Stoley

I purchased my Michelin PS2's from Costco because they were about 35% less expensive. These kind of shopping habits are one of the reasons I can afford to dive a $70k car.

sleepyca31

Buying the same tires at a low price from costo=SMART shopping

Getting costco to install and balance your BMW wheels/tires=just a plain poor decision

Anyway not sure what everyone is saying-but in NO way to weights EVER have to go on the outside of the rim unless the rim is bent or structurally damaged or a poorly built wheel.

nickolas_g

The best combination would be to buy from Tirerack.com then look up a partner installer for the installation and balance. Mine happens to be a Goodyear shop in Clark, NJ where I also have them take care of my other cars. They have the right equipment and great staff..

swajames

Nope. Even a basically good wheel within manufacturing tolerance may need weights on the outside of the rim, and once the tire is fitted it's even more likely - if you want it to be balanced properly. The posts in this thread are correct.

pa550

Here's a little known fact. The same model tire you buy from one retailer may be different than the tire you buy somewhere else (e.g. Costco vs. Tire Rack). I grew up in Akron, Ohio - which at one point was the tire capital of the world. I worked at one of the leading tire companies summers in college (finance stuff). The tires they sold to one of the then Big Three were different quality than the retail versions of the same tire. They either came from different factories with higher manufacturing tolerences or were produced on different manufactuirng "runs" under different qualtity assurance standards. I wonder if Costco is buying the lower quality versions, thus they're able to sell them cheaper?? Food for thought.

Veight

Well I watched the Discount Tire Manager use the Hunter Road Force machine on my ps 2's this past Saturday.

He put flat silver weights on the inside and outside of the rim. When i say outside I mean inside of the wheel spokes but outside of the flat rim area. I looked on all four wheels and in every case the outside weights were opposite the valve/TPM side of the tire. In other words the valve and tire pressure monitor were heavy enough to require offsetting weights.

Discount tire went 5 dollars a tire below any price I brought in from a competitor and know a whole lot more than Costco on how to install tires. The store I was at in Palatine Illinois does over $ 600,000 a month in tires. Its all they do.

Hopco

I too looked at Costco (in Norwalk, CT) as a possible source of new tires for me car. Although they were very competative on price, they did not have a road-force balancing manchine. I took a pass and had the work done elsewhere - TireRack and a specialist installer.

BTW I think I recall the rep saying that they got some of their tires from the wholesale side of TireRack.

KCooke82

A BMW technician with 20 years of experience confrimed this. He said that tires that are destined for BMW actually have a mark on them, indicating that they are of top quality and passed the highest inspection tests. This might mean they have a more consistant build...who knows. Whether or not I care is another story. I just put General Exclaim's on my 167's and they are just fine and cost $600 shipped.