Why Rent When You Can Buy? Bree Knows

A few months ago, NPR did a great piece about renting tires; and since we’re the largest rent-to-own tire and wheel company in the country, it’s only logical that they came to the experts for their info. The people at NPR were wondering why people would want to rent their tires when, in the end, they’d be paying rental fees.  Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to buy your tires outright?  The answer might be yes, but what you have to consider is this: Many people can’t afford to spend hundreds of dollars all at once on a new set of tires, but they have to have tires for their vehicles.  So, what can they do when their livelihoods depend on their ability to get around?  Rent their tires, that’s what!

RNR provides a service to their customers: We allow them to get the tires (and wheels!) they need when they need them in a way that fits their budgets.  Listen to the NPR piece and you’ll hear actual customers talk about why they decided to rent their tires.  “Oh, I checked every place in town, and they were outrageous!  It would be anywhere from $4[00] to $500 and I just don’t have that right now,” says Shannon Kelly, a customer at an RNR store in Ocala, FL.  Says Lynn Warren, a McDonald’s manager and RNR customer, “I understand that I’ll probably end up paying a lot, but right now, I need the tires.”  In this economy, more and more people are finding this to be true.

What factors play into the pricing of tires?  Lots of things.  Tires prices have risen in the past few years because of higher rubber prices and a US-imposed tariff on Chinese tires. 

In 2009, US tire companies complained that Chinese tire companies were being unfairly subsidized by the Chinese government and said that they couldn’t compete with the prices of Chinese-made tires. The US government agreed and put a 35% tax on Chinese, imported, passenger tires.  OuchCheck out this blog for more info on tire pricing.

 

One thing led to another and suddenly the prices on all tires were being pushed up.  The price of imported passenger tires jumped about 40%!  That’s a pretty painful price jump when you’re looking to buy a new set of tires.  So, how are people in an economy with tighter credit, wages that aren’t growing, and a high unemployment rate supposed to keep up with that kind of increase and stay safely on the road?  They come to RNR Custom Wheels and Tires where they can rent their wheels and tires and make weekly or bi-weekly payments until they’re paid off.  Lots of people pay their tires and wheels off before their contract is up; others need that full, contract period.  Either way, our customers get back on the road fast with safe, quality tires and a payment plan that fits their lives.

At RNR, we get you back on the road fast, and our knowledge and service always mean that you get the perfect set of wheels and tires for you.  We even have a roadside assistance plan, if you need help!  Take a listen to the NPR piece about RNR and the rent-to-own tire industry and let us know what you think!

 

Bree

Think of Fancy Wheels as Shoes for Your Car: A Girl’s Guide to RNR

Dear Bree,

My boyfriend just spent what I consider a small fortune on a set of fancy wheels for his car.  He had perfectly nice ones on there already!  I mean, cars just need to roll, right?  Imagine what he could be doing with that cash.  If it were me, I’d at least do a little shopping!  Help this girl understand the fascination, Bree, because right now, I’m just not getting it.

Frustrated in Ft. Lauderdale

 

Dear Frustrated,

I understand your confusion.  Once upon a time, this ginger didn’t get it either.  Then, I sat down one day with a fan of fancy wheels, as you call them, and he helped me understand by using language that made sense to me—shoes.  The conversation went something like this:

Bree: I don’t get it. Why would anyone pay for special wheels when their car clearly came with perfectly acceptable ones?

Friend: Think of them as shoes for your car.

Bree:  What?!  How many pairs of shoes does one car need?  I mean really, the shoes on it right now get the job done, right?

Friend:  How many pairs of shoes do you need?  Your Nikes probably get the job done too, but I bet you wouldn’t want to wear them out to dinner.  It’s the same thing.

Bree:  Huh.

It was my light bulb moment.  I mean, how many guys do you know who like to shop?  How many of them really care about their clothes or shoes?  Custom wheels (and tires, too!) might just be a form of personal expression (personalizing his ride) the same way shoes are for some women (or purses or clothes or earrings—you get the point).  Instead of going out for a new pair of heels, some people (mostly men, but custom wheels are rising in popularity among all groups of people, women included) want to dress up their car.  They want to make their car look different from all of the other cars on the street, they want to be unique.  You can understand that, right?

Recently, SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) published an article on this very subject—the rise of custom wheels and performance tires.  Kelly Austin, chairman of SEMA’s Wheel and Tire Council (WTC) and Vice President of MKW Alloy Inc. had this to say: "During my tenure in the wheel business, I've seen wheels go from a niche mostly for extreme performance markets all the way to where it is now.  Currently, custom wheels are almost as popular as iPods or cell phones. It's transcended to people we would not normally consider as enthusiasts. House moms, nannies and grandparents are all cruising the town on custom wheels to look cool.”  So, you see, Frustrated, it’s not just your boyfriend; apparently, LOTS of people like to customize their cars—and they have a lot of choices available.  There are at least five specifications (wheel diameter, bolt circle (pattern), rim width, backspacing and offset), as well as, types, materials and colors to choose from.  At RNR, we consider oursleves something akin to the DSW of custom wheels and performance tires.  We’ve got more choices than you can shake a stick at!  We think your boyfriend would be really happy here. 

If you want to see what all the hype is really about, come see us at RNR Custom Wheels and Tire Express, and we’ll walk you through some choices for your car.  Once you see how custom wheels can change the look of your car, you might just be a believer!

Bree

RNR Breaks it Down: Tire Prices

Dear Bree,
I’ve noticed that the price of tires has really gone up in the past few years and I’m wondering if there’s a method to this madness.  What the heck goes into making a tire that makes it more expensive today than, say, five or ten years ago?
Curious Callie

Dear Callie,
That is a many-layered question you ask, but I’ll do my best to answer it.  I’ll start out by giving you a list of the top factors that affect tire prices: supply of rubber, oil prices, tariffs, supply and demand, the vast selection of tire sizes available today and emerging markets.  All of these things are out of your control but they all affect the price you’ll pay for tires now and in the future (and for a lot of other products. as well).  I think it's best to just break this down for you item by item and keep it simple, so here goes:

Supply of Rubber:  You learned this in your basic economics class, right?  If you need something but there’s not enough of it, the price of that item goes up.  Have too much of something, and its value decreases.  The same is true of rubber.  When there’s a slow-down in the auto industry, there may be a corresponding drop in tire prices.  A flood in India wipes out key rubber plantations, and the price shoots up.

Oil Prices:  There are two types of rubber used to make tires, natural and synthetic.  Natural, of course, is coming from those rubber trees we briefly discussed in our supply section. Synthetic rubber is made from petrochemical feedstocks and the main raw material used is crude oil.  About a billion tires are made every year, and about 70% of those tires are synthetic.  Now, it takes about 7 gallons of crude oil to make 1 tire: 5 gallons to make the feedstock and two to fuel the manufacturing process.  Roughly, these figures translate to about 5 billion gallons of oil used to make tires every year.  If you’ve been to the pump lately to fill up your car, then you understand why the price of tires is going up.

Tariffs:  Tariffs are the taxes or duties paid on certain imports and exports.  In 2009, the US imposed a 35% tariff on all car and light truck tires being imported from China because law-makers felt that the market was being flooded by cheap Chinese tires.  It was touted as a way to save American jobs but it also significantly raised the price of tires for all tire consumers.

Supply and Demand:  We talked about supply in our first section dealing with the supply of rubber, but it also applies in our discussion of oil prices.  With more and more consumers buying more automobiles, we need more gas to power them and more crude oil to manufacture the tires those cars and trucks ride on—so prices increase on oil and we feel it those effects when we purchase our tires, gas, etc. Crude oil isn’t manufactured in a factory, it is a finite natural resource. Less supply + more demand= higher prices for you.

More Choices, More $:  In 1977, 10 tire sizes covered 89% of the market (according to the Tire and Rim Association).  In just five years (2003 to 2008), the number of tire sizes increased by 42 percent to 519 different tire sizes for cars and light trucks.  When you’re only making ten different tire sizes, it’s much easier to produce large amounts of tires in the same process and keep your costs lower, but if you’re producing 519 different sizes (individual tire makers would not take on all 519, but you get the point), you’ve significantly increased the amount of effort, resources, etc. expended in production.  Ka-ching.  Factor in the increased inventory that tire sellers are required to stock, as well as storage space for all of those tires and you can see why having more choices equals having more expenses.

Emerging Markets:  Population rises in countries like China, India and Japan fuel jobs and economic growth within those countries, and hopefully a rise in the middle class.  What else comes from all of this growth?  A need for automobiles, and thus, tires.  Demand, demand, demand (and supply!) are at work again, and the price of tires will be affected accordingly.

So, there’s a rough breakdown for you, Callie.  All of these factors combine and fluctuate in tire prices, as in everything else, and it’s difficult (if not impossible) to tease them apart and put the blame on one or the other.  The tire tariff increases of 2009 caused a rather dramatic increase in tire prices, but certainly the price of oil, the supply of rubber and the other factors we’ve discussed have played a significant role in the pricing of tires, as well.  The long and short of it is this:  We all need tires and we all want the best price for the safest tires available (and a nice, long tire life, too!).  We do our best at RNR to offer our customers the most competitive prices that we possibly can, along with the variety of size and performance that they want (and we offer a Rent-N-Roll program with convenient payments and 120 days same as cash program to make buying that new set of tires more feasible!).  A lot of factors go into choosing a new set of tires, price definitely being one of them; come see us at RNR and let’s talk about your options!

Bree

Dry Rot: Tires Get Old, Too

All good things come to an end, right?  And so it is with tires.  Everything degrades with time, there’s no way around it, and tires are no different.  You might think you’re just looking distinguished as you age, but your tires are just plain getting OLD.  Oils and chemicals in tires start to evaporate or break down over time because of UV exposure and plain old air, and the tire starts its slow death dance, otherwise known as dry rot.  The rubber becomes less flexible, little cracks begin to show at the surface, and inside, the structure is becoming more and more brittle.  Is this sounding familiar?  Maybe you’re feeling this way yourself in your fight against Father Time; the next time you check your tires, remember how you feel after a long day of yard work and look more closely at what you’re riding on.

Tire manufacturers put a coating on their tires to protect them from the corrosive qualities of the air and UV rays, much like you might be slathering on moisturizer every day and night, but it only lasts so long before time has its way (You know I’m right, girls!).  In hot states like Florida, Arizona, etc., your vehicle’s tires battle the sun everyday, so you may not see your tires lasting quite as long as someone’s tires in Virginia, for instance.  Wet climates can eat away at the protective coating on your tires with water and dirt. Hot, dry climates basically bake your tires with use on hot roads and UV exposure.  So, Floridians, how do you think your tires will fare in the hot, wet weather of your tropical paradise?  You’re getting a double whammy.

Got a car that mostly just sits there and is occasionally driven, and now you’re wondering why the tires are all cracked?  Manufacturers put a waxy, protective coating on tires to help protect the rubber from the process of oxidation (the same process that produces rust).  Unfortunately, if tires just sit, they begin to break down more quickly.  This happens because tires that are regularly used have the protectants inside the tire slowly squeezed out onto the surface where they do their work.  No rolling, no squeezing, no working.  Hello, dry rot!  Petrochemicals and silicone oils, like the ones you encounter unknowingly everyday on the roads, also break down a tire’s protective coating.

So, what can you do to stop this process?  Not much.  You can help your tires weather time more smoothly by maintaining the proper pressure, checking their wear, using them on a regular basis, and protecting them as much as possible from the elements by storing your car in a garage or under other covering, but nothing lasts forever.  Note the manufacture date of your tires, maintain them, be responsible, and keep an eye out for signs of dry rot.  Your tires may look good if you’re just giving them the once over, but get down there with them and really look.  If they’re starting to show signs of dry rot, replace them.  Don’t keep riding around on them because they seem to have plenty of tread left.  Tread can’t save you when it’s so rotted that its flying off in chunks on the highway.

Those in the tire industry generally agree that a tire's life is about 6 years from the date of manufacture; tire manufacturers give them 10 years.  There's some wiggle room there, right?  A few states have wrestled with this wiggle room and tried to pin down a specific number as they work on laws about the buying and selling of used tires, but the reality is that there is no definitive answer right now.  Your best bet is to be aware of the age of your tires and keep an eye on them.  

Some places, especially stores that sell in bulk, will buy tires that are 4 or more years old, and while you might buy them cheap, think about what you're really getting--tires that are probably more than halfway through their life expectancy.  You might save a few bucks, but, in the long run, you will have to buy tires again sooner than you should.  Again we say, ask about the manufacture date.  The best decisions are informed decisions.

Now, some of you are customers who are looking to buy used tires, and there are some things you should know.  Pay attention when you're shopping around.  Where are the tires you're looking at being stored?  Often businesses that sell used tires store their tires outside, exposed to the elements.  What does that mean for you?  You may be getting a great price on a used tire, but are you getting a great deal when the tire you're looking to buy has plenty of tread but has been alternately soaking in the rain and baking in the heat for who knows how long?  Tread depth isn't the only consideration.  If you're tire(s) has been exposed to the elements for some time, then damage has been done and the life of the tire has been shortened.  At RNR, all of our tires, new and used, are stored inside a climate-controlled environment, not out in the open, so you're getting a tire that has seen the road (as you would expect from a used tire), and then was stored, usually still on the wheel, in our storage facility.  There's a difference.

Never seen dry rot before and want someone else to confirm or deny their condition or age?  Stop by any RNR store for a free tire inspection and we will let you know where you stand.

Bree

 

 

Rain, Rain Go Away: RNR Talks Rainy Season Safety Tips

Dear Bree,

It’s the rainy season here in Florida again, and I’m wondering if you can tell me what I should be doing tire-wise to keep myself safe on the road? 

Soaked in Sulphur Springs

 

 

 

 

Dear Soaked,

I’m familiar with the rainy season.  All of the sudden in the late afternoon, the sky opens up, drops a couple of inches of rain on you in about 10 minutes, then the sun comes back out and everyone enjoys a free steam bath, right?  I always hated getting stuck on the road when one of those storms hit.  Driving in them isn’t easy!  Here are a few things you should know about driving in the rain (tire specific and more): 

• Keep up with your routine tire maintenance—tire pressure and tread depth.  You can usually find the recommended tire pressure for your vehicle on the inside edge of the driver’s side door; if you don’t see it, check the owner’s manual.  The number listed on the side of the tire is NOT the recommended tire pressure, but the maximum air pressure for the tire.  Find your recommended pressure and go with that.  If you need help checking the pressure, check out our blog all about how to do this.     
• Check your tread depth.  Everybody’s got a penny stashed somewhere in their car or at the bottom of their purse.  Find it.  Then, slip that little sucker between the treads on your tire, head down.  If you can see Abe’s head, then you need new tires.  Tread depth is an important factor to staying safe in the rain; proper tread depth can help prevent skids and hydroplaning. 
• Slow down!  When you drive slowly, more of the tire’s tread touches the road and this leads to better traction.
• Know how to deal with skids.  As rain falls, muck and oil already on the road mix together and make the road slick—and perfect for skidding!  If you feel your car start to skid, don’t panic!  Stay calm, apply firm, steady pressure to the brakes, and steer in the direction of the skid.  Don’t slam on the brakes (that goes along with ‘Don’t panic!’), and if you have anti-lock brakes, don’t pump them.  Firm and steady is the way to go in a skid.  *Note:  The first half-hour after rain begins (when the dry dirt and oil are mixing together with the rain) is the most slippery, so use extra caution then.
• Keep your distance.  It takes three times longer to break in wet conditions than in dry conditions.
• Learn how to avoid and deal with hydroplaning.  Avoiding is the first thing you should do because no one wants to hydroplane.  When your car hydroplanes, the water in front of your tires builds up faster than the weight of your car can displace it.  The water pressure makes your car rise up and slide along on a thin layer of water between your tires and the road.  Did you hear that part?  There’s a layer of water between your wheels and the road; as in, your tires aren’t touching the road.  That’s a problem.  You could be completely out of contact with the road, and at that point, who knows what could happen.  You could cross the center line into another lane, skid, or fly right off the road.  You don’t want to deal with any of these things.  If you want to avoid hydroplaning, then check your tire pressure and tread depth, slow down, avoid puddles and drive in the tracks of the car in front of you.  If you find yourself hydroplaning, don’t slam on the brakes or make sudden turns.  Gently ease your foot off of the accelerator until you feel the car slow down and make contact with the road again.  If you need to brake, then lightly pump the brakes, or if your car has ABS brakes, brake normally and your brakes should automatically take care of the pumping action.
• If the rain becomes too bad and the edges of the road are blurred or you can’t clearly make out the car in front of you, pull over off the road, preferably into a rest stop or parking lot.  If there’s no protected area available, pull as far off of the road as possible.  Always leave your headlights and hazards on when you’re stopped on the side of the road so that other motorists know you’re there.

The long and short of staying safe in the rain is this: Make sure your tires are properly inflated and in good shape, and use your common sense.  If you’re not sure about the condition of your tires, run on by your nearest RNR store and let us check them out for you!  If you need new ones, you’ll already be in the right place.:)  Be safe!

Bree