Hey guys,

I'm sure many of you already know this but I feel it is important to make sure everyone is informed. Nitto has an agreement with Kal Tire that prohibits any U.S. retailer from shipping tires to Canada. How does this hurt us you might ask? Because Kal Tire requests that you turn around and bend over to pay their ridiculous prices.

I was in the market for new tires, having used Nitto Invo's last year I wanted the NT05's for my new 19in rims. $1074 shipped, taxes everything from the U.S. or $1650 from Kal Tire. "Chris" from Kal Tire in Whitby tried to justify the high cost by saying "19's are expensive man, they are a specialty size". When asked about the price difference he had the nerve to offer me $40 off for the whole set. Sweet, now its only $530 more expensive!

I have contacted both Kal Tire and Nitto voicing my concern of this price gouging and hope to hear back from them. I recommend others who would like to see Nitto tires in Canada at "reasonable" prices do the same. Us performance enthusiasts are not the only market for Nitto tires, truck guys love them. I can only imagine the 100s of thousands of dollars Nitto is losing out on.

We will never see price equality if we continue to let the big companies do these types of things.

Joe

 

totaly agree with you on that one ,, this is why I switched over to the Hankook RS3
no more Nitto untill they fix that.

My first set of Nitto was when I bought a set of wheel with NT05 installed shipped to an US address and drove over there to pick them up.
never again !

 

I won't buy Nittos purely for this reason (was originally going to buy NT01s last year). I don't agree it monopolized control over a product and I think its a big mistake for Nitto.

It happens often though. There are a few lines JRP has exclusive distribution on, and screws over the retail market by selling products at whole sale cost in their retail store.

 

Yeah I ended up going with the Hankook V12's from discountire. They were nice enough to price match the Nitto NT05's saving me $100. Great customer service from them.

And yes you could always have them shipped to UPS on the US side and go pick them up but what a hassle.

 

I expect tire shops to lose an incredible amount of their market within the next 2-5 years. They just don't offer a reasonable service at anything near a reasonable price. Who goes to a tire shop to get tires mounted when there are multiple choices on kijii or similar for 1/4 the price?! I use a guy that charges me $10/wheel to dismount my old tire and mount/balance my new one. Oh, and that's on "fancy, 18" mag wheels" that shops like to charge extra on.
I see no reason to buy tires from a shop when I can get them online, either. I've already done it twice and even with the duty and brokerage, it is a simple process that saves hundreds of dollars.

 

meh, there are lots of different tires to buy. I've never owned Nittos and don't need to run them

 

Kal tire is a ripoff all around. Even mounting and dismounting fees are stupid. I rolled up in my zed and asked about dismounting for 17s and was told 20 each. i laughed and told them it was absurd but buddy's response was "we guarentee we won't scratch up your rims and those are nice rims, you dont want to mess up ur rims do you?". Champ never even saw the rims i was inquiring about and my zed has 18/19. the 17 were for my mini.

I find all tires regardless of brand cost way more in Canada to begin with. Have them dropshipped thru tirerack to a garage in the states if that is a possibilty for you. Inconvenient but much cheaper.

 

discounttire has free shipping to Canada and you pay all brokerage/tax up front it ends up being cheaper. $1075 for a set of 19in Hankook V12's isn't all that bad IMO

 

Price you pay for sub-par medical care. lol

Just a joke