by "Upshift" (Upshift)
Published 04/24/2017 at 09:28
by "Upshift" (Upshift)
Published 04/24/2017 at 09:28
Tags: Tires
; scam
; optional
; money
; logic
STARS: 1
I was reading an article about the new Nismo Sentra on a website who’s initials match those of Mud Tires this morning. The article in question mentioned how Nissan offers optional Bridgestone performance tires for extra money to replace the factory garbage tires. I remembered how this is common practice for performance cars all over. I also realized how these make no sense whatsoever.
Now hear me out. Equipping your car with better tires ALWAYS makes more sense. What DOESN’T make sense is paying full price (I did some quick research by looking at the price of these optional tire packages on online configurators) for a new set of tires to replace a set of included tires that already come on the car.
As an example, the focus RS comes with Michelin pilot super sports from the factory. If you pay 1900$ (USD!) you can get Michelin Sport Cup 2s to replace the PSS. Which means you pay full price (if not more) for the SC2s and lose out a free set of PSS which, let’s face it, are good tires. If the price difference for the package was just the price difference between the two sets of tires it wouldn’t be so bad but in every case I’ve seen, you’re paying full price for new tires and lose the factory tires.
So this brings me to my point: It makes more money sense to stick to the factory tire and pay out of pocket for the optional rubber SEPERATELY. And paying the pocket change it costs to get the good rubber mounted on the wheels. The overall cost comes to the same (and maybe even less if you can bargain hunt or find a discount) except you now have a “free”(that you already technically pay for in the MSRP of the car you buy, all the more reason to keep the tires) set of extra tires for the inevitable time when your optional rubber wears out. I mean, if I’m going to be paying 1900$ extra on the price of the focus RS I’d at least like to keep the tires it came with too since I already “paid” for them.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
04/24/2017 at 10:00, STARS: 0
Hmmm, I’ve only seen this two ways: (1) You pay an incrementally higher price to give up the stock setup or (2) You pay the full price, but you also get a second set of wheels/tires to go with the car. What you’re describing would be pure insanity for someone to choose, except for the fact that the owner could finance the option over 60+ months if they wanted to (for tires that will last 6 months...)
"Patrick Nichols" (pnichols)
04/24/2017 at 10:00, STARS: 1
I have a feeling they do that to add a bit more cushion to make you feel like you’re getting a deal when they take $500 off the price.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
04/24/2017 at 10:03, STARS: 0
What’s sillier is that even ordinary Corollas and the like have different spec tires as sold than they get transported with. Rather than *gasp* put the delivery tires on or have a single spec across the model, they put other (hard, noisy mostly) tires on for transport and shuttling which they immediately take off again and put back into the system for sale as “used”. With maybe ten miles on them. Which means for cars with a common tire size you can run “used” tires for cheap which are not really used and are fresh if you don’t mind being less than premium.
"Upshift" (Upshift)
04/24/2017 at 10:07, STARS: 0
I agree. But that insanity is exactly what you see in situations like the focus RS configurator I mentioned above. 1900$ for the sport cup 2s and the pilot super sports are removed. Insanity
"Upshift" (Upshift)
04/24/2017 at 10:08, STARS: 0
Sneaky
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
04/24/2017 at 10:28, STARS: 2
The flip of this is many cars give you a better deal on changing the factory tire than if you went and bought them yourself. Off the top I know some BMWs have a no-cost option to choose between all-season and summer tires. So if you’re planning to run summer tires then might as well take the summer tires. Other times I’ve seen it where it’s only like $500 to go to summer tires and that’s a lot less than you’d pay to get 18" or larger summer tires.
"Upshift" (Upshift)
04/24/2017 at 10:33, STARS: 0
Yeah free and heavilg discounted options do make it a go-for-it deal for sure!
"Mustafaluigi" (mustafaluigi)
04/24/2017 at 10:51, STARS: 0
I’ve heard of some people negotiating to keep stock wheels when they ordered the car with port installed nicer wheels. Car came on the nicer ones with the crappier wheels in the trunk. Think with the 2015 WRX’s that had optional STI wheels. The car came with the original rubber installed on the STI wheels with the takeoffs sitting in boxes next to the car.
"jmedarts" (jmedarts)
04/24/2017 at 11:45, STARS: 0
Financing wheels/tires on their own is arguably not smart. Doing it on a credit card which is how it’s probably done 99% of the time is really not smart. Writing them into the car deal is far better from a financial sense, and it’s likely you negotiate away some of that msrp.