Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi,
I bought my brother two new 155 14s for Christmas (not an exciting present but practical!) He has just recently done the rounds of the local tyre shops looking at prices for fitting them. We got it down to £15 per wheel including valve and balance but that was cash in hand to the guy on the desk of a well known firm and not through the books but most places wanted £20+ per wheel...... have I lost touch with prices or is this a bit steep? I was wondering if it's because we are supplying our own tyres....?

£20 is a bit nasty, but probably driven by people buying tyres on the internet.
About 5 years ago I still managed to pay £5 cash, but in recent years £10 for fit and balance.

Also try one of the mobile tyre fitting chains... there are 2 big groups and the guys in the vans are self employed 9it's a franchise system) so if they can fit you in when they are nearby doing someone else's internet-ordered tyres it's all fair game and they can have whatever cash price you agree.

AS Ray says, shop around a bit and also look for small independent garages as a lot of them have the necessery equipment and also firms who refurbish wheels can fit valves, tyres and do balancing so you can catch someone who will do it in there lunch break they might be willing to give you a better price. Lat time I did this it was £10 a wheel because I supplied my own tyres but I needed it doing so had to pay.

If you have the levers and the muscle it is possible to fit tyres yourself, but I will leave that to someone else to tell you about as it is a long time since I done this.

yup £5 to £6 a corner is the going rate where I live

I bought a load of valves, you can get them for pennies from suppliers... pulled them through my wheels and got charged a tenner to fit and balance all five.

Just fit them yourself - once the old tyres are off the rims (cut off with hacksaw) - the new tyres slip on easily without even a tyre lever. Just smear with Swarfega and use a rubber mallet to encourage the last part of the bead over the rim. Valves are 20 - 50p at autojumbles. Some places will insist you fit tubes........ They probably won't need balancing -but if they do - that's easy too!

Just fitted 2 tyres bought off ebay, used motorcycle tyre levers to get the old ones off.

A localy owned tyre place near me charges £5 per wheel, but wont fit the white walls again as they are so fiddly!!

Thanks guys..... I thought it was a bit steep. Just about to do all 4 on the 2 door so thought I'd check it out. I'll do a bit more digging locally and find an independent outlet..... not always easy in our neck of the woods Otherwise it makes buying the tyres the cheap part!

if you catch them on a quiet day, mid morning when nobody is in a rush, whilst they're leaning up against the front door waiting for some trade, then a cash deal is more of a possibility.
You might want to ask them if the boss is about - and if they say yes, ask them when he's likely not to be about...
If you roll up at lunchtime on a Saturday when customers are queued out of the door, then it'll be the 'official' price only.

Fitting new tyres shouldn't cause them any concern - round here it's getting very hard to find one that will fit second hand tyres. If they fit a pre-damagedy tyre they are at risk of being sued.