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In my youth, I was one of those people who learned more in a post exam post mortem than in revision sessions. Yes, I was never a big reviser but I was one of those masochists who enjoyed unpicking an exam after it finished, when there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

Old habits die hard and I still have a hangover from those days: if I’m forced into buying something unexpectedly, I will arrive home and get Googling to see if I got stitched up and how much I could have got it for. I would like to tell you this habit is for research purposes but I’d be lying. It’s a perverse knot in my character.

A couple of days back, the back tyre of our car had intercourse with a three inch screw. Instead of swelling, which sometimes happens after unplanned human intercourse,  our tyre began to shrivel.

Luckily for us, it was a slowish puncture and we were able to get to a national chain of  tyre fitters/ dealers before our tyre died of malnutrition.

The bloke at the tyre place removed the tyre and it was plain to see that the screw had penetrated the tyre at an angle and its tip had slightly breeched the side wall. Apparently, a repair was out of the question, so it had to be a new tyre.

After a bit of chat and discount requesting, we were quoted a price of £50 fully fitted for a Tigar Sigura 82T tyre. The £50 included an AA membership discount although we weren’t asked to show our AA card so I’m not exactly sure how that worked.

Me: Does the £50 include AA membership discount?

Mechanic: Yes

We said OK because, quite frankly, we were in no position to say ’no’ . We’ve also used that garage before and consider them a safe pair of hands.

While the mechanic set to work, we began chatting to the supervisor of the tyre centre. My other half, who has an enviable gift for putting people at their ease and making small talk, was soon listening to the life story of the supervisor.

Soon the job was done and the supervisor, as opposed to the mechanic who originally quoted us, dealt with invoicing and payment. I was a little surprised that the supervisor, without prompting, threw in a one-time puncture protection for the lifetime of the tyre. Effectively, this means that the first puncture we have in that tyre is on them. If it punctures again, we pay. If the side wall is breeched and therefore repair is not possible, some percentage of the tyre price will be refunded – dependent on the amount of wear left in the tyre by tread depth.

So the deal was done and we were soon on our way.

As soon as I got home, I logged on to Google to assess the deal we got. I thought we had got a sweet deal but was surprised at what I learned. It seems common practice amongst tyre companies to offer cheaper prices online. I can understand why this is the case with smaller goods such as books, media and small household items where purchases can be mailed but I was surprised to learn that it applies to tyres as well - where you would still need to go to a garage to get the tyre fitted. Remember we had been quoted £50? Well the website price for the same company was £45.00.

From the website:

Remember, these great prices are ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE and not in our branches, so order now for our best deals!

Ok, I thought, lesson learned. But I still hadn’t had enough masochism for one day so I kept Googling.

It got more interesting. If I had used the website of tyre repair consolidator www.tyre-shopper.co.uk the fully fitted price would have been £35.00 to have the tyre fully fitted at the SAME garage. The only catch is that I would have to wait for upto a week for the tyre to arrive at the garage. Tyre-shopper send out their own tyres to be fitted. The garage provides the fitting service but not the tyre. Obviously this service would not have helped us when our tyre went flat but it’s certainly of interest for planned tyre changes.

I couldn’t quite believe it so I rang the garage who confirmed they do, indeed, work with tyre-shopper.

I consider the whole thing a good learning experience. Sure, I’m £15.00 ‘down’ on this tyre but we have three others that will need replacing within the next few months. I know we’re going to be testing out different ways of buying.

Lesson learned!

 Readers:  please tell us if  you have any top tyre tips. Have you used Tyre-shopper and if so, what was your experience?