As the only parts of your car that touch the road, tyres are crucial to how your car drives – from performance to fuel economy to safety. But they also wear out eventually, which means you need to replace them. Fortunately, buying tyres online is dead simple.
Quite how fast your tyres are going to wear out is largely down to how you drive. Drive fast, corner quickly and wheelspin away from the lights and you’ll be looking at replacements far sooner than a driver who’s a bit more gentle behind the wheel.
The quality of the tyres fitted to your car is also a factor in how soon they’ll wear out. Higher quality tyres from premium brands cost more because their better compounds will not only enhance performance and grip, but will often last longer too.
But, regardless of tyre quality and driving style, one thing is for sure – you will need new tyres at some stage. Today, you can research, compare and book everything online. You can arrange to take your car to a tyre centre, or have a mobile fitter change the tyres at your home or workplace. It couldn’t be simpler.
We’ve scoured the web for the UK’s best online tyre sites. Whether you want to take your car into a workshop, have tyres fitted at home, or simply want tyres delivered for you to arrange installation separately, you’ll find what you’re looking for here.
With most of these sites, all you need to start with is your car’s registration number and the tyre size – if you need a hand with finding that, we have a guide to help.
Check the results to make sure the tyre size is correct (sometimes there will be more than one option, so you’ll need to get it right). If you don’t know your registration number, you can usually search by tyre size and type instead.
Kwik Fit*
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: Yes
Mail order: No
Kwik Fit is a well-known parts and service brand operating nationally across the UK. Naturally, it has an online tyre offering and it’s easily accessible from the Kwik Fit home page.
Enter your registration number and post code and you’re given a tyre size confirmation called ‘Most likely fitment’ by Kwik Fit. If that’s not right, you can enter the right tyre size and type instead. The first results shown are ‘current offers’ and a ‘featured tyre’, followed by the rest of your potential choices, sorted by price. Select the ones you like and arrange for your fitting at one of Kwik Fit’s 600 centres that are open seven days a week.
Your local fitting options are limited to Kwik Fit centres, which is almost certainly going to yield fewer choices than the other site here that work with many local and national fitting centres. Mind you, there are 600 branches up and down the country, most open seven days a week, so you should find something fairly convenient.
Kwik Fit also offers a mobile fitting service in certain areas – but you won’t know if it’s available for you until you select tyres and enter your post code.
If you’re not sure what tyre you need or want information about speed rating or tyre loads, Kwik Fit offers a free tyre check, booked online, where technicians will inspect your tyres and provide advice.
There’s also lots of useful information about tyres, pressures, what to bring to your tyre fitting, warranty, how they are made and more.
MotorEasy*
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: No
Mail order: No
MotorEasy is well known for helping to take car of almost every service you can think of for your car. So among warranties, GAP insurance, servicing, MOTs and everything else, it’s no surprise that you can also get tyres.
Once you enter your registration number and post code, the results are presented in a simple list from cheapest to most expensive. This is a pleasant relief from every other site in this list, which tend to cram loads of ads into each page and present some sort of ‘recommended’ tyres with no indication of why they’re being recommended. There’s also a simple filter mechanism to choose particular brands or other tyre types (winter tyres, run-flat tyres, etc.).
Once you’ve chosen your tyres and proceeded to select a convenient fitting centre (there are no options for mail order or mobile fitting, unfortunately), you can book your appointment. And in another welcome depature from other websites, you can simply pay at the store when you have your tyres fitted, rather than immediately.
Tyre Shopper*
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: Yes
Mail order: No
Specialists in tyre supply, Tyre Shopper stocks hundreds of items for cars, vans and caravans from more than 20 manufacturers. Special offers and promotions are available as they bid to offer the cheapest tyres online.
Tyre Shopper offers competitive prices and a choice of either garage or mobile fitting. There’s also express tyre fitting, supplied by National Tyres and Autocare – if you order by 1pm on any day, you can have the tyres fitted the same day. Miss this deadline and you can still arrange for fitting the following morning. This service is not nationwide, however, so you’ll need to check if it’s available in your area.
There’s the usual registration number search engine, or input tyre size, car make or tyre brand if you have a particular one in mind. Using the registration number search the next page shows ‘most likely fitment for the vehicle’. Alternatives are also shown for larger or smaller wheel sizes. There’s also a handy guide to show you how to find the tyre size if you’re not sure.
Searching the most likely tyre bring up results leading with ‘Value Choice’, ‘Deal of the Day’ and ‘Most Popular’. After that, there’s a comprehensive list of all tyres available, sorted from cheapest to most expensive. Prices are all-inclusive, although there are options to add on warranties and wheel alignment services if you need them.
Tyre Pros*
URL: www.tyre-shopper.co.uk
They say: “Your friendly local garage!”
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: Yes
Mail order: No
Founded by wholesale giant Stapleton’s Tyre Service, Tyre Pros claims that its goal is to provide the best customer service of any tyre provider in the UK.
Results are presented in price order from cheapest to dearest, and you can filter by price/brand/tyre type as usual. Interestingly, you can also filter by tyre label ratings (noise, wet grip and fuel efficiency), which is a nice feature.
We found a good selection of tyres available, from both established brands like Goodyear, Bridgestone and Michelin, as well as random budget brands you’ve probably never heard of. Prices are quoted as fully fitted, and seemed pretty much in line with other sites.
What may let Tyre Pros down for you is convenience – it has fewer locations than rivals like Kwik Fit or Halfords, so its suitability for you may well depend on whether you have a fitting centre within a convenient distance.
Mytyres*
In-store fitting: Not included
Mobile fitting: No
Mail order: Yes
Mytyres works a bit differently to the other sites on this page. It’s far more of a specialist mail order site, where you have tyres delivered to your address but you have to arrange for them to be fitted yourself. So if you’re thinking that the prices look cheap, that’s probably the reason…
On first glance, the Mytyres site looks a little plain compared to the colourful layouts of some of the others listed here. But it’s definitely a case of function over form, as everything works well and loads more quickly than most of the others. When you’re comparing tyres on different sites, that’s definitely a bonus.
Punch in your details and you’re taken to a list, headed by a ‘Premium recommendation’ and an ‘Economy recommendation’. After that tyres are sorted by ‘Our recommendation’, but you can switch that to sort by price, brand or other options.
We checked several cars and found plenty of choices for each, with a range of prices and brands (including some budget brands we’d never heard of and would probably avoid…)
You can look up a local tyre fitter and Mytyres can deliver the tyres directly to them, but fitting prices are not included so you’ll have to sort that yourself.
All in all, Mytyres offers a lot of choice but less convenience, as it’s not a one-stop-shop.
Tyres.net*
URL: www.tyres.net
They say: “Find the best online offers for tyres and wheels”
In-store fitting: No
Mobile fitting: No
Mail order: No
Tyres.net is a comparison site, so it works differently to most of the other sites here – in fact, it will link out to some of the other sites listed here.
You can’t search by registration number, so you need to punch in the size of your tyres to commence a search. Results are listed by popularity, although you can switch to ranking them by price easily enough.
For each tyre listed, there are direct links to the three cheapest providers or you can choose to view all offers on that particular tyre. Most of the providers are mail order suppliers, so they don’t offer fitting and will simply ship the tyres to your address.
If you know exactly what tyres you’re looking for – especially if you’re running upgraded wheels and tyres instead of the standard ones that come with your car – you should be able to find the best price through Tyres.net. For everyone else, however, it’s not particularly useful.
Blackcircles
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: No
Mail order: Yes
Blackcircles offers competitive prices and good national coverage – the company claims that 94% of the UK’s population is within an 11-minute drive of its 2,500 affiliated fitting centres.
You choose your tyres, then select a fitting centre, book a date and time, and pay for your tyres. Blackcircles then arranges for your tyres to be delivered to the fitting centre in time for your appointment. Alternatively, you can simply have the tyres delivered to you – but there’s no home/work fitting option.
As with most tyres sites, you start with your registration number. Check the tyre size to make sure it’s correct (sometimes there will be more than one option, so you’ll need to get it right). If you don’t know your registration number, you can search by tyre size and type.
Blackcircles usually produces a long list appears of suitable tyres, starting with ‘Top Customer Rated’ and ‘Award-Winning Tyres’. Below that, more tyres are listed starting from cheapest to most expensive. The quoted price per tyre includes VAT, delivery, fitting, balancing, new rubber valve and disposal of old tyres – in other words, everything you need to drive in with your old tyres and drive out again with new ones fitted.
Another follow-on section lists further tyres found on their database. There are sections for specific searches, such as 4×4 or classic tyres plus lots of interesting information about speed ratings, load ratings, part worns and other tyre-related topics.
Etyres
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: Yes
Mail order: Yes
Etyres stocks plenty of premium brands, budget brands and specialist tyres such as 4×4. The company is expanding its fitting network to include more mobile fitting providers, although the coverage is still patchy in plenty of areas.
With your registration and post code details entered, a suggested tyre size comes back with the advice ‘same front and rear’. It’s a useful reminder because some cars have different tyres front and rear (although it’s fairly rare these days). The next page offers a list of available products.
After entering your registration number and post code, you’re shown you a recommended ‘Our Choice’ tyre – although it’s unclear what that choice is based on – followed by ‘More Top Choices’ and then a good list of available rubber. This starts with ‘Top Selling Budget’, through ‘Recommended Super Budget’, ‘Popular British Brand’, ‘Experience Performance’ and several other sub-sections. After that, there’s a list of everything available to fit your car.
Choose between ‘fully fitted’ which includes a mobile service, or ‘home delivery’ if you just want the tyres delivered to your door without fitting. If you have chosen to have the tyres fitted, the next page gives the choice of garage or mobile. It’s here you make arrangements to have the fitting done by one of the 2,500 affiliated providers working with Etyres.
If the cost of a set of new tyres is making your eyes water, Etyres has the option for splitting your bill over three payments through PayPal.
Halfords
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: Yes
Mail order: No
Halfords is another huge high street motoring chain, although it has diversified into all sorts of leisure products over the years. Nevertheless, Halfords still has a good online tyre offering.
Entering your car’s registration number and postcode allows the site to show you the best available tyres for your car and whether Halfords can come to you with a mobile fitter. The initial search returns a choice of possible tyres sizes and asks you to select the one that matches the sidewall of your existing tyres.
Halfords has a good selection of tyres to choose from, and you can filter by price, popularity, garage or mobile fitting, and whether you need the tyre next day or can wait for up to seven days.
Adding a tyre to a basket defaults to a pair of tyres, rather than one single tyre. It’s slightly annoying and you don’t have to stick with this, but Halfords says that’s because buying tyres in pairs improves grip, rolling resistance and handling. If you only want one (or more than two), you can change it from your basket.
You can select to have the tyres fitted at one of the company’s 600 outlets, with same-day service potentially available in some locations. If you prefer, you can have Halfords come to you in many locations. There may or may not be an additional charge for this, depending on the time and date selected.
Halfords also offers you the choice of spreading your payments over six months interest free with Klarna (assuming you’re spending more than £99, which is highly likely).
Formula One Autocentres
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: No
Mail order: No
Formula One Autocentres stocks an extensive range of premium and cheaper tyres, including budget tyres that are listed as their own brand. The company claims to have 120 fitting centres across the UK, although there are no options for mail order option or mobile fitting.
Entering your registration number and postcode brings up a selection of tyre sizes and you are asked to check the tyre size on the existing vehicle before buying anything – although there’s no suggested size as a default.
Annoyingly, the search seems to bring up the company’s own-brand tyres as its ‘recommended’ tyre. If you want something else, like a tyre from an actual tyre brand you’ve heard of, you need to click on each brand name to display results. This seems incredibly unhelpful.
As usual, all prices include fitting, valves, standard balancing, casing disposal and VAT, so there shouldn’t be any hidden extras.
Just Tyres Autocentres
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: No
Mail order: No
Independently-owned Just Tyres has 38 depots around the country, so it’s a much smaller operation than most of the other companies listed here. Nevertheless, if there’s a store close to you then it’s certainly worth checking out.
The usual tyre search engine asks only for the car registration number and once the ‘most likely’ tyre is identified you are asked to confirm it. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any alternative sizes for the cars we checked so we needed to check by tyre size instead (one of the cars we checked has upgraded wheels and tyres that are larger than standard).
The choices on the cars we searched were much more limited, with fewer brands to choose from. There was also a ‘Super Value’ own-brand tyre of unknown origin for the cars we checked.
Tyres are priced fully fitted, as usual, and urgent same-day fitting can be arranged via a ‘local stock checker’ facility. The site also has a helpful tyre tips section listing information on tyres, their maintenance and tyre law. This blog section carries useful items on all sorts of subjects such as how to store them correctly, checking their and fitting summer tyres.
National Tyres
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: No
Mail order: No
National Tyres and Autocare is owned by Halfords, although the site seems to share its design and functionality with Tyre Shopper rather than Halfords’ own tyre site.
is the largest independent fast fit outlet in the UK. Its 300 tyre centres and mobile fitting vehicles employ more than 1000 tyre fitters and auto technicians.
Once you enter the usual details, you’re presented with a ‘recommended’ choice – in our case, a budget option from a brand you’ve probably never heard of. From there, it progresses through sections based on price, from ‘budget’ through to ‘super premium’. Obviously, you can filter by price and other options. It’s interesting that National generates different results from Tyre Shopper, despite both clearly being based on the same website architecture.
Pricing, as usual, is all-inclusive. There’s a choice of fitting options, with in-branch and mobile fitting available. As with Tyre Shopper and some others, there’s a same-day express service potentially available as well.
Asda Tyres
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: No
Mail order: Yes
Asda Tyres (yes, part of the big superstore chain) seems to take its entire site from Etyres, as they look and work almost identically. The tyre choices and prices also appear to be identical, although it’s possible that the two sites may have different offers from time to time.
You choose a fitter and arrange for the work to be done. Asda promises ‘no hidden charges’: the price includes garage fitting fees, VAT, delivery, fitting, balancing and disposal of old tyres. As with Etyres, you can buy tyres mail order but there’s no mobile fitting option.
If you haven’t ordered tyres online before there’s a handy video provided by Asda to show you how it’s done. The site also contains help and advice, information on different types of tyres, articles on tyre safety, and a news and features section.
Also like Etyres, Asda Tyres offers a three-month PayPal option to spread the cost of your new tyres over three payments.
RAC Tyres
In-store fitting: Yes
Mobile fitting: No
Mail order: No
Like Asda Tyres, RAC Tyres is another site that appears to be a re-skinned version of the Etyres site. Again, everything appears to be exactly the same – prices, choices, fitting centres and PayPal three-month payment options.
Surprisingly, there don’t appear to be any special offers for existing RAC customers – we expected at least some sort of discount if you already have RAC breakdown cover or similar.
Other than that, there’s not much more to say since everything is basically the same as Etyres.
Additional reporting by Stuart Masson.
*The Car Expert has commercial partnerships with Kwik Fit, MotorEasy, MyTyres, STS Tyre Pros, Tyres.net and Tyre Shopper. If you click through to their sites and buy anything, we may receive a small commission. This does not affect the price you pay, but helps us keep the site running.