How much does a mobile tyre service cost?
A mobile tyre service costs roughly the same as the equivalent job at a garage. You pay for the tyre, plus fitting, balancing, a new valve and disposal of the old tyre. What moves the number is tyre size, the brand and budget you pick, whether the tyre can be repaired rather than replaced, and whether you need us at 2pm or 2am.
There is no useful single figure for “a tyre”, because a 155/70 R13 on a small runaround and a 275/35 R20 on a performance saloon are different products with different costs. Anyone who gives you a flat price before they know your vehicle is guessing, and you will find out on the day what the guess was worth.
What we do instead is simple. Tell us the reg or the size, tell us where you are, and Matt gives you the all-in price before we set off. That price is what you pay. Nothing gets added when the van arrives.
Is mobile tyre fitting much more expensive?
No. Mobile tyre fitting is usually not much more expensive than a traditional garage, and the reason is arithmetic rather than sales patter.
The tyre is the biggest line on the bill, and the tyre costs the same whoever fits it. It comes from the same trade suppliers to the same trade prices. What changes is the labour around it, and a mobile fitter carries a very different overhead to a garage:
- No premises. No showroom, no waiting area, no forecourt rent, no reception staff.
- No idle ramp. The van is either working or it is not costing anything.
- No second visit. The tyre gets sourced and fitted on the same call.
Set against that is the cost of driving to you, which is real. In practice the two roughly cancel out.
Then there is the part that never appears on a quote. A garage visit costs you the fuel to get there, the time off work, the wait, and often a second trip to collect the car. If your time is worth anything at all, mobile fitting is frequently the cheaper option once you count it properly.
What is actually in the price
Compare like for like and a tyre price should include all of the following. If a quote looks unusually cheap, one of them is usually missing:
- The tyre, in the size and load or speed rating your vehicle requires.
- Fitting, which means breaking the old tyre off the rim and mounting the new one without damaging the alloy.
- Balancing, so the wheel does not vibrate at speed and chew the tyre unevenly.
- A new valve, because an old rubber valve perishes and is a slow puncture waiting to happen. TPMS sensor valves are a separate item.
- Disposal of the old tyre, which is a regulated waste stream and carries a small charge everywhere.
Ask for the total including those five things. That is the only number worth comparing between fitters.
What is a call-out fee, and do we charge one?
A call-out or booking fee is a fixed charge some mobile services add on top of the tyre for turning up. It is often waived above a minimum number of tyres, added as a supplement on a single tyre, and increased if you want a narrow time slot or an out-of-hours visit.
That is a legitimate way to price a business, but it makes quotes hard to compare, and it is why people search for what a call-out actually costs before they book.
We do it the other way round. Matt quotes the whole job in one number before we move, including coming to you. Nothing is added on arrival, and you are told the price before we touch the car. If the honest answer is that a repair will do and you do not need a new tyre, you get told that too, and it costs you less.
What a slow puncture repair should cost
A slow puncture repair is the cheapest job in tyres. You are paying for labour and a plug-and-patch, not for new rubber, so it lands at a small fraction of the cost of a replacement.
The thing to understand is that the repair is not always allowed. UK tyre repairs follow the principles of British Standard BS AU 159, and that limits safe repairs to minor damage in the central tread area of a tyre that has not been driven on while flat. A puncture in the sidewall or the shoulder cannot be repaired at any price, and neither can a tyre whose casing has been wrecked by being driven home on it.
So the honest answer to “how much to fix a slow puncture” is: a small amount if it is repairable, the price of a tyre if it is not. We assess it at the vehicle and tell you which one you are looking at before we start. There is more detail in our guide on whether a mobile fitter can repair a puncture.
Why urgency changes the number
Two things genuinely move a mobile tyre price beyond the tyre itself, and it is fair enough to know about both before you call.
The hour. A tyre at 10am on a Tuesday and a tyre at 3am on a Sunday are not the same job. Out-of-hours emergency response costs more anywhere in the trade, and we are honest about it rather than hiding it in the tyre price.
Availability. If your size is sitting on a local trade shelf, we collect it and fit it today. If it is a rare fitment that has to come from further afield, that costs more and takes longer. We will tell you which one you have got.
Spreading the cost
A full set of tyres is a real amount of money to find at short notice, and a flat tyre never picks a convenient week. We offer interest-free instalments so you can spread it, which is on our finance page.
That matters more than it sounds. The reason people drive on illegal tyres is almost never that they do not care. It is that the money is not there this month. Spreading it is the difference between a legal tyre now and a £2,500 fine per tyre later.
Getting a real number for your car
Guesswork helps nobody. Pop your registration in and we will come back with the sizes your vehicle takes and a price for the work, or call Matt on 07449 206 581 and tell him what has happened.
We cover Dundee, Perth, Angus, Perthshire and Fife, 24 hours a day, and we come to your home, your work or the roadside. You get the price before we move, and the price does not change when we get there.