Buying Tyres - local or import them?

[Pommygranite]

Need new tyres and prices are a little bit eye watering, so has anyone experience of ordering from the USA and is it worth it?

Need 245/35/19 and they're farking expensive here.

[Panayiotis]

tirerack.com You will need to call them, but I know a few people that were very happy with them and the shipping costs.

[Google [bot]]

I'm about to order a couple of tyres from them. 350AUD each here if they can source them.
92USD from Tyrerack. The shipping is more expensive than the tyres and I'm still saving a couple of hundred.

[Pommygranite]

Thanks for that chaps - great info.

Any ideas how long they take, what the customs tax issue is like (I heard that if US brand no tax, foreign brand there is) and how much do fitters here charge to fit them? Will research and post up but keen for info.

[sensible]

If you keep it under $1000 then no import duty applys

My last race tyres came in at $1120 and Customs decided they where going to tare me a new a######

I got done with import duty, shipping fees, quaranteen fees which added $850 to my tyres

I could have got them here for $2100

I have got tyres before and they got straight through without a problem

[Pommygranite]

Good info thanks. So is that $1000 for the item only or $1000 including shipping costs?

At the moment BJ TMart wants $900 A TYRE or I can get 4 for $920 + shipping. However these are jap tyres and I read somewhere the tyres need to be USA made to escape tariff.

[ajg31]

is the $1000 WITH shipping or without, as I know that nearly everything that goes through customs has the shipping added on when they calculate the tax etc. Also interested how long they take, as the honda could do with some winter boots and the prices quoted here ate 20% higher than 2 years ago. Also wonder about fitting charges too

[motomk]

Pommygranite said:

Good info thanks. So is that $1000 for the item only or $1000 including shipping costs?

At the moment BJ TMart wants $900 A TYRE or I can get 4 for $920 + shipping. However these are jap tyres and I read somewhere the tyres need to be USA made to escape tariff.

Have a look on ebay Australia as sometimes some of the Ford and Holden OEM tyres appear on there. Just make sure they are the right size and not Runflats or make by the Baked Bean tyre company of Outer No-where.
The OEM Bridgestones on my Ute which are 245/40/19 are around $750 a go.
I have now put on some Toyo Proxes T1 sports locally at about half the price. They get a big thumbs-up from me so far. A fellow I work with gets his tyres from tirerack. He put some Michelin somethings on his S5 which he says are very good.

[Pommygranite]

Just found it:
http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page5549.asp#Calcul...

Basically it's cost of goods plus shipping plus customs duty (5%?) and if this is over $1000 add 10% GST.

So for my tyre at $231 each

1shipment (4):$924+$400 shipping (rough guess $100 a tyre) + $46 CD: $1370 + $137 GST = Total $1507

2 shipments (2 tyres): $462 + $300 shipping (rough guess & costs more apparently per tyre for lower amount) + $38 CD: $800. - do this twice $1600 so more expensive if the postage works out on this assumption and you can ignore the tax issue.

Add $100 to fit new tyres dispose the old.

So call it $1600 for 4 or about $3500 if I just went to BJ TMart - that's a big saving.


EDIT: scratch it - just seen eBay...think I'll buy in oz!

Edited by Pommygranite on Monday 26th March 13:07

[Colonial]

If the purchase price is under $1000 it doesn't get hit, even if the price including shipping is over $1000.

If it is over $1000 plus shipping then the total price is calculated including shipping is calculated for duty.

I have bought a few tyres and it always comes in under $1000 so no duty. It's also about 5 days to get here. I was quoted 3 weeks to get some Asutralian stock to my local tyre place at well over double the money.

I will use Tirerack again.,

[sensible]

What he ^^^^^ said

If the item is under 1000 with out shipping you are all good

[Bob the Planner]

I will belooking to do a deal on 255/35/18ZR in the near future. It appears that the Aus supplied tyres are harder than the European/North American/Japanese spec for the same tyre due to the higher temps. Not sure that I will trade grip for $ even if they wear quicker. 15k km for a set of rears should be OK.

[astonmartinv8]

I've bought two full sets of Continentals for my Lexus from tirerack.com, just under $1K delivered, both got here in about a week.

No problems at all. I did need to email. They were very helpful.

I saved about $700 on each transaction.

They were Continental DW tyres. Excellent tyre. They lasted about 40k kms and I probably replaced them a little early.

Edited by astonmartinv8 on Thursday 5th April 00:49

[Bob the Planner]

I seem to get 20k from rears and 24k fronts. I think Aussie tyres are harder than UK versions.