well the other day i was lucky enough to get a sidewall puncture on my tire, ad now its irreplaceable, so i have to buy a new one..

anyways looking around town, its wierd that the OE tire on my HHR (2LT w/17s) is pretty rare to come by for whatever reason. I went to the local tire shops and they are charging up to $200 per.; even called firestone and they dont have it in stock, will take them 10 days to get it.
wierd but is this tire so hard to come by? firestone firehawk gt..damn

anyways, i did find the ONE tire i needed at tirerack.com for 100, plus freight and whatnot came out to 120, which i guess still isnt too bad
there is also another site tiresavings.com which has some good tires on it...what do you all about putting a $67 tire on your cars?
there are some called riken i think made my michelin that look good, and this one brand called federal which look nice as well...

opinions? i know tires are expensive tho, but i dont wanna just throw my money away either ona suckers deal, goodyear was charging me $900 for a full set of cheap-o tires....so im thinking why not buy those $70 tires off the net..

 

my brother accidently punctured Wheelie tire from a trip he went to, the tire was not able to be fixed, so I had to buy another one, I bought the same Firestone tire that Wheelie had on, cost me $134 for 1 tire. Oh well, the joys of owning an HHR

 

Hi El Rey, Ive never looked for replacement tires for our new HHR we have Firestone Firehawk tires as well. I'm not a big fan of Firestone's so I will more then likely buy 17" wheels with B F Goodrich tires when these start looking worn. I know that Sams club carries federal Tires I bought a few sets they seem to work well and held up ok for a cheaper tire. They aren't sport performance tires though, I've never heard anything about Riken tires. I did talk to my sales rep about the Firestone tires when I bought the HHR and he informed me that these tires are made specifically by Firestone for the HHR. I'm not sure how true this is but if there is truth to this it might explain the high cost and limited supply. I do Know replacing one at this time has to be cheaper then buying all four new tires, you sure don't want to run one unmatched tire.

Thanks, Curtis

 

Only advice I can give you.....

Make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Tires quoted at $900 a set, don't sound like a comparison to a $67 tire.

Riken does build some nice, well constructed performance tires. But, I'm sure thats not $67/each.

How about some comments from the people employed by the tire shops???

 

You'll never get the same tire from a tire shop as you do OE. OE tires are totally different lines, 9 times out of 10 so they *can't* be compared to anything else you'd find in a shop. Costco is the same way, you won't be able to do an apples to apples comparison between OE, Costco or the Firestone store (Sears used to have their own lines too but don't know if they still do.)

The $70 OE tire can't be compared to the $70 tire shop tire. Could be better, could be worse, but it won't be the same at all (apart from dimentions).

 

Crashman.....

While some of what you say is true....it is not enTIREly . That's one of the reasons the auto manufacturers provide TPC coding. I have had trouble, only once, putting the exact same OEM tires on a vehicle (this is for many GM vehicles) I settled for the next Goodyear performance tire UP from the OEM. The one time I had a sidewall puncture problem I had the exact tire the same day.

If you go to Firestone, for example, and specify I want a Firehawk Gt, size, meeting GM TPC number XXXXXXXX. They may not have it in stock but will get it for you (my dealer said the next day and it was $115/tire).

El rey....I think your problem is that you are in a lower populated area and it comes down to supply and demand and buyer beware. I would try San Antonio or some other large area near you. Might be worth it in $$$$$.

 

yea i dont know if they are made just for the HHR, because i talked to one guy at a shop and he was asking me if they were for a chrysler, i was no for a chevy...maybe its a contractual thing with firestone and chevy? i know for my corvette it was hard to find a certain tire for it, at least OE but i got some nice goodyear f1 on it...

yea one tire, i only have 15K on the other tires so i think they will allhold out for another 15K at least, so i decided to get the one tire i needed for $120..i was able to get the federal from a guy we know here for $88 per w/everything included, but i dont think i wanna spend all that when my other tires r still good.

Snoopy, the tires from goodyear thatthey wanted 900 for, i think were regattas or something, i just know it looked like a sucky tire with a sucky tread design; and i was like uhh illthink about it...they may be good, but just the look of them they looked cheap and no where near worth 900 for 4....now the Riken HP type tires im talking about are 70 each and so were the federal tires as well as some others on the sites i have on my post, and they look way the hell better and had better ratings then the 900 set...now id believe 900 for the $67 tires on just looks, and the $900 looked like they should have been the $60 tires..

crash i dont get what youre sayin? you mean no matter what, you will NEVER get the same exact tire for your car?

 

how do you get those #s?
yea might be the whole supply thing... but i tried doing all the online stuff and selecting san antonio, using my brothers zip code... no luck

but i do recommend http://www.tirerack.com
and http://www.tiresavings.com

 

They are imprinted on the sidewall of the tire, near the DOT numbers.

I believe ours are GM TPC Spec 1288MS, but look at yours to make sure.

If you are interested, I believe Tirerack has an explanation on their site.

 

You certainly get what you pay for when purchasing tires. Yes, Riken is built by Michelin and is a pretty decent tire for the money. I would steer clear of the Federal tires unless you plan on doing some bodywork later on the the road. You should compare tires by "Value" not "cost". If you buy a cheapo then you should expect Cheapo service (RE: Noisy, rough ride, poor handling, poor wet weather traction etc).Manufactures certainly DO NOT put the same technology into the cheapo "budget" tires as they do more expensive tires. Spend a little extra and purchase a name brand tire like Michelin, Goodyear,Pirelli, even Yokohama and you will get better service for longer.

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