to have 9 ZILLION brands of tires, most of which we have never heard of (take a look at a Mavis for example). Many of these weird brand tires are almost "Club Tires" too, as they are built to hit a particular price point.

Its almost getting like the mattress business, where there are no 2 models that are the same being sold, making comparison shopping difficult.

 

For several years, Firestone/Bridgestone made a "no-name" with a really good winter tread they had named winterforce. They had such good luck with that tire that now it is branded Firestone and costs 25% more.

EDinNB

 

When I was looking for my BF Goodrich All Terrains T/A's I was at canadian tire and I liked the price.
That night I was reading some reviews and there were so many people saying that canadian tire used low qaulity rubber, so that completely turned me back to tire sales companies whose sole purpose was to sell tires, and not also sell kitchen supplies and treadmills.

 

I think it may vary by brand. The Michelins I bought from Sears have the same item number as the Michelin website and my local tire dealer.
The only difference I found was $22.00 per tire

P.S. I had my local tire dealer mount and balance them for me..too many Sears tire mounting nightmare stories

 

Yeah, its really amazing how much this whole thing varies from store to store, region to region and manufacturer to manufacturer. It seems to be the most messy with some of the traditional US based brands, although everyone is getting in on the action.

Michelin seems to do this the least (even though they have a pretty big OEM business), while Goodyear is a crazy mess with a zillion iterations (many of them pretty bad). I have General Grabber HTS now, which I really like.