Costco Tyre policy
Discussion
I was in Costco on the weekend and happend to stroll into the tyre & battery section for a browse.
Anyway a customer was buying 2 new tyres he wanted them to be put onto the back - however they said sorry its company policy or them to put the new tyres onto the rear and put the rears onto the front.
Now his issue was he didnt want the fronts touched - as the front tyres had loads of tread and the rears were barely 2mm. (IIRC fronts were well over 5mm) Anyway they refused point blank as their strict rule is rotate th tyres on a change from back to front - he replied but the fronts are a few months old and the rears are shot and a few years old... still sorry cannot do it.
Result - well he could have gone elsewhere but they are far more expensive he went outside and took off his front tyre put his spare on switched it to the back and then put the back tyre onto the front - repeated on the other side of the car.
Came back in and then they did it but they wouldnt under any circumstance leave the two best tyres on the front.
I dont get it - Id understand putting new on rear but new on rear and leaving the two best tyres on the front or from the same axle.
Anyone care to help - Im struggling.
Note Id only ever buy tyres from Costco - costs lowest and only Michellin & all in price plus nitrogen filling plus location & do your shopping while its done.
Anyway a customer was buying 2 new tyres he wanted them to be put onto the back - however they said sorry its company policy or them to put the new tyres onto the rear and put the rears onto the front.
Now his issue was he didnt want the fronts touched - as the front tyres had loads of tread and the rears were barely 2mm. (IIRC fronts were well over 5mm) Anyway they refused point blank as their strict rule is rotate th tyres on a change from back to front - he replied but the fronts are a few months old and the rears are shot and a few years old... still sorry cannot do it.
Result - well he could have gone elsewhere but they are far more expensive he went outside and took off his front tyre put his spare on switched it to the back and then put the back tyre onto the front - repeated on the other side of the car.
Came back in and then they did it but they wouldnt under any circumstance leave the two best tyres on the front.
I dont get it - Id understand putting new on rear but new on rear and leaving the two best tyres on the front or from the same axle.
Anyone care to help - Im struggling.
Note Id only ever buy tyres from Costco - costs lowest and only Michellin & all in price plus nitrogen filling plus location & do your shopping while its done.
TBH i prefer to rotate the tyres so the rears never stay on the rear all the time. As soon as the fronts are done the new ones go on the back and the old ones go on the front, this just stops the tyres from perishing over the years as they really don't doo much work if its front wheel drive.
So from my point of view Costco were right.
So from my point of view Costco were right.
From what the OP said I gather Costco wanted to switch the wheels with the 2mm bald tyres from the back to the front, the nearly new tyres from the front would've been discarded from the rims and the brand new tyres put on them before remounting them on the rear - if that's what they're suggesting they're idiots.
Composite Guru said:
TBH i prefer to rotate the tyres so the rears never stay on the rear all the time. As soon as the fronts are done the new ones go on the back and the old ones go on the front, this just stops the tyres from perishing over the years as they really don't doo much work if its front wheel drive.
So from my point of view Costco were right.
Ok but if the sole reason you were in the store was to buy 2 new tyres to replace the tyres which were down to 2mm but were offered to get 2 new tyres but bin the 5+mm 6 month old ones instead purely due to the fact the better tyres were already on the front.So from my point of view Costco were right.
Seems unusual. Infact - what if you had illegal tyres on the rear (sub 1.6mm and cracked/clearly very old) but brand new on the front (taking it to the extreme) then that is clearly a crazy proposition.
Also if you have 4 new tyres your cars handling could change notably ie situation before you had just legal on front and new at back then for some reason fitted 4 new ones instantly the handling would catch a few novices out.
Er I'm going to say he encountered an idiot fitter who doesn't know what he's doing.
What do they do with cars with different size tyres front to back, eg the thousands of M3's, M5's etc
ETA, thinking about it I think they were trying to get him to buy 4 new tyres in a very underhand way.
What do they do with cars with different size tyres front to back, eg the thousands of M3's, M5's etc
ETA, thinking about it I think they were trying to get him to buy 4 new tyres in a very underhand way.
Edited by -Z- on Wednesday 18th May 13:45
Slightly OT but I don't see why do people obsess about nitrogen filled tyres, they do know air is roughly 70% nitrogen anyway isn't it?
As for the tyres, putting rear to front regardless of wear doesn't make any sense at all imo. I'd have thought they'd always put the lesser worn tyres to the rear so that cars understeer at the limit rather than swap ends because the back has let go.
I used to leave my more worn tyres on the rear of my old Cavalier back when I was 18 to make the handling more tail happy (lift off oversteer)...it backfired massively in an incident involving me, a wet motorway roundabout and a fence
ETA: muddling my words
As for the tyres, putting rear to front regardless of wear doesn't make any sense at all imo. I'd have thought they'd always put the lesser worn tyres to the rear so that cars understeer at the limit rather than swap ends because the back has let go.
I used to leave my more worn tyres on the rear of my old Cavalier back when I was 18 to make the handling more tail happy (lift off oversteer)...it backfired massively in an incident involving me, a wet motorway roundabout and a fence
ETA: muddling my words
yellowbentines said:
From what the OP said I gather Costco wanted to switch the wheels with the 2mm bald tyres from the back to the front, the nearly new tyres from the front would've been discarded from the rims and the brand new tyres put on them before remounting them on the rear - if that's what they're suggesting they're idiots.
This.Welshbeef said:
Also if you have 4 new tyres your cars handling could change notably ie situation before you had just legal on front and new at back then for some reason fitted 4 new ones instantly the handling would catch a few novices out.
What the f
k are you talking about?Novices?
Normal people who drive normal cars normally will do just fine with four new tyres.
Welshbeef said:
yellowbentines said:
From what the OP said I gather Costco wanted to switch the wheels with the 2mm bald tyres from the back to the front, the nearly new tyres from the front would've been discarded from the rims and the brand new tyres put on them before remounting them on the rear - if that's what they're suggesting they're idiots.
This.Any suggestion of disposing nearly new tyres as opposed to the old ones is lunacy.
As I understand it Costcos policy is that new tyres must be fitted to the rear. Whilst contentious this is the recommendation from a number of "tyre experts" due to stability.
Sounds to me he's misunderstood both the policy and certainly lost sight of why they're doing it.
Just another misinformed muppet with a whirley gun... I would write to CostCo personally, get the guy retrained, but be careful to make it explicit what the issue was as it reads quite confusing!
As I understand it Costcos policy is that new tyres must be fitted to the rear. Whilst contentious this is the recommendation from a number of "tyre experts" due to stability.
Sounds to me he's misunderstood both the policy and certainly lost sight of why they're doing it.
Just another misinformed muppet with a whirley gun... I would write to CostCo personally, get the guy retrained, but be careful to make it explicit what the issue was as it reads quite confusing!
Bill said:
Welshbeef said:
yellowbentines said:
From what the OP said I gather Costco wanted to switch the wheels with the 2mm bald tyres from the back to the front, the nearly new tyres from the front would've been discarded from the rims and the brand new tyres put on them before remounting them on the rear - if that's what they're suggesting they're idiots.
This.incidentally, tread level only makes a difference when driving through standing water, on a dry, or even damp road, its an irrelivent factor
Composite Guru said:
Thats not what the first post says. The guy wanted the old (slightly worn) tyres putting on the rear but Costco's policy is to fit new tyres on the rear.
Sorry yes not the clearest post.The fronts had 5mm and were 6 months old the rears were 2mm (shot) and many years old.
He wanted to keep the 2 newest tyres which happened to be on the front.
Bill said:
Admittedly it's not the clearest post though.
But I know what Costco's policy is. If they replace the worn tyres then they stick them on the rear so that the old tyres can be used and eventually replaced rather than leaving them on the rear for years.
300bhp/ton said:
Would love to see what they'd have made of a car with different sized front and rears then 
Not too mention a good number of cars also have different sized rims front to rear too.
I was actually just going to say that. That must change for that instance. Only means front wheel drive cars maybe. Not too mention a good number of cars also have different sized rims front to rear too.V8mate said:
Welshbeef said:
Also if you have 4 new tyres your cars handling could change notably ie situation before you had just legal on front and new at back then for some reason fitted 4 new ones instantly the handling would catch a few novices out.
What the fk are you talking about?Novices?
Normal people who drive normal cars normally will do just fine with four new tyres.
But, most folk don't understand tyre physics or have a feel for grip.....bloody novices
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