This website is a way to find a tire and start a conversation. It is not a checkout, and nothing here is a contract.
Tires listed here are what the shop believed was on the rack when the listing was last verified. Stock moves during the day, especially used tires. A tire shown as available may already be sold by the time you arrive.
Nothing on this site reserves a tire for you. If you need one held, call the shop and ask.
Prices shown are for the tire itself unless the listing says otherwise. Mounting, balancing, disposal, valve stems, taxes and state fees are added at the shop, and the listing tells you which of those apply.
If a price on this site is wrong — a typo, a stale number — the shop's price at the counter is the real one. We will tell you before we do any work.
A size that matches is a starting point. Load index, speed rating, your vehicle's door placard and what is already on the other corners all matter. The shop confirms fitment on your vehicle before installing anything.
Do not order or buy a tire from this site on the assumption that a matching number means it is safe for your car. Ask us.
Used tires are sold as individual items. The tread depth, DOT date code and condition notes we publish are what we measured and recorded on that specific tire.
A used tire has been used. We show you the numbers so you can judge it, and we will tell you honestly if we think one is a bad idea for your car.
When you buy one you are buying the tire we showed you, in the condition we measured. You are welcome to look it over and to ask us to measure the tread again in front of you before you pay. What a used tire cannot come with is a history: it has already been in service, on a vehicle we never saw, and how long it lasts depends on that past as much as on how you drive.
This site does not state a warranty, because the shop has not published one yet. Ask at the counter what applies to the specific tire you are buying, and get it in writing on your receipt.
Sending the form does not buy anything, does not reserve anything and does not obligate either of us. It tells the shop what you are looking for so a person can answer you.
By sending it you are agreeing that we may call or text you back about that request. You can tell us to stop at any time.
Photos you attach to a quote request are used to answer your question — to read your sidewall, to see the wear, to judge damage.
A price we give you before we have looked at the vehicle is an estimate. It is based on what you tell us and on the tire itself. Once the wheel is off, the job can turn out to be a different job — a valve stem that has to be replaced, a wheel that will not seal, a stud that was already stripped.
If the work or the price changes from what we quoted, we stop and tell you, and we do not do the extra work until you say yes. If you say no, you pay for what was already agreed and nothing more.
There are jobs a tire shop should say no to. We may decline to mount, repair or return a tire to the road when, in our judgement, doing it would be unsafe — a puncture outside the repairable area of the tread, a sidewall injury, a size or load rating the vehicle should not be running, a bent or cracked wheel, or lug hardware that will not hold torque.
Declining is not a judgement about you. If we say no we will explain why and tell you what we would do instead. You are free to take the vehicle elsewhere; we will not hold it.
Every wheel we install is tightened with a torque wrench, to the specification for your vehicle, in the correct pattern. We do not finish wheels with an impact gun.
Even so, fasteners can settle once the wheel has been driven on and the mating surfaces seat. That is normal, and it is why we ask you to come back so we can check the torque again a short distance after the installation. The re-torque check is part of the job.
Please do not put it off. If you feel a new vibration, hear a click or a knock from a wheel, or see a wheel sitting oddly, stop driving and call us.
This section is about tires the shop did not sell you — bought online, taken off another vehicle, or already sitting in your garage.
Whether we mount customer-supplied tires at all, and what we charge to do it, is answered at the counter. Where we do mount one, you are paying us for the labour: we did not source it, we did not receive it new, and we do not stand behind the tire itself. Its age, its history, its condition and any manufacturing defect are not covered by us, and a claim on the tire is with whoever sold it to you.
We will still look at it before it goes on, and we may decline a tire we judge unsafe, as described above.
Mounting a tire means working on the wheel, and wheels are not always in the condition they appear to be. Aged, corroded, previously repaired, refinished or aftermarket wheels can be damaged by the ordinary, careful process of getting a tire off and back on. The same goes for delicate finishes — chrome, powder coat, paint, polished faces — and for low-profile tires on large-diameter wheels.
TPMS sensors are their own risk. The sensor, its valve stem, the grommet and the nut age and corrode in place, and a sensor can fail during a tire change or shortly afterwards through nobody's fault. If we see a sensor or a wheel we are worried about, we will tell you before we start rather than after.
TPMS service is not one of the services this shop has confirmed it offers, so please do not assume we can program, relearn or replace a sensor. Ask before you come in.
The price of a tire is rarely the whole ticket. Depending on the job, some of these are added: mounting, balancing, a new valve stem or TPMS service kit, disposal of the old tire, shop supplies, and sales tax.
California also charges a per-tire recycling fee on new tire sales, set by state law. It applies here, the shop collects it and passes it to the state, and it appears as its own line on your invoice.
Whatever applies to your job is told to you and itemised before you pay. If a number on this website disagrees with the counter, the counter is the real one.
This site does not publish which payment methods the shop takes, because they have not been confirmed. Please call and ask before you drive over.
The shop's policy on returning a tire, exchanging one, or refunding a job is likewise not published here yet. Ask at the counter, and get whatever you are told written on your receipt.
Most tire work is done while you wait. If you do leave the vehicle with us, leave a phone number we can reach you on that day, and take your valuables with you — we are not able to look after money, documents, tools or anything else left inside.
Keys stay at the counter while the vehicle is with us, and we hand them back to the person who left it.
Please collect the vehicle when we tell you it is ready. A vehicle left after the work is finished, uncollected and with nobody answering the phone, becomes a problem for both of us, and there is a legal process for that which we would much rather never use.
The shop photographs work it is proud of and posts it publicly, mostly on Instagram (@thetirelot). Those pictures are of real customers' vehicles: wheels and tires, and often the whole car, which can be recognisable, and a licence plate can be visible in the frame.
By bringing a vehicle onto the premises you agree that we may photograph or film it there and use those images to show our work — on Instagram, on this website and in other marketing — with no payment to you.
If you would rather we did not, say so when you drop the vehicle off and we will not photograph it. If something of yours is already posted and you want it taken down, call the shop and we will remove it.
The text, layout and photographs on this site belong to the shop. The photographs are the shop's own, taken at the shop. Please do not republish them as your own.
Tire brand names and models are mentioned to describe what is in stock. They belong to their manufacturers, and their presence here does not imply any partnership or endorsement.
Links to Google Maps, Apple Maps and Instagram take you to services we do not run. What happens there is governed by their terms, not ours.
This website is provided as it is. We work to keep it accurate, and we do not promise that it is complete, always available or free of errors.
Work done at the shop is a separate matter from this website: what governs that is the work order, invoice or other paperwork you sign or are handed at the counter.
We take responsibility for our own work. What we ask in return is that you tell us the truth about the vehicle, that you do not ask us to do something we have told you is unsafe, and that you come back for the re-torque check.
The shop is in Chula Vista, in San Diego County, California, and these terms are written to be read under California law.
If something goes wrong, the first step we ask for is a phone call to the shop. Most disagreements about a tire are settled at the counter in five minutes.
We may update this page — a new service, a policy the owner settles, something a lawyer corrects. The date at the top says when the current wording was written, and the version posted here is the one that applies from the moment it is posted.
Your work order, your invoice and anything else you were given in writing at the shop are not changed by an edit to this page.
Using this website means you accept the parts of these terms that are about the website.
The parts about work at the shop apply when you ask us to do work on a vehicle — and if the two ever disagree, what you signed or were handed at the counter comes first.
If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still stands and only that part drops out.
For use of this website, this page is the agreement between us. For work on a vehicle, the agreement is the written work order or invoice, together with anything else you were given in writing.
Call the shop at (619) 349-3303, or come by 3261 Main St, Chula Vista, CA 91911.
