New tires - 225/40/18 - suggestions? (Pilot Sport 3)

[Martin]

The choices and reviews and opinions are endless. Here the reviewers rate the toyo really high yet in Europe it's amongst the worst.

Yes - important to look at how many people reviewed the tyre, an average of 5 reviewers is not very telling but an average of 1,000 reviewers is worth taking on board

Ozzies love Toyo due to pricing and conditions here are pretty easy

Europeans really need good tyres (cobblestone roads, winter, autobahn, etc)

Continental sport 5 seems to come up as the number 1 choice all the time.

Tyre review gives them a poor rating on wear (low number of reviewers - 110)
They are normally too expensive (Sydney) to be an option

[heyimsu]

Bridgestone are doing a 4 for 3 at the moment. I grabbed a set of Potenza RE003 from Jax

So I had these done at Jax Bowen Hills. Pretty happy with the tyres.

There was an issue I was not happy about is that I asked them to keep my front left tyre as it was a somewhat recent replacement for a flat (Pirelli P1 that had done only 10000kms with like 70/80% tread). Picked up the car and nope, lost the tyre. Cannot be found anywhere. Waited around, told they will call if found. Called back the following day, got put on hold for 5 minutes then phone disconnects. I'm heading overseas tomorrow so I don't have time to deal with this BS.

Another issue was the tyres were not pumped up to the correct pressure. Drove home and the pressure light came on. Stopped by a servo only to find all tyres at 33 psi.

Good tyres, good price, they seemed to know what they were doing (I inquired about the tyres on Saturday and they called promptly back the next working day to confirm stock), maybe it was just an unlucky day for me?

[guile]

i've had issues with Jax Bowen Hills too; booked in a time for a tyre replacement, tyre wasn't there when i arrived...

i wouldn't think it would be a difficult profession but must admit i've never ran a tyre shop. may be i shouldn't comment until i have...

[stiffy86]

Jax bowen hills are wankers. I asked them to put tyres on some new wheels then onto my car. Took 2 days to do it then tried to keep my standard wheels. When i asked why it took so long they said i wasnt a priority customer.

[brad]

i've had issues with Jax Bowen Hills too; booked in a time for a tyre replacement, tyre wasn't there when i arrived...

i wouldn't think it would be a difficult profession but must admit i've never ran a tyre shop. may be i shouldn't comment until i have...

I've run a tyre shop. It was a long time back but I doubt things have changed drastically.

It's often hard to get specific stock and deliveries can be hit & miss as all the tyres look the same & the silly truck driver gives them away to the wrong store.

The bulk of the staff are on minimum wage, so you don't get too many Phd students. Most of them that stay do like cars / the industry and many of them do have good knowledge about the product.

It's retail. You are dealing with the public. A lot of the customers do their best to f*** you over, which means you get off your game with the good people after a few years.

I think working in a retail tyre place for 7 years was one of the best educations / life experiences I ever had but I was really glad when I moved on.

BTW: the margins are usually quite slim. We worked on 10% markup (about $7/tyre at the time) and we included "free" fit/electronic balance & tubeless valve in that. Wheel alignments were $20 (front only), no matter if it took 10 minutes or 1 hour.

[Mdanrex]

Jax bowen hills are wankers. I asked them to put tyres on some new wheels then onto my car. Took 2 days to do it then tried to keep my standard wheels. When i asked why it took so long they said i wasnt a priority customer.

Been there once and maybe the last time. Not a priority customer?!? Is that what they told you?? I am leaning on that 4/3 deal at the moment but may just go elsewhere for them