[Flintstone]

I have now bought four Michelin CC+ from Black Circles to be fitted by the local ATS depot. Cost £467.60 (225/50/R17 98 V). The current 15% discount (FLASH15) runs out at 2359 on the 16th Feb. Thanks Flintstone for making me aware of this.

ps. The local ATS depot tell me that it is them that own Black Circles (not the other way round?) and it also looks as if the Club 60 offer may not be as attractive as it might appear.

You're welcome Jim.

Also agree your logic in reaching the purchase decision.
That is the same price I saw online. So perhaps their prices are genuinely "national"? (Unlike, motor fuel, insurance, gas, electricity, supermarkets, etc.)

Re. if "Club 60" is worthwhile? Maybe if the discounts through that are less temporary?

Urrell already explained who owns whom. That was covered in another thread not too long ago. When Bryetian updated me about BC being bought by the Michelin Man. Like your idea on the financial advice.

 

[Flintstone]

A sibling, the parent is Michelin.
"In May 2015 tyre manufacturer Michelin purchased the company for $75m. Michelin, which boasts 112,300 employees and operates 68 production plants in 17 countries, will also link Blackcircles with its popular distributor ATS Euromaster. "

I think one advantage of buying online is that the seller has a high turnover.

Methinks some of the reasons that the Michelin Man (or should that be "homme"?) was prepared to pay a handsome sum for the entire blackcircles business could have been:
a) The established (and loyal?) customer base that BC already had built by then.
b) No more expensive than building a comparable IT system from scratch, along with the procurement deals and systems.
c) Means that ATS can hold far fewer tyres in stock locally at fitting centres. Stock holding costs a fortune. Just get them delivered promptly from central warehouse.
d) Gives ATS instant access to the full online market and rival manufacturer supplies. Keeps individual ATS sites more viable.

And like The Hood said, customers benefit from less chance of being sold stock that have been sitting around in a fitting site's shed for a year or more.

Kwik-Fit have a similar arrangement for online purchase with fitting included at a nearby depot. Using their own web-site purchasing system.

 

[Jimmy]

Would the ATS man contribute to inflation? I'm treading a dangerous path here, unleashing lots of puns and as I'm tired I'll go back to sleep..

 

[Robjon]

I'm treading a dangerous path here, unleashing lots of puns and as I'm tired I'll go back to sleep..

Effects of the pastis, Jimmy?

 

[spagley]

In the good old days when you could chat over a pint in the pub, some Mini club friends and I were discussing online tyre suppliers.
One chap suggested looking on 'Black Rings'.
I advised caution if using a work computer to search for that sort of thing...

 

[Trilux]

Nothing is ever easy. Went to ATS to have the Michelin CCs fitted. They couldn’t remove one of the wheels. The splines on one of the locking wheel bolts had rounded off and the key was looking worn too. So, it was off to a welder the other side of town to built up a large blob of weld on the bolt and then weld on a nut. Job done. Back to ATS to have the fourth tyre put on. Drove home with only four bolts in each wheel.

The OEM locking bolt system is really quite poor. Apparently they are a very common failure. Have now ordered a Febi bilstein set that looks a lot more substantial and about a quarter of the price of the [email protected] VAG ones.

Well that was nearly the whole day spent on getting the tyres put on.........but I am happy that I didn’t discover that I couldn’t remove that wheel after a puncture in the middle of the night far away from anywhere. I suppose that would be one time that the tyre gunge might have proved a good idea.

 

[Big Stevie]

Well that was nearly the whole day spent on getting the tyres put on.........but I am happy that I didn’t discover that I couldn’t remove that wheel after a puncture in the middle of the night far away from anywhere. I suppose that would be one time that the tyre gunge might have proved a good idea.

Now to loosen the bolts and re-tourque them incase the tyre fitters have tightened them to 1,000,000Nm as they did with my LR Defender recently.

Where did you order the Febi bilstein set from, and how did you establish the type of bolt needed please?

 

[Trilux]

I did see the tyre fitters using a torque wrench (first time ever) but they didn’t tell me what they had set it to, so I will check anyway.

The locking bolt sets are on Amazon and eBay and advert does carry an application chart in a lot of cases.

 

[The Hood]

I replaced my locking bolts when the key started looking worse for wear. It was cheaper to buy a complete set from Horton Skoda by mail order than buy a new "key". The "key" has a letter or number stamped on the hex part, make a note of it in case you lose it and need to buy a replacement.

 

[Llanigraham]

Considering that wheel theft is now quite rare I took the locking bolts of both my Yeti's and replaced them with standard bolts, and shall probably do the same with the Niro.

 

[Trilux]

Where did you order the Febi bilstein set from, and how did you establish the type of bolt needed please?

Big Stevie, my locking bolts came today.

Assuming you are putting them on OEM alloys, the Febi bilstein part number is: 27056
The VAG cross reference is B529. I didn’t want to give you these before until I was sure they were the right ones.

I think these are a far better idea than the VAG ones. The splines are a lot longer and much more substantial, which means they are far less likely to slip off than the originals. Much cheaper too! They supply a key number in case you need to order another. The only downside is that the original plastic cap doesn’t fit. I will put some aluminium paint on the end of the bolts and after a few days you will not be able to see the difference.

 

[The Hood]

Had a look at your replacements and spotted this at the bottom of the page, I wonder if they are any good.

Blue Spot 01533 BlueSpot 5 PCE Locking Wheel Nut Remover Set: Amazon.co.uk: Car & Motorbike

 

[Big Stevie]

Big Stevie, my locking bolts came today.

Assuming you are putting them on OEM alloys, the Febi bilstein part number is: 27056
The VAG cross reference is B529. I didn’t want to give you these before until I was sure they were the right ones.

I think these are a far better idea than the VAG ones. The splines are a lot longer and much more substantial, which means they are far less likely to slip off than the originals. Much cheaper too! They supply a key number in case you need to order another. The only downside is that the original plastic cap doesn’t fit. I will put some aluminium paint on the end of the bolts and after a few days you will not be able to see the difference.

Thanks Trilux

 

[Trilux]

Had a look at your replacements and spotted this at the bottom of the page, I wonder if they are any good.

Blue Spot 01533 BlueSpot 5 PCE Locking Wheel Nut Remover Set: Amazon.co.uk: Car & Motorbike

Interesting, I didn’t know you could get such a thing. The only worry I would have is whether there would be enough room for the extractor to fit in the recess. There ain't a lot of room down there!

 

[Llanigraham]

Had a look at your replacements and spotted this at the bottom of the page, I wonder if they are any good.

Blue Spot 01533 BlueSpot 5 PCE Locking Wheel Nut Remover Set: Amazon.co.uk: Car & Motorbike

Snap-On do similar items and I'm surprised the tyre fitters didn't have something. I know the 2 fitters I use around here have them.