I went into my friendly neighborhood Costco to look at getting some new tires. My summers are bald and I have all winter to look for a good deal. I Did a bunch of reading on Wolfgang’s site and decided I wanted MAX tire size for my ML320’s summers 265/75/16’s. I want the lift and the full wheel well look. The guy their said he could only sell me 255/65/16 (oem size) replacements. He said they could be liable if anything happened with the larger tires. Has anyone else had this experience or is this guy just a prick?
This is a standard policy at many tire vendors including Costco and the TireRack.
One way around this policy that many folks will accept is for you to bring rims (and old tires) into the shop and they give them back with new tires. You put the wheels on the vehicle and assume liability. This is what my Costco told me.
Costco has a little computer program that they look your vehicles permissable tires in. If the tires aren’t listed they won’t sell them. I wonder how they handle aftermarket wheels? I will ask if they can sell them, mount and balance but not put them on the vehicle.
I wonder… if I installed them wrong and had a problem could Costco be held liable for having the customer put them on themselves… Interesting.
Their liability problem is the actual install. Buy the tires and have your local gas station put them on if they won't (or it's too much of a PIA) to put them on removed rims.
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