This post about how to buy tires online was sponsored by SimpleTire, and all thoughts expressed here are our own.
To most people (okay, our family anyway), upkeep of our cars is a chore we don’t relish. We live in California where cars are a necessity, and we couldn’t really function without them. But our cars have to function properly in order to meet our constant needs, and tires are one of the most important maintenance issues. When we found out about SimpleTire, we were so happy to know we could buy tires online and feel confident their tire experts had our backs.
Ava recently got her driver’s license, which means we now have four drivers in the house. We have been planning for this and anticipated the need for another car.



Everyone’s schedules are pretty hectic normally, with the regular requirements of school, work, sports and busy social lives. Of course right now those schedules are curtailed but will soon return to normal. So when we added a car for Ava, that car needed to be the safest possible for our new driver. It needed new tires.
SimpleTire.com was suggested to us as a good solution and came up in our online search sounding like a solid recommendation. We decided to follow SimpleTire’s sound advice and have new tires delivered from them – right to our door.
Buy Tires Online: Advice, Expertise and More
One of the things we loved most about our experience with SimpleTire is how effortless they make it to buy tires online. When we first clicked on SimpleTire.com we could see how uncomplicated their website has been designed to navigate. A few simple clicks helped us to identify our specific needs, and we were ready to purchase. We could arrange for the tires to be sent directly to our home – for free – and then we could just install them ourselves.
That is, we could install them if we understood what we were doing. But we needed more help than that in the selection and installation process. SimpleTire came through to make us feel a further sense of trust and security.
For people like us that are not – shall we say – “handy” with cars, buying new tires is a challenge. We did not know what we wanted, so SimpleTire was very helpful in guiding us to buy tires online.
SimpleTire offers more than 55 million tires and 300+ different brands for virtually all car makes and models. Plus, they include all the information you’d ever need to know about each option. SimpleTire works with a network of some 20,000 installers all across the country, supporting independent small businesses in each of our communities.



How to Buy Tires Online
Back in the day when we needed new tires, we’d roll up to the tire store and trust them to steer us in the right direction. We were far from experts, so there was an underlying distrust on our part when we bought new tires. This was largely due to our own naivete, but the feeling lingered nonetheless.
Nowadays we can buy tires online from a trustworthy expert like SimpleTire. This makes a purchase of tires really straightforward.
We were prompted at SimpleTire.com to choose our new tires based on the make of the vehicle, the tire size or the tire brand. Entering the information for our Mini Cooper, the website continued to guide us with questions until we reached a specific recommendation from SimpleTire. Sounds weird to say it, but the whole experience was actually kind of fun! The website is lighthearted with fun animation and graphics – nothing like the old vision of tire companies I had in my head.
SimpleTire suggested we get Pirelli tires, since that is most likely what our Mini Cooper originally sported. Reviews of these specific tires, dimensions and specs are all shared right there for us to read and learn about. Once we decided to buy tires online, SimpleTire made the purchase process easy too.



You Have Choices for Tire Installation
If you want to be more hands-on, you can direct your new tire purchase to your front door. Tires arrive in a matter of days, and you can stretch your DIY capabilities at home if you choose.
Or like us, you can rely on the SimpleTire website to match you with installers in close proximity to your zip code area. You can choose to have your new tires shipped directly to the installer of your choice too. Heck, they will even schedule the installation appointment for you right through the SimpleTire.com website.
We followed SimpleTire’s lead and had our new Pirellis installed at Evans Tires here in San Diego. No joke, the whole installation job was done in about one hour including balancing them. I drove off the lot and could immediately feel a difference in the way our car was hugging the road. The drive was smoother and turns were tighter.



Knowing When to Replace Tires
As parents, we may never get fully comfortable with our teen daughters driving themselves around town. There are just so many things to teach them about safety, maintenance, laws and more. For us, one of the most important things about them getting behind the wheel was dependability and performance of their car. The last thing we want is that dreaded phone call from god-knows-where, with them telling us the car broke down – or worse.
Tires are one of those things we can control because we can visibly see when they are run down. Low treads are a sure tell that it’s time for new tires. Uneven wear on the tire is another sign that they need replacing or at the very least balancing.



Here’s an easy way to tell if your tire treads are low. (We have taught this trick to both our girls for that rare instance when they would actually care enough to check!) Take a regular penny and insert it into the tread with Abe Lincoln’s head facing upside down and toward you. If you can see only part of his head, your tires are fine. If you can see his entire head, your tread is completely worn and your tire needs to be replaced. Be sure to do this test on all four tires since each tire’s tread could be worn completely differently.



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