I just spent a pretty penny on a new set of tires for my Audi

The time has come, new tires are on the menu for my car. I have made my current set last as long as possible, but they are about at the end of their life. I always know that it is time to get some fresh tread whenever I am scared to drive in heavy rain due to lack of traction.

I have reduced the amount that I drive by quite a bit, thanks to no longer having to drive to and from work five days a week. However, I still hit the road daily. Pretty much the only time I drive more than a mile or two a day is on the weekends. Other than that, I really only put major miles on my car when traveling for vacations. Spring is here and soon summer will arrive, this time of the year is generally when I spend the most time on the road. I'd be crazy to not go ahead and swap out my tires to prepare for all of my upcoming adventures.

Luckily I can walk to the place where I take my car for maintenance, so it's not a major issue for me to be without my ride all day. It used to suck so badly when I had to just sit and wait for hours for them to finish with my car. Now I can just briefly walk over as soon as they call to let me know that they have finished. I went to the shop bright and early Monday morning, but sadly they didn't have my desired tire in stock like they did last time.

I don't have stock wheels, as you can see by the candy teal, I went up from the boring 17-inch wheels that my car came with. My car now wears a size 235/40R18. You can see from the photo above that the tread on my back tires isn't too bad, but upfront it was worn down even more. I will probably keep the two rear tires in storage in case I ever have an emergency and need extra. I already have one tire in storage, so I will have three saved just in case.

The only tires that my shop had in stock for my size were $210 per tire. I used to pay crazy prices like that when I first got my car, but I've come to realize that I don't need ultra-high performance tires with speed ratings that I will never reach. I never go to the track and just do casual driving mostly. Sure I like to push the limits of my car sometimes but it happens far less now that I have had my 2009 Audi A4 since 2013. The older my car gets, the less I feel the need to treat it like it doesn't have over 150k miles on it.

Instead of spending nearly $1,000 on my new tires, I decided to order my own and have them shipped straight to the shop. This only slows me down about three days, which I am more than willing to wait since I don't do much driving through the week anyways. I should have my new tires installed by this Thursday afternoon.

I got online and started searching on https://www.tirerack.com/. I quickly found a few options, but only two were under $150/tire. I decided to go with some new brand called Riken that I have never purchased before. The reviews seemed to show that these tires would do just fine for what I needed. Plus at $115/tire, this was about the best deal I could find for some new ones. My main criteria were that my new tires would be all-season and offer me some decent performance. Of course, pricing was my main factor. These Riken Raptors were half as much as the ones the shop was trying to sell me, so I consider my find successful. These also came with a two-year road hazard protection.

Although I saved quite a bit with this method, I still ended up spending just under $500 for four new tires. This cost is less than what I would have spent had I just gone with what the shop had available. It is pretty crazy to think that tires are this costly, but I know these will last me quite a while. I'd much rather feel safe on the road rather than having to worry about getting stuck with a flat because I waited too long to upgrade or worse, losing control on a corner thans to lack of grip.

The price to have them installed will be just under $100. Another added cost, but we do what we must in order to be prepared for the road ahead. It's going to feel so good to have more grip than I've been working with over the last year. This car is going to feel the benefits from these new tires right away. I'm very thankful to have the means to make something like this happen.

I'm pretty sure I ended up saving around $400-500 by ordering my own tires online. Literally, the only drawback is having to wait an extra three days. I'll have these bad boys installed this week still, so I'm one happy dude.

Don't let me forget to mention the fact that I used my Crypto.com debit card to pay for these. That means Hive paid for my new tires! Thanks to everyone who has shown me support which has allowed me to be able to buy these new tires for my Audi.

My NFTs: @daltono/nfts