ValkingBlog: Tire Rack Rocks, Wal-Mart too!

ValkingBlog

Because there is more to life than just work...

Friday, April 18, 2008

Tire Rack Rocks, Wal-Mart too!


So we have tires! It was a lucky day in the neighborhood for Rob and the cast of Zombies. I had pretty much decided the tire of choice was the Continental Vanco-8. The trick was finding some and actually getting them on the Vanagon. Posts of the past few weeks have shown the frustrations I've witnessed and even created in one case trying to get a set of tires from a really great guy on the Samba who had pulled them from his Syncro (sorry Erik)... Well I found out thru Sears.com that they were discontinuing the Vanco-8 in favor of the Vanco-2 but had no idea if they'd be available for the 14 inch sizes I need for the stock wheels Friday's currently running. So I really wanted Vanco-8's. Well TireRack.com had 'em in a few 14 inch variations ranging from $67 to $87. Pretty nice when you see Sears wanted $90 and local tire store wanted $116. So I hemmed & hawwed a bit and finally decided I had to pony up yesterday. Good thing I had dragged my feet. The $67 tires were getting low in inventory (the site said 'less than 10'), but no, that wasn't the good thing. The good was that the next larger size, a tire rated several hundred pounds higher in load that had been listed at CLOSEOUT and $87 was now $65. The day before I would have paid $88 more for the higher rating and yesterday it cost me $8 less that the ones I thought I was going to aim high for. I pulled out plastic and made the online purchase right then and in a hurry. $260 for a set of tires, $30 someodd for shipping and GA taxes brought the total to $322.00 . Not bad for the right tires at the right time. One day later, today in fact, by 10:30AM they were delivered to my place of business. (We have a recieving dept, so I thought it'd be easier to bring them in thru work.) It was. Now to get them mounted. There has to be a place that can do them reasonably. There was, a department head and restoration guru suggested Wal-Mart when I asked him (Thanks Gary!). "Yeah, they charged me something like $57 to mount a set of four last year"... I can bring them tires from somewhere else? The idea never crossed my mind in this liability mangled world we live in today. And yes, when I took the first two wheels in this afternoon to get half the job done, it was $28 and some change, right on track to be $57 when I get the other two in the morning. Oh my Goodness! How could they be so reasonable when the big (as is Wal-Mart isn't big) names want $120 - $180 after adding fees, recovery costs, overhead, and private school tuition for their children just to put tires on a car. Wal-Mart mounts and balances a tire at $10, add a valve stem if you need it (you do) and a tire disposal fee of what $1.50 and they're done. Wal-Mart and TireRack.com we'll be doing more in the future, I'm sure of it. So, anyone want to know where my Vanco-8 tires were made? Yup, South Africa. So my German Van is wearing tires from a multinational corporation that is very proud of it's German engineering, manufactured and imported from Continental Tyre SA in Port Elisabeth South Africa. I think it's just about as cool as my VW Thing wearing French made Kleber tires. Sometimes it's just fun to be me. I entertain myself with the most inane stuff. So great Job Tire Rack, and Bravo Wal-Mart! Y'all sure were there when I needed you.
-Rob 'thanks guys' D.

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