More things to think about when buying a new car…
It just occured to me when shopping for new tires for my wife’s Envoy that there is more to think about when buying a new car than the upfront cost of the vehicle.
Like buying a copier or printer, it’s the consumables that end up saving or costing you money in the long run. Some manufacturers will actually almost give away printers to sell you overpriced ink cartridges for years to come.
On a vehicle your consumables are brakes, tires and filters. Let’s look at the tires today and the choices you can make at the dealership when picking out a new car.
Tires: Probably the most expensive of the three consumables, tires will end up costing you $300 - $800 for a set of four depending on the size and type. High performance tires with a higher speed rating will cost more and so will larger diameter rim sizes. The popular trend is to have a lot of wheel showing and little tire sidewall. In the case of my wife’s Envoy GM put 17″ chrome wheels with 65 series tires on it. The cheapest tire available for my wife’s car was over $125 at my local tire store. A good set of Michelin’s were over $180 per tire. It’s a SUV, not a sports car, and a good 15″ tire would be fine. Checking tire prices at tirerack.com shows a $20 - $40 price difference between a 15″ and 17″ tire. So the next time you are at the dealer looking for a new car, consider the fact that those huge shiny wheels will cost a pretty penny when having to replace the tires mounted to them.
Kevin Schappell