Saving big bucks on car tires - a little known secret to getting a good deal on tires by buying gently used

One chore I loathe is taking my car to get inspected. This year, I had the (dis)pleasure of taking both of our cars this week. Car number one sailed through, passing with flying colors and a note that we will want to replace the two front tires sooner rather than later. Car number two failed miserably, despite my husband telling me it should pass. Anytime he tells me a car will pass pretty much guarantees it will not!

February is an awful time of year to get inspection anyway. I mean, it is cold outside and they never heat the waiting area very well anyway since they are in and out so much. On top of that, if your car fails and you need work done, you are short a day (or two) to get it done since February is a short month anyway.

So when the mechanic came and told me that I needed at least one tire, two light bulbs changed and a new driver's side wiper blade to pass, I was expecting a huge bill. Not so! I nearly fainted with delight when he told me he had a tire for $20 that was practically new. He even showed it to me. It looked like it was never on the road... some guy couldn't pay his bill and had signed the title over to him to cover it. He said he had two if I wanted to go ahead and have the other tire changed too. "Oh yes, please do!" Now why am I so giddy? Because my husband hit a curb and blew out a rear tire this year which cost $100 to replace. For ONE tire. Here, I was getting two for $40 plus the $24 mounting fee for the both. It didn't take me long to do the mental math here. I paid a total of $108.15 for two tires, their mounting, a wiper blade, two light bulbs and the $16 inspection fee. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

So if you ever need new tires, don't just haul your car to Wal-Mart (though Wal-Mart is pretty cheap) or BJs or Costco. Call your local mechanic and ask him if he has any gently used tires that fit your car lying around. Call the junk yards too. You would be surprised what kind of gems you can find. Some poor guy might have totaled his car right after he got new tires. Why let them go to waste when you can pick them up dirt cheap and just pay to get them mounted? By taking someone's perfectly good castoffs, I saved over $100 today.