To say that my car needs new tires is a gross understatement. I drive a Toyota Corolla, and generally tires for this car are cheap. So, I called up some local car tire shops last week and asked them for quotes on the tires I was interested in. After calling a few places and trying to haggle, the best price I could get per tire was $75. Determined to find a better price, I went online and headed over to tirerack.com. After I put in my car’s information, I managed to get the exact same tire for $45. Since I’m buying four tires, that’s a savings of $120.

Buying tires online isn’t hard to do, and I’ll show you how.

Figure out your car’s tire size
Go out to your car and look at the sidewall of the tire. Along the edge should be same fairly confusing numbering, such as 185/65 R15. Don’t worry, it’s not gibberish. These numbers actually mean something:

• The first number, such as this example’s 185, is the width of your tire in millimeters.
• The second number, 65, is the height of the sidewall as a percentage of the width. So in this example, you would take 65 percent of the width to calculate the height of the sidewall. I know it sounds complicated, but the worst part is over.
• The last part, R15, is the is the wheel diameter in inches. So in this example, the tire is designed for a 15 inch wheel.

Now that you know the size of your car’s tires, it’s time to visit an online tire store and save a couple bucks.

Visit to an online tire site
Find an online tire store (Tire Rack and Discount Tire are stores I would recommend). Their sites are easy to navigate, and they offer helpful advice during every step of the ordering process. If you’re not familiar with cars, ordering tires can be a little scary. These sites go a long way toward making it easy. When you get to the site, enter your car’s tire information and look at the dozens of results that come back. Don’t panic!

Take a deep breath
Ok, now that you’re looking at all the tires available for your car, take a breath and relax. Read the reviews, and weigh the pros and cons of a cheaper tire with decent reviews and an expensive tire with great reviews. The reviews you’ll be reading will be from actual costumers who purchased and used the tire, as opposed to the salesperson or mechanic at the store who is trying to put you in the most expensive tire available. When you’ve figured out what you want, close your eyes and order.

Get the tires mounted
So you took the plunge and bought tires online. Now they’re sitting at your doorstep and you have absolutely no idea what to do with them. Call up a couple tire shops and ask them for quotes on getting your new tires mounted to your car’s wheels. You’ll find that most places will charge around $15 a tire.

That’s it! It may seem fairly complex and confusing the first time around, the payoff is worth it. While it might take a little more legwork, if you do your research and order tires online you could save well over a hundred dollars. New tires for your car aren’t cheap, but spending 15 minutes on the Internet can save you quite a bit of money.