New tires for the 19 Town and Country

Hi All,

Well I bit the bullet and bought a set of 4 new tires today for my
Town & Country from the local Firestone dealer. They had a $50
off a set of 4 sale going, and they also gave me another 5% off as
a price match against Costco's Michelins. (Costco had the lowest
price of anyone I surveyed for a comparable tire) Here's the
breakdown:

Tire: Bridgestone Turanza EL400T 205/70R15 80,000 mile
warranty. Manufacture date according to DOT code: June of
2007. 1 ply polyester, 2 ply steel. 1 ply polyester sidewall.
Tread depth: 12/32 UTQG treadwear rating 640

Pricing:

Unit price: 96.99
Sale discount: $50 for 4 (-12.50)
5% price match (-4.23) (5% of 84.49)

subtotal: $80.26 per tire (better than tirerack.com with shipping
for the same tire)

Additions to price (per tire):

wheel balance weights: $2.99
wheel balance labor: $8.00
valve stem: $3.00
tire disposal fee: $3.00

subtotal: $16.99 per tire

Road Hazard: $14.55

grand total: $449.12 (includes $1.92 shop supplies)

Firestone does sell a "lifetime" balance - but the manager of
the shop told me that as long as I brought the van back to them
they would rebalance on request for free. The lifetime balance
warranty was only if I wanted to take it to other Firestone
shops. I didn't purchase it.

Likely, if one tire went really badly out of balance it would
have to be pulled and checked under the Road Hazard warranty
so balancing would probably be covered there.

Warranty info:

Mfgs 80K warranty: (tire defects NOT caused by road
hazards)

An interesting note on the manufacturer's warranty - the
little tire spec booklet for the EL400 showed the tire carried
a 70K mile warranty - but the current Bridgestone website
and the invoice show an 80K warranty. I suspect that
the manufacturer upped the warranty period when they
discontinued the Turanza LS - which had a higher UTQG
rating.
Free tire replacement period is 3 years from date of
purchase OR 4 years from date
of manufacture OR before wearing down to 2/32 of
an inch.
Pro-rate replacement period is within 5 years of date of
purchase or 6 years from date of manufacture or before wearing
down to 2/32.
Exclusions are road hazard, continued use while flat, improper
repair, ozone cracking after 4 years, uneven wear between tires,
use while over or under inflated, worn or misaligned suspension,
use of tire sealant (fix a flat) tire chain damage, failure to rotate
tires, chemical damage (ie: Armor All, etc). (there are several
other exclusions that are customer-inflicted-damage type stuff)

Firestones warranty (Road Hazard)

No time limit - coverage all the way down to 3/32 of tread left.
Any failure, ie: road hazard, OR any manufacturers defect. If
tire is repairable they repair it (ie: free flat repair) If it is not
repairable
they will REPLACE it - no prorate.

The exclusions are similar to the manufacturers, (with the obvious
exception of road hazard) the only two significant additions are tires
damaged in a collision are NOT covered, nor are tires damaged by
vandalism. I guess they figure since your insurance company is going
to be paying out, they won't. This does make it interesting though if
you run over a curb and destroy a tire - as a curb isn't "in" the road. ;-)

Now, compared against Costco's sale next week for
the 80,000 mile Michelin X-Radial of $86.99 per tire,
mounted and balanced, it was higher. But, that price
doesen't include the mandatory Costco membership
fee of $35 in order to buy the tires. The Bridgestones,
mounted, without road hazard warranty totaled 390.92
The Costco Michelin X-Radials would total $382.96
including the Costco membership cost, and including the
tire sale that's starting next week, with a road hazard
warranty that is basically worthless
if the tire isn't repairable (credit towards a new tire purchase
at non-sale prices doesen't count for anything with me)
and no ability to buy a better warranty. Not to mention
that for the Costco warranties (both road hazard and
mileage) to remain effective, you MUST rebalance
per their schedule at their shop - all free of course,
but to get in the door you have to maintain your $35 a
year Costco membership.

It seemed to me that $58 for replacement coverage warranty
for a set of tires that cost $400 was probably a good idea.
Espically as these are going on my wife's van. (Hey, I'm not
saying I'm a better driver, but I've never picked up a road
hazard that made a tire unrepairable, she has, and she's also
bent a steel rim on another car

The other really important thing to me was tire noise. The
Toyo's that were on the van when we bought it have always
been noisy to the point that on long drives such as to the beach
or whatever, my wife and I were constantly saying "say again"
to each other. But I noticed already on the drive home from
Firestone, where I wasn't even getting above 40mph, how much
quieter the new tires are.

I know this post was a bit on the long side, hopefully it will
help someone who is planning on doing a tire purchase. The
Firestone sales runs through tomorrow, and the Costco sale
starts Monday. I will,
from the looks of it, have to buy a second set of 4 tires for my
other van very soon since those are also worn out - and I am
planning on getting the X-Radials from
Costco for those. Mainly for the price, and for the treadwear
UTQG rating - I'm mainly commuting highway miles in that
van when I'm not riding my CB750K and need all the fuel
economy I can get - but more importantly, with the price of
oil hitting 100 a barrel last Wednesday, it's pretty obvious that
expensive commodity items like tires are going to jump in
price later this year.

Ted