[MotoSteve]

Question for you guys, I'm going to be placing my order pretty soon for my 18 STI (2-3 Weeks), which puts delivery September/October..maybe November.

I live in Colorado, whole summer tires are probably fine around that time, they won't be for very long.

Do dealers have the capability to exchange tires on a new car so I don't have to buy a whole new set of winters?

If I could have the summers taken off and some good all seasons put on, Im set.


I'm planning on buying an extra set of rims anyway with DOT track tires (for fun and street trim auto x)..but it would be nice not to pick up a brand new car and have to spend another $800 on tires for it

Thoughts?

 

[SD_GR]

If you pay them enough money they'll French kiss a water buffalo.

 

[MotoSteve]

If you pay them enough money they'll French kiss a water buffalo.

Right I mean that's pretty obvious. I'm talking free exchange. Is that a thing people have heard of or is it what you see is what you get.

 

[WRX John]

Second before your agree to buy your car, just before your "order" is approved on, that is your time to negotiate, especially if it is that last day of the month. I am always polite, but firm too, saying something like:

"We are getting close to making this deal, and I am willing to sign, but right now there is still one deal breaker, and that is the OEM tires. If you include changing out the OEM tires for a set of Michelin A/S 3+'s, you have just sold the car."

And if they say no, and if there are some roughly $400 worth of Mazda accessories you wear going to buy from them anyway, your come back is something like, "If you want to sell the car, you will need to include the Michelin's or no deal, but I will buy X, Y, and Z (list of around $400) from your parts counter -- (even though you and they know that they are going to make a profit on those accessories).

 

[rqjoe]

ˆˆMazda?

 

[MotoSteve]

Mm that's a thought. I'll talk to the dealer about it come delivery time.

 

[Firefighterjake]

ˆˆMazda?

Kinda wondering the same thing . . . maybe you go into the Subaru dealer and tell them you're planning to buy a Subaru and put Mazda parts on it and they figure you're bat%$# crazy and give you a deal just to get you out of the showroom?

 

[WRX John]

Sorry guys, I had just gotten a Mazda forum and was posting there about Mazda accessories (my wife's DD is a 2017 Mazda 3 GT). Tired to edit/correct my mistake when I realized it, but this forum has a "10 minute maximum" edit allowance -- which most forums do not.

You got the drift though, if the initial offer fails, offer and inducement of buying WRX accessories which were going to be bought anyway -- and they start to then figure their profit on those accessories as a reduction in net pricing.

 

[MotoSteve]

thanks for the info. I guess I'll just have to work it out w/ the dealer. The car is being ordered, meaning I'm putting 1k down and waiting 8-12 weeks + already have a final price OTD from my build..they aren't dumb, they know I'm not going to just walk away because tires.

Regarding accessories, that too is a good idea, but honestly I'm not too sure if I want anything else from the dealer at the time. My plans over the first year or so of ownership are intake, custom dyno tune (have to buy AP and tune), bigger sway bars, new wheels/track tires..all of which can't really be bought through the dealer.


I suppose we will just see what happens!

 

[ChristopherWRX]

thanks for the info. I guess I'll just have to work it out w/ the dealer. The car is being ordered, meaning I'm putting 1k down and waiting 8-12 weeks + already have a final price OTD from my build..they aren't dumb, they know I'm not going to just walk away because tires.

Regarding accessories, that too is a good idea, but honestly I'm not too sure if I want anything else from the dealer at the time. My plans over the first year or so of ownership are intake, custom dyno tune (have to buy AP and tune), bigger sway bars, new wheels/track tires..all of which can't really be bought through the dealer.


I suppose we will just see what happens!

Simple. Shop other dealers. There's some good dealers on here or you could solicit offers via email. Sure, some dealers will refuse to deal with you that way, but I still got plenty of offers with only a small amount of initial resistance. I bought my car that way and didn't even meet the salesman until I went to pick up the car.

It can be done. Negotiate.

 

[MotoSteve]

Buying the car from a dealer on here already giving me the club wrx hookup on price.

We'll see what happens. Thanks for the words!

 

[hvac77]

Subaru should offer a all season tire option, I am also in the process of ordering a 2018 sti and will need all season tires or have to get snow tires


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[zax]

Subaru should offer a all season tire option

Subaru knows what they are doing in this regard. This is a performance car, so Subaru knows better than to use crappy rubber that will lower the performance envelope considerably.

 

[MotoSteve]

I'll talk to the dealer once I get a VIN.

I may end up biting the bullet and buy some aftermarket wheels I want anyway and see if I can work it out with them where they'll mount the supersports on my aftermarkets and i'll buy some all seasons and have them put it on the stockers...maybe they can even cut me a deal on the whole thing. Certainly are opportunities available

 

[WRX John]

Subaru should offer a all season tire option, I am also in the process of ordering a 2018 sti and will need all season tires or have to get snow tires

A thread to that effect is on every single high performance car forum, e.g., Corvettes, Porsches, Ferrari. And here is why that's not going to happen.

Let's say the STi came instead factory all seasons for 2018. And when Road and Track tested it, it was 0.3 seconds slower 0 to 60 than the 2017 STi. Here's the consequent front page screaming headline.

2018 STI MUCH SLOWER!

Or similarly, on Car and Driver's annual Lighting Lap competition, they found the 2018 A/S tired STI was 1.5 seconds slower on that lap (compared to its last test of it), and both competitor X and competitor Y -- both of which it had beaten in the last head to head test, now were faster.

 

[SD_GR]

This is astonishing -- not the tire stuff, but that people buy Corvettes and that Car and Driver still exists.

OP might arrange a swap via the forum or CL but it's a shame if it costs OP anything after all.

I love having all seasons on my Subaru and am probably not alone.

 

[MotoSteve]

WRX John has a very good point though.

After All, Car and Driver and the various review websites/youtubes whatever don't get to nitpick the car they are picking up. they typically have arrangements with a dealer or SOA to go test it out and write a review on it. If that car happens to have the all seasons on it, depending on the level of clickbait they want to establish, they could very well do so.

 

[falcor]

I live in Kansas City and plan to re-tire the 2018 WRX I'm leasing in a couple months. Thought about keeping the original tires and swap them back on when I turn the car back in. Or just sell them to help cover the cost of all seasons.


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[MotoSteve]

Talked to the dealer today. First off, he highly recommended against all seasons.

Basically, as we all know, all seasons are kind of the "do-all tire". They aren't great in winter, and they aren't great in summer. The point made was that you are getting a nice fun car that is a lot of fun to drive and you're almost doing yourself a disservice by putting crappy tires on it that won't grip. Additionally, The cost of all seasons may be the best cost effective option, as you own the car throughout its life, but if you have a quality set of winters, and a quality set of summers, those tires alone will probably go for 2 or 3 years (thinking that each set gets about 15k+ before needing to be changed) if you're swapping them.

Second, due to warranty reasons they cannot change the tires that come with it. There is just liability around the performance of the vehicle and they will not exchange the tires.

Third, what they can do is once I get a VIN, they can give me a pretty good deal on winter tires, especially since I will be buying them early (expected delivery Octoberish) and the winter mark up won't have happened yet. They can have them mounted and ready to rock, and I'll leave with the summers in the car... Of course I'll price em out a little and if it makes more sense to buy winters and have them mount them there or a local shop do it for me I'll explore that as well.

My plans for this car are to do auto-x and occasional track days anyway, so at least for me, it seems silly to have all seasons and a set of track tires - especially since the class I plan on racing in (if I even race at all) requires DOT Street Tires (B Street, Unmodified).

I'll likely save up for some nice summer wheels, or find some 18' STI take offs that somebody got rid of on the cheap and mount my summers to those and that'll be my summer/track tires and will go from there.


to each his own I think, but for me this setup makes most sense.

 

[WRX John]

For what you are doing, I agree with you that two sets of tires/wheels would work best for you.

Couple of things please.

Where I respectfully disagree is your blanket statement that all seasons are crappy. That was true of all in the past, and is true of most today, but please take a look at the Michelin A/S 3 +'s tires in terms how their performance is beating more than a few HP summer tires. Not suggesting the A/S 3+'s would work for your specific uses, but they are one great tire.

Second, the Michelin A/S 3 +'s are a monster improvement in performance of the previous A/S 3's -- so all considering the A/S 3+'s for their own, non-track-use, car, please make sure that your research is on the new +'s.