+1 for Discounttiredirect.com

Got the car with Michelin Pilot sports - burned through those pretty quick, replacements prohibitively expensive.

Next, got a set of Kumho Ecsta something or others - crap tire, tread wear was ok but they got noisy - crazy noisy to the point I though I had bearing issues.

3rd set (85,000 on the car now) - Nankang Noble Sports - super inexpensive and have been a great tire - good grip, good tread wear, low noise.

I like the car, but it's a daily driver and an inexpensive one at that - hard to justify shoeing it with $1,000+ worth of Michelins when I can run Nankangs for around $500 - have had both and did not see enough difference to justify price.

 

Just purchased these barum tires, in part due to this post, at Discount Tires for a total of $530 for 4 tires, minus $75 rebate. I have to say the ride on these is very smooth and grips the road well. Does not look as nice as what I had before which the name escapes me. Costco only had one set of tires for almost $1000. No thanks.

 

My SRT had a brand new set of Hercules iMove Gen 2 on the rear tires when I bought it. I decided to get a new front set pair off of ebay for $140 including shipping. The tires look nice, not sure what type of life/performance I'll get. Set of 4 total cost approx. $360.

 

I spent more on front for mine, wanted usa made, so I got Yokohama for front.
Ordered from tire rack new front and rear tires last thursday, and ups delivered friday, I was shocked.

 

Tire Rack has a nationwide network of approved installers. I had my new set of Hankooks sent to my Steve Shannon tire center and they installed them for a reasonable fee.

 

Took some Porsche rims into the local Costco to have some tires mounted and I wish I hadn't. While they did use stick-on weights (a plus in my opinion), rather than clean a spot for them the technician took a pass with a grinder to get down to the clean stuff.

 

Barum tires?! Wow! These are/were Czechoslovakian tires. Iron curtain stuff. Good but not exactly widely distributed in NA.

 

Attached is a performance comparison between Barum & other leading tire brands. Based on Performance vs. Price, Barum is one of the better options for the Crossfire. IMO

Of course, these are Summer only tires. So if looking for an all weather tire, you'll have to look at other alternatives.

 

My first experience with Barum brand was on a 1993 Suzuki Swift GT I owned for nearly 20 years. Best "pocket rocket" I ever owned and probably the most reliable car I've ever owned. I had installed a set of Bravuris 2 tires on the SSGT. Barum had a tire in the size I needed for the SSGT (and not many brands produced the tire size). Tires were super! I've been sold ever since.

I had a set of Barums installed on our 2006 VW New Beetle and now also have them on the XFire.

 

+1

I've owned lots of Barum bicycle tires. They were great!

 

You do know these are European Continental branded tires, don't you? You can register the warranty on the US Continental website.

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I did not! But I was inspired to investigate further. Here's what I found...

Barum is a manufacturer of tyres based in the Czech Republic. The Barum tyre company was created as a subsidiary of Bata Shoes who made rubber soled boots in Czechoslovakia. The high cost of rail transport prompted the Bata company to operate its own fleet of vehicles to transport goods by road and in 1934, to counteract the high costs involved in importing tyres for its fleet of vehicles, the company decided to produce them itself. In 1945 the three major rubber-producing companies in Czechoslovakia were merged, Bata in Zlin, Rubena in Nachod [Kudrnac pre-1945] and Mitas [Michelin + Veritas] in Prague-Strašnice and post-war in Hrádek nad Nisou, being originally a subsidiary of Michelin. The Bata family lost control of the company which was seized by the state and the Barum company was born. Damn Commies! But Canada's gain.

In 1992 A joint venture agreement is signed with Continental AG.

 

Since this is a post about Tire Rack vs. Costco, I thought I should relate my search. I ordered tires this weekend. After a lot of consideration, I decided to go with Michelin PILOT SPORT A/S 3+.


My current tires are noisy and not in great shape but I think they will be fine if I baby them. The standard size fronts are on back order most places I tried, although Tire Rack did have them in stock. But shipped Tire Rack was just under $800 for the set. That was just for tires, not stem rebuild. And Installation was another $100. So just over $900 total.


Costco had a sale which at least part of has since expired. $70 off for a set of Michelin tires, an extra $60 off for Executive members. Total for tires and installation was $718. However, fronts will be a wait of some kind. I couldn't even add them to my online cart for my local store. But I added them to a remote location, and then changed location to my local store. I did this to get the order in at the lower price knowing there would be a delay.


So to summarize Tire Rack $900+ (Tires in stock), Costco $718 (Tires not in stock but price locked down)
By the way Discount Tire direct was ~$1000 installed and fronts were not available for them either. I don't live near a Discount tire store so they fell off for me.
I do think the Barum tires are a bargain, but I need more than summer tires.