Winter Tires No Longer Luxury, Prices Drop Across the Board

One could never dare to imagine three years ago that replacing four winter tires need only some 1,000 yuan.

But today, after three years' price cutting, leading brand's winter tire prices are lower than tire prices of second-line brands three years ago.

Industry insiders said that the prices of tires have basically fall to the bottom. Tire prices link with international crude oil prices, sluggish oil prices lead to tire price down.

Tire price drop and drivers' emphasis on safe drive contribute to increasingly high demand for winter tires.

Car Owners Lining up for Replacing Tires

On the Xuande Street of Harbin, Heilongjiang province, gathered scores of tire retailers stores.

Lately, people saw that every store had four to five cars waiting in the front of their doors for replacing tires.

The workers in those stores said that such scenes are frequently seen, in particular after the snow.

Many drivers came here, bought suitable snow tires, and lined up for replacing tires.

Mr. Xu introduced that before 2010, winter tires are luxury and rare, it took 5,000 yuan to replace four winter tires for an Audi car, and one had to look for winter tires, but now, purchasing winter tires is inexpensive and convenient.

To address the peak season of tire replacing, some tire stores specially employed extra workers to install and remove tires.

A tire store owner said that after 2010, as private cars increase, more people replace winter tires year by year.

Currently, more than 30% private car owners replace winter tires in winter and drivers request for safe drive have enhanced.

"Luxury" Turns to Ordinary Good

Continuous price decline of winter tires attracted more drivers.

In this winter, prices of winter tires dropped more than 10%.

Take the leading brand's winter tire model 205/55R15 as an example, its unit price is less than 600 yuan, while its unit price last year was around 650 yuan.

Unit price of cheaper winter tires of Hankook and Kumho brands is less than 500 yuan, and that of domestic Huili brand is around 400 yuan.

Owners of some tire stores said that the prices of winter tires went all the way down since 2014 by over 10% each year.

Retail Stores Attach Greater Significance on Services

Many owners of retail stores admitted that online stores' impact on physical stores are significant.

Renowned tire brands, such as Michelin, Continental, and Pirelli, all established online flagship stores, and the tire prices are transparent.

Tire prices in physical stores are usually a bit expensive than in online stores, basically for the manual installation.

A owner of Hankook Tire store said that comparing with the past, were it not for more drivers replacing tires, there won't be so many tire stores like that.

Without price advantage, many tire stores attached greater significance on services, and some of them provided bespoke maintenance services.