Got a dilemma with tires
 

Hey guys,

I'm still in the market for new tires and I'm stuck between two choices here:

1) There is a local tire shop here that sells a set of 175/70/13's for $200, mounted and balancing included as well. Also, since I need an alignment, it is only $65 extra. But the thing is, they are 175/70/13's and I was looking to get 165/70/13's, which leads me to the other choice...

2) I found a set of HTR T4's with the size I wanted on TireRack. With shipping cost, it's $215 delivered. With the same tire shop, they will charge $60 to dismount, mount, and balance the tires plus the cost to align. Which will lead me to spend in excess of $300.

What do you guys think? Is it okay to choose 1 or 2? Thanks for your input.

$265 vs $300+...

HC has a link showing the benefits of a wider tire.

we don't know what the other tire is. brand? quality? LRR? warranty?

need more info...

Yes, it's perfectly OK to choose 1 or 2.
You need permission to buy tires?
sarcasm: off.

What is your reasoning with the 175 or 165 width choice? Wider for grip? Narrower for fuel economy? And at $50 each, mounted and balanced, what are you getting?
The Sumitomo are inexpensive, but they are not cheapo tires. I have found them to be a mid quality tire at a dirt cheap price.

The store's brand is $200 purchased, mounted and balanced. The tire rack tires will be $60 mounted and balanced. By implication the store's tires are $140 purchased, or $35 each. I don't think I'd be real comfortable with knowing that the tires were made, sold at some profit, shipped, inventoried/stored, and then retailed at some profit markup. Maybe $10 worth of materials in them?

I know the Sumitomo, I don't know the store's brand. I'd take the Sumitomos.

The difference in size is nominally 1/2 inch of width and 3/8 inch diameter.

I imagine the slightly wider, slightly taller tire will provide a very slight fuel economy benefit. I can't guess whether it would pay for $65 difference or not over the life of the tires. I can guess that whichever tire is expected to have longer treadwear might be the more economical choice.

What kind of car do you drive?

Check sears, they routinely stock Sumitomo HTR T4's at buy 3 get one free

I work there, and it's basically an ongoing promotion that sumitomo HTR T4's and HTR H4's are buy 3 get one free. And I think since we're a national corperation, that buy 3 is a nationwide thing.

I bought a set of four Sumitomo HTR T4s size 175/70/13 at Sears 2.5 years ago for $37 each. They had a sale on certain sizes, but the 165/70/13 wasn't one of them. I really wanted the 165 because it's the correct size for my '95 Civic DX hatchback with the VX tranny. I didn't want the odometer to be registering too few miles. And I felt the 165 would ultimately provide better fuel economy because it's lighter, narrower, and would make my engine less sluggish than the 175 tire by slightly lowering the tall VX gears (that are not particularly well suited for the DX engine power curve). So debated about buying the 165 at $48 versus the 175 at the $37 sale price. I settled on the 175 because I couldn't pass on the great price.

Regarding teh tire performance, they have terrible traction in nearly any condition, especially rain, ice or snow. But they are 51 psi tires and low rolling resistance. There are 52,000 miles on the tires now, and they're probably good for another 15k - 20k miles. I'd probably buy them again, only in the 165 size this time because my car is pretty sluggish with the extra tall gearing.

ill tell you the benefit of a wider tire is huggggggee, like decreasing your chances of getting in an accident bigtime, esp in rain cause for the most part ice is only an issue 15+ days of the year here, especially in these little 4 bangers too stay safe spend extra on better tires, (that means dont shop at sears for tires) try town fair tire or even used tire places, for my car i bought two used toyos for 60$ a piece mounted and everything for the back wheels and bought two new toyos for the front wheels($320) with alignment and everything, just make sure the used tires look very much so newer, and buy them from a suburban used tire place, inner city places tend to carry junk tires(fake brands fall aparts), thats just my experience

keep the two new tires on the front wheels the tread needs to match for proper steering, this barely matters in the back, you can have two different brands in the back and it barely makes a difference, just rotate only the front two tires to keep your tire warranty hehehe

In rain, wider tires increase your chance of hydroplaning.

hmm but if a car is better balanced because of wider tires and just the fact that they are wider im sure that you would recover more easily from a hydroplane incident, im curious did u read this? i could see how this could be true and also not so true

No, HC's right on this one. The wider tire has to displace more water to maintain traction. Its more likely to hydroplane than a narrower tire.