Discount Tire Review

Monday, December 2nd

2024 Tire Store Reviews

Discount Tire

• Selection: 60 brands
• Price Range: $65 to $206/tire on 2021 Toyota Corolla; $346 to $475/tire on 2024 Tesla Cybertruck
• Installation Fees: About $22/tire
• Extra Benefits: Financing available through store credit card or Affirm, Tire Certificate for repair/replacement (extra fee), savings with free membership, free maintenance for the life of the tire (includes free rotations, balancing, flat repair, TPMS resets, inspections, and air checks)
• In business since 1960
• Over 1,100 stores across 38 states
• "A+” rated by the BBB

Discount Tire got its start all the way back in 1960. Bruce Halle was the "one-man-band” behind the store, operating his shop solo out of a remodeled plumbing supply building in Ann Arbor, MI. Fast forward 60+ years, and you'll find more than 1,100 Discount Tire locations across 38 states. Additionally, Discount Tire purchased Tire Rack back in 2021, so you'll probably see some similarities and connections across the two sites - which opens up even more options for you.

Excellent website

Using the Discount Tire website is a breeze. Enter the details about your vehicle and include your zip code, and they'll show you exactly which tires are a match at your nearest location (which you can change if, say, you prefer one that's close to work). As you browse your options, you can see at a glance how other drivers have rated that tire, stopping distance at 60 mph on both wet and dry roads, a tread life estimate, and how many are in stock at the Discount Tire location you specified. If you're really into the nerdy details, you can also click on the full report and see specs for fuel efficiency, winter rating, tire life and cost, and ratings from customers with feedback on how the tires performed on their specific vehicles.

Test case: "yes” to Tesla and Toyota

Discount Tire had zero trouble offering us options for both vehicles we used in our comparison quotes across tire stores. For the 2024 Tesla Cybertruck AWD, we were shown options from Michelin, Cooper, and Toyo Tire, priced from $346 to $475 per tire. On the 2021 Toyota Corolla LE, our options were priced from $65 to $206 per tire, with brands that included Sentury, Radar, GT Radial, Road Hugger, Arizonian, Falken, Yokohama, Goodyear, Michelin, and Bridgestone.

Treadwell tool = perfectly-suited tires

We'll point out that those tires were the ones recommended by Discount Tire after we walked through its Treadwell Tire Guide questions on the website: you provide more information about your vehicle and your typical driving habits (mostly city, mostly highway), and they'll give you not just the tires that fit your car or truck but the ones that also are the best fit for your usage and climate.

Price matching and financing offered

If you happen to spot the tires you want for a lower price somewhere else, Discount Tire wants to match or beat it. Click where it says, "found it lower?” under the image of the tire, and you can submit your price match request online (just have the URL of the competitor's website ready to paste in there). And, speaking of pricing, if you're not quite ready to pay for your tires in full today, Discount Tire offers financing options through its own credit card and via Affirm: just click at the top of the site for more details.

Road hazard protection costs extra

Once you've added your tires to the cart and proceed to checkout, you'll be offered Discount Tire's protection plan, called "Tire Certificates”. It gives you a full refund if you have a non-repairable road hazard event within 3 years of your purchase date (and you still have more than 3/32” of tread depth on your tires). On a purchase of four Bridgestone tires for the Toyota Corolla, Tire Certificates added an extra $150.84 to our total.

Installation starts around $22/tire

We weren't so excited to see that the installation and "life of tire maintenance” fees weren't disclosed until the very end of the checkout. Expect to pay about $22/tire for that at Discount Tire. On the other hand, we were glad that the website had a big blue prompt reminding us that with a free Discount Tire membership/account, we could save $80 on the particular tires we were buying; you may want to create that no-cost account too. From there, you'll enter your information and schedule an appointment at the location you prefer.

Tire maintenance is a perk

Back to those "life of tire maintenance” fees. It's actually a nice perk. We couldn't find it spelled out anywhere, so we popped open a live chat. Impressed by the fact that we reached someone on a Saturday of a 3-day holiday weekend, we learned that it provides free rotations, balancing, flat repair, TPMS resets, inspections, and air checks for the life of the tire. Points to Discount Tire!

"A+” from the BBB

And reputation? Discount Tire has an "A+” from the Better Business Bureau, despite having 500+ complaints registered there over the last three years. That's about what you'd expect from a tire store with over a thousand locations, though, and the perfect score from the BBB means that Discount Tire is responding appropriately to all of them.

Mixed feedback on specific locations

However, feedback from customers is more mixed, and again, it really depends on the location you visit to have your tires installed. Some Discount Tire stores have loyal customers who wouldn't dream of getting their tires anywhere else, while others have rants from people who had their cars damaged during installation or who received poor customer service from a particular manager or tech. Then again, one point that shines through in most places we look is that Discount Tire doesn't try to take advantage of less experienced shoppers or to upsell in an effort to make a bigger buck. That alone could be reassuring if you're nervous about making this kind of purchase.

Excellent tire store

At the end of the day, we're still big fans of Discount Tire. They offer a lot of benefits at no extra cost, their selection and pricing is solid, and people really appreciate the "no BS” approach this tire store takes to customer service. Plus, given that Discount Tire has a relationship with the #1 brand on our list, we're pretty confident that there's nothing but good things in this company's future too.