I bought new tyres online from Tyroola for our Land Rover Discovery Sport and had them fitted in our driveway. This is how it went.
It's fair to say that the pandemic over the past couple of years has seen a massive shift towards online ordering from the comfort of the couch.
These days it seems there is almost nothing you can't get delivered to your door.
A few months ago I decided to put this theory to the test and buy tyres online from Tyroola for our Land Rover Discovery Sport.
Buying new tyres is often on the to do list for people planning big road trips like The Big Lap, so I figured I'd be the crash test dummy and see how it works.
Buying Tyres The Traditional Way
Traditionally you'd buy your tyres from a dedicated tyre retailer who also fitted and balanced them.
If you didn't have a specific brand of tyre in mind they would generally recommend one that they stocked.
You'd choose a tyre based mostly on price, expected performance and lifespan and let's be honest, how cool they would look on your car!
But most of us road trippers don't buy tyres this way.
Usually we've already done our research, read reviews or watched videos and often decided which tyres we want before we step foot in a tyre retailers shop.
With the tyre brand, style and size chosen we would phone around to find a local tyre business that can supply & fit the tyres we want.
We'd then drop our car in and hang out in their workshop waiting room for a couple of hours, drinking instant coffee and listening to the sweet sound of rattle guns on wheel nuts while lounging in a greasy chair reading 3 year old car magazines!
Or maybe we'd just come back later that day.
Realistically it wasn't what you'd call 'fun', but it got the job done.
So is there a better way?
Well, I'm happy to report, yes there is.
Welcome to the future.
How to Buy Tyres Online
Our Land Rover Discovery Sport had recently clicked over 50,000km and was still on the original Continental brand tyres it came with when we bought it new.
Generally new cars are shipped with 'budget friendly' average performance tyres but this was not the case with the Land Rover Discovery Sport.
The Continental Crosscontact tyre's have performed brilliantly (mostly on-road) and I was happy with the 50,000km lifespan.
I probably could have squeezed another 5000km out of them but we were planning a road trip to Adelaide from Melbourne which would clock up a couple of thousand km's so I wanted to do the trip on new rubber just to be on the safe side.
I had been hearing more and more about ordering tyres online and wanted to give it a try, so this was my chance.
I jumped onto the Tyroola website to see if they could supply me the exact same Continental tyres as I already had.
The original set had performed perfectly so I was happy to stay with them for the replacements.
There are several ways to find tyres for your car on the Tyroola site including searching by tyre size, vehicle model or even entering your rego number and letting the site recommend tyres for your car.
OR you can just click on the 'TYRES' menu at the top of the page and browse the range.
If you're not a tyre whizz and don't know exactly what you need then type in your rego number and let the site do the work for you.
I knew what tyres I wanted so I typed in the size specs for my tyres . . . 235 . . . 55 . . . 19 . . . and also the load and speed rating which is 105V.
The site offered over 20 compatible tyres including the Continental's that I was looking for.
There's a menu down the left side of the page that you can use to filter out the tyres by price, brand, features, special deals etc.
The site also shows the availability of the tyres and options for where to get them fitted in your local area.
In my case, I wanted to the full 'delivery to your door' experience so during the Checkout process I chose a mobile tyre fitter who could come out and fit and balance them in our driveway.
The total price of the 4 tyres was $1300 including GST which included the fitting cost of $132 (The Continental's are a premium tyre but there are cheaper options available).
There were numerous ways to pay online including VISA, AMEX, PayPal and they also have Afterpay & Zip pay to spread the payments over time.
After I completed Checkout, Tyroola delivered the tyres directly to the mobile tyre fitter and he came out on the following Sunday afternoon and fitted the tyres in about 90 minutes.
Tom the Tyre Fitter, has a large van which is his mobile workshop with the fitting and balancing station built into it along with a compressor and all of his other tools.
He also took the old tyres with him to be recycled.
Overall it was a very straightforward and seamless experience to buy tyres online and I'd be happy to use Tyroola again next time I need new tyres.
Can I buy 4x4 tyres online from Tyroola?
Tyroola sell a wide range of 4X4 tyres including popular brands like BFGoodrich, Bridgestone, Hankook, Falken, Nitto, Goodyear, Toyo, Dunlop, Yokahama, Monsta, Kumho and several others.
You can jump straight to the 4X4 section of their website here.
Our other vehicle is an 80 Series Toyota Landcruiser which is our touring machine and it's currently running Nitto Trail Grapplers which have performed very well.
They've driven about 45,000km so far and I'll probably get another 10,000km out of them before they need replacing, so at least one or two more big road trips still to go.
I'll be jumping over to the Tyroola website when the time comes.
Conclusion
When I first heard about ordering tyres online I thought it sounded like the hard way to go about it.
But now having gone through the process and had them fitted without even leaving home, I'm convinced it's actually the easiest way.
With Tyroola I can buy almost any brand and size of tyre and have them fitted in my driveway.
Welcome to the future!
Further Reading:
This post is not sponsored by Tyroola however it contains affiliate links and Expedition Australia may earn a commission if you click through to the Tyroola website and complete a purchase. Thanks for your support.
