Good Morning Everyone.

I have had a run of bad luck this week.

Sunday I hit a curb on base at just the right angle to break the sidewall of my rear passager tire.

Monday I had it towed to the AutoPort and $192 later ($153 of that was for the new tire). 
There was only ONE option for the size tire my car requires.

Tuesday, I somehow hit the curb again and broke the brand new tire.  This time I had them put on my spare so I could try and find a better / cheaper place to buy tires.

Could I get recommendations of where to go. At this point I am thinking that instead of getting a new tire, I should look into a used tire or something as I don't really plan to use this car to drive off base very much.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

Angie Lockwood

Autobac maybe? Out of the gate and take a left on 16 towards Livin and its on the left side. I think they sell tires or it is another place right near there that does. I've been told it is more expensive in town to buy tires though. Good luck.

I recently got into a fender bender and because of that realized that my tires were completely bald. I knew that I needed new ones...just not that bad! Autoport had quoted me about $550 for 4 new tires. I checked off base some but it was almost the same price. After the fender bender I was told to go to the Auto Hobby shop to talk to them about the body work...but they also find parts...like tires, and batteries... The manager found me four new tires for 18,000Y!! The catch is, you have to take your old ones off yourself and put the new ones back on. This might sound scary, but it was SO EASY. I am so happy I did it. The people there are so nice and helpful, they show you how to do EVERYTHING and talk you though doing it yourself. They do the actual taking the tire off the wheel, putting the new one on the wheel, and balancing it. Then you put it back on the car.

If you can lift a tire, and pull the trigger on the power tool (which is oh so fun...) then you can do it! It took me about an hour to do, and it was for all four tires, and it was my first time doing something like this.

Wow, I totally admire you for learning to use that shop equipment. Your ingenuity ended up saving you hundreds of dollars; well done! I especially like your attitude, instead of moaning about Japan and the auto hobby shop, you turned everything to your advantage. It would be great to see more of that attitude here.

Maybe you've got a new career in store, changing out people's tires for them. :-)

I have to second the Auto Hobby Shop on Yokosuka. I had an issue with my car a wile back and they were amazing. Helping me to find the problem, get the part and get it fixed. Cost me a fraction of what the NEX would charge and all I had to do was get my hands dirty. :o)

Posted By Amy on 10-29-2011 12:49 PM

... all I had to do was get my hands dirty. :o)

This is great.  Organize all the lady mechanics and call it the Dirty Wives Club; you'd be certain to get a lot of attention.  :-)

A. Not a wife.
B. Please go be condescending elsewhere

It was meant to be funny. And sorry about mistaking your marital status; it was unintentional.

Thanks, Thaiguy. I had fun doing it.

I thought your comment was funny, not condescending at all.

Thank you, Dana. FWIW, I know very few people who know how to use that tire-mounting machine -- and that includes me! It's not like "Hey look, a girl can do it!" It's more like, "Hey cool, I wish I was that smart" kinda remark. And I still think the Dirty Wives Club is a great idea! Women teaching women how to work on your car, esp considering how many of your husbands are deployed all the time and how much Autoport sucks. Heck, I'm in a Grumpy Old Men's club here in Iwakuni and we're not all men (though we ARE all mostly grumpy & old).

If women can be in our G.O.M. group, then single women can join the D.W.C. We are equal opportunity! :-)

If time is not an issue...which in this case it happens to be...your best bet is to go to "www.tirerack.com" and research/review tires there.  They'll usually be able to beat any off base new tire prices in Japan easily even with shipping included.  I don't know about Autoport because I never buy tires there.  Tire Rack ships "Priority US Mail" to FPO's.  If you have about 10 days and plan it in advance, you'll have your tires in no time.  I've ordered many sets of tires from them over the years.  They'll of course still need to be mounted and balanced.  Auto Hobby shop can do it and so can either Autoport and Autobaks off base.  I believe the Hobby Shop is the cheapest, then AutoPort, then Autobaks.  Autobaks charges more to install things you don't purchase from them....stereos, tires, shocks, etc.  You can buy a set of 4 very nice new 17" tires from Tire Rack for about half the price you'll pay at Autobaks.  Again, I'm not sure about Autoport because they usually don't carry the tires I need anyway.  Good Luck

You can get new tires cheaper than tirerack from Geroge and he delivers too it's worth a look.

https://sites.google.com/site/yokotajapan/home/tires