The good thing about the Tirerack is it has huge buying power across many brands vs. a small tire shop that probably only sells a limited set at good prices. The small guys can't compete on price.

Tirerack has an entire online capability with research, lots of details on tires with objective metric based comparisons and good feedback from buyers on their experiences with specific tires.

The 2nd thing about Tirerack is you can have the tires sent to the dealer you like, even if they only have 1 or 2 locations. Otherwise Tirerack will give you ratings of installers in your area, again with feedback from real customers.

So buying from Tirerack is tops in my book and you can still give the installation to your favorite shop with the most advanced equipment or to your brother in law.