I also find tyre pricing a bit confusing and a bit of a hit and miss affair. Most peoples buying decision is based primarily on price, since the product does not change, hence the adverts that don' t include a price, and force you to phone.
Perhaps the following will help to explain the price difference issues, and I have a suggestion that might help us all.
In a business where you don' t sell to the consumer yourself, especially as an international business, you have a number of stages in your distribution. You might have an international distributor, a national distributor and a local retailer. Each wants a cut and this can be 30%, to cover shipping, warehousing, costs and a profit margin.
If we make a product, it might contain £8 of raw materials, our manufacturing process may cost £1 and our overheads another £1. This makes £10, but we want a profit margin of say 15%, so we sell it for £11.50.
The international distributor sells it for £14.95, the national distributor for £19.44 and the retailer for £25.26 + VAT = £30. So an £8 product costs £30.
Clearly removing a stage from the chain, or better still, buying direct from the manufacturer can equate to significant savings.
The problem is that you can' t buy from the tyre manufacturer since they want to manufacture and sell in bulk to keep their operation efficient and can' t be bothered with the retail side. They don' t see it as part of their core business and use established retail channels, since most people prefer a range of brands in one shop, rather then having to go to a Conti shop, a Pirelli shop, etc.
I am not in the tyre industry, so I don' t what the margins are or how the money gets sliced, but this is the general model.
Individually we have little scope to get a deal, but collectively there may be a chance.
As a club we could perhaps manage a deal, but there would need to be sufficient interest. I noticed that on the membership card Michelin is on the back, and in P Post I noticed that Michelin send a truck to track days I think.
The best solution would be for either the club or Porsche GB to do a deal direct with Conti. If the numbers were high enough, they could pass on the savings while making money themselves.
What makes the issue harder is having to support multiple brands (Conti, Pirelli, etc.).
The problems also mount due to buying in bulk which requires warehousing (with suitable security), suitable distribution around the country and fitting charges.
None of which may be a core competency and may have to outsourced, all incurring additional costs and reducing our savings.
However, I am sure that providing enough people were interested it must be possible to use the collective purchasing power to get better deals.
1800 911' s are sold in the UK each year, just taking 10 years worth this is 18,000 cars who need say 4 tyres every 2 years (some use more, some low mileage cars less), this is 36,000 tyres a year or c. £4.5m worth, add in the other models and it is a modest business. The only slight issue with this is some are 17" , some are 18" , and 255-295 wide, and not everyone who owns a 911 belongs to the club (although a good deal on tyres might be a sufficient sweetner).
Maybe this has been done or tried already, or perhaps it just isn' t viable. Any comments?
Stuart.
