Did you know Art’s Automotive offers complete tire services in Berkeley? For over 20 years, we’ve been providing tire sales and services, including mounting, balancing, and alignment, yet we still get call asking for a referral to a tire shop. There’s no need to search for ‘tire shop near me’ – we’re right here!
It’s funny, our Berkeley shop has offered tire service over 20 years now, but surprisingly many of customers still have no idea we offer complete tire services. Sometimes our customers call to ask us for a recommendation for a good tire shop in Berkeley, to which we respond…. US!
The fact that even folks who like us and come in regularly don’t know we’re a full service tire shop must mean we’re pretty bad at marketing. So, in an effort to rectify that, here’s a little information about what we offer.
Tire Brands
We offer new tires, primarily Yokohama. We’re an authorized Yokohama dealer and we try to stock all of the sizes common to the cars we repair.
Because we’re a small tire shop in comparison to East Bay giants like Don’s Tire and Costco, we chose one brand (that we like) and stick with it. This is because in order to get good pricing on tires, we have to buy in a reasonable volume, and if we split our purchasing between multiple brands, our tire prices (and therefore your tire prices) wouldn’t be that good.
Learn more about Yokohama, their warranty, and the company at their website.
Special Order Tires
Now, if you want a different brand, we can order it. Our pricing may not be as competitive as it is with Yokohama tires though. If we order early in the morning we can get special order tires on the same day, although sometimes they arrive late in the day while can be an issue if we’re doing a wheel alignment in addition to the tires.
Tire Prices
As I mentioned earlier, we’re a small tire shop. We’re relatively large auto repair shop, but our tire sales don’t compare with many of the other tire shops in Berkeley. Wholesale tire prices depend on the volume you sell, so we don’t usually have the lowest price available. That honor usually belongs to Costco.
But here’s the reason you may still want to come to us — convenience. Costco has the cheapest tires, but they also sometimes have long waits for installation appointment, they don’t do wheel alignment, they don’t do TPMS sensor replacement, they’ll install your new tires on the rear, and the Richmond store is nowhere near transportation, or anything else for that matter. If a set of tires purchased here is $30 more than Don’s and $60 more than Costco, maybe it’s still worth it to purchase your tires here. That’s something you’ll have to decide.
It’s OK to go to another shop for tires
In the end, we want you to do what’s right for you. We don’t need to sugar coat you decision for us. If you found a better deal that’s ok. It won’t hurt our feelings that you’re going somewhere else and it gives me hope for the humanity when people make rational purchasing decisions. Tires are one of the lowest profit services we offer. We’ll be fine and you’ll save some money.
Why do we sell tires then if we’re not making a bunch of money on the service? It’s convenient for us too. Offering complete auto service keeps projects rolling along. We try to do as much in-house as possible.
This article covers some of the information you’ll need to make an intelligent choice when you shop for tires. The amount of information can be overwhelming. In this article we attempt to explain all of the considerations in plain English to make your decision a little easier. If you’re using treadwear warranty as a factor in your decision, here’s an article explaining a bit about treadwear warranties.
For most cars we repair, we recommend the Yokohama Avid Ascend LX. It’s a reasonably priced tire, lasts a long time, is quiet, handles well in the wet at dry. Many of us run this brand and model on our own cars. However, our recommendation may change in the future because tires are like shoes; once you find a model you like, they discontinue it and you have to start for the perfect fit again.
“Leverless” installation
Back in the “good ol days” all the Japanese cars we repaired had 13″ tires with a generous sidewall which were easy to remove and install. These days some of the cars we repair come stock with 20″ rims and 35 series tires. They are far from easy to remove and install using a traditional tire machine. Rather than risk damaging tires or rims with a lever style machine, we looked to the Italians, who know a thing or two about low profile tires. We now own a Corghi Master-J lever-less tire machine that can handle handle the tires on a Bugatti, and can certainly safely install tires on the “grocery getters” we repair here.
Precision wheel Balancing
Our road force machine, the Hunter Engineering GSP9700, will test for lateral and radial run out. Most tire shops don’t have a RFV balancer. We use it to diagnose pull caused by stiff spots in the tire’s sidewall and vibration caused by “out-of-round”. Using this machine, we can also place wheels so the forces they generate cancel each other out. Finally, we can also match the stiff spot of the tire to the low spot of the rim to achieve the lowest possible road force variation, just like the manufacturer did before the car was shipped off to the dealership. If you’re interested, you can read one of our more detailed articles about tire balancing here.
wheel alignment
We also have the best wheel alignment equipment on the market. The Hunter Engineering “HawkEye” system uses cameras, targets with reflective triangles. They use trigonometry to quickly and precisely gauge the position of each wheel. With this machine, we can check basic alignment angles like caster, camber, and toe. What really cool though is that we can also check ride height, setback, toe out on turns, and make a bunch of more advanced measurements. Most tire shops will have and alignment rack, but not necessarily like this one.
TPMS Sensor Replacement
TPMS sensors have batteries that discharge over time. They can last 5 – 10 years, usually failing somewhere in the middle around 7 or 8 years.
The tire must be removed from the rim to replace the TPMS sensor, so replacing TPMS sensors when you replace the tires can be a good idea. If the sensors are over 5 years old, I’d recommend replacing them.
We offer good quality programmable TPMS sensors that are much less expensive than OEM sensors, in some cases 70% less.