Originally Posted by silverEVO8

I've done it both ways and it can be a toss up. Sometimes Tirerack can give you a good enough price to make it a better deal, but I've found local shops who'll either match or come very close to the Tirerack prices so I'll go with them for convenience. For instance, the Hankook Ventus HRii 405 are only $74 from Edge Racing (http://www.edgeracing.com/tires/2354517/) but when you add shipping it comes to over $82 and if you need them sooner, it can be $20 to $43 per tire... So you are looking at $329 or $378 or $468 (depending how quick you need them). Now, you must add mounting, balancing and tire disposal fee to that price so if you need them right away, it's a bargain to get them locally for $450 total .....
BTW, you never get the mounting and balancing for free from any store. They build that up into the price per they quote you. I've been buying tires (and every other car part) for over 40 years and they always add the cost of labor, taxes and disposal to the price of the tires, one way or another... Also, don't forget the sales tax if you buy the tires locally....

Originally Posted by silverEVO8

Yes, those are the tires I got. I hope they are a good choice for the mild winters here in Atlanta.... $12.50 per tire to mount and balance is a fair price. I gladly pay $40~$50 just to have tires and wheels changed. It can be a real bear of a job if you don't have a garage, a good floor jack (or better yet, a lift) and impact wrenches. Mounting tires and balancing them is hard work and take special tools. If I had realized that my Contis were so worn out, I'd gotten the Hankooks mail order for the $83 each and probably gotten them mounted and balanced for $10 ~ $15 each... That would have saved me $50 ~ $60... Unfortunately, I did not realize I needed them until too late. I must travel to NC this weekend and I just could not wait for the tires to get here next week.
OTOH, I feel that supporting local businesses is not so bad either. After all, people have to make a living and dealing locally can be better for after the sale service....

BTW, your avatar looks like the dyno at Dyno4mance.... Is it?

Originally Posted by mac_05evo

Well, I've never personally ran the H405s but we do sell quite a few of them, and don't have any problems. Hankook builds a VERY good tire for the $$. I have the Hankook K104s on mine and like them 10x better than the BFG KDW2s I had before and they are about half the price (my cost anyways). I agree on local business, it's what keeps everything rolling and like you said hopefully they'll stand behind their work and take care of anything if problems do arise. Also, I dunno if they mentioned it to you but the Hankooks have a really good warranty behind them you can check out on their site.

Yup it's Andrew's dyno at Dyno4mance.. He does all my work and has always treated me great and has provided me with AWESOME work, I'd recommend him to anyone

Originally Posted by nk1124

It seems that the consensus is somewhere between 60$ (for all 4 mount and balance + removal of the old tires) to about 200ish$... I wasnt taking into account the purchase price of the tires themselves, as after the first winter season, you need to pay to have your summers remounted. Either way it seems like after a couple remount/balances you end up spending what you could buy a second set of enkeis used from someone on the board for.