Rubber for your car, made easy (etyres.co.uk)

Member Name: Pharmtastic

Product:	etyres.co.uk
Date:	09/05/08 (518 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They come to you!

Disadvantages: Not nationwide

etyres is a web-based company that supplies and fits car tyres [also vans, but not bikes] and car batteries.

On visiting the site, you can enter the size of tyre you need. For this, you have to have four pieces of information: width, profile, wheel size and speed rating. Fortunately, all of this information is on the side of the tyres you've already got on your car! They will look something like: 225/45 18 W.

On entering this information, you will be presented with a list of various tyre brands and their prices. The price shown includes VAT, fitting, balancing and valves, and delivery to your home or work. That is, they come to you, you don't need to go to them [though more of that later].

You complete the order and then are given an opportunity to book a fitting time, which can be as soon as the following day, or you can book further in advance. Full payment is made at the time of booking: as a security measure, you need to produce the credit/debit card used to pay when the tyres are delivered.

The tyres are delivered in a mobile fitting van, which carries the equipment needed to change the tyres, balance them etc [OK, I admit it - I've reached the limit of my technical knowledge of tyre-fitting!]. The old tyres are taken away.

The prices are competitive, especially when compared to main dealers: four tyres for my wife's car came to £355, compared with the £457 we'd paid two years ago at a dealer. The convenience is great, though, if it saves having to take time off work.

There was one fly in the ointment though. I ordered some tyres this week for fitting yesterday. I had a call the day after placing the order to say that I lived three and a half hours from the nearest depot, they wouldn't be able to deal with me. So, it's obviously not quite a nationwide service [I live in rural Wales], so they can't give me the same service they did when I lived in Cardiff.

If you live in an area covered, and don't fancy haggling in a garage, they might be worth a go.

[also on Ciao under huwbach]

Summary: Good service and prices