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    Peter Veldman Founder Of Tire Rack, Dead At 87

    From 1 store in Indiana, to mail order, to international direct to consumer reseller, and internet giant, he was a tire industry legend.

    Jeff Ostroff
    by Jeff Ostroff

    Community Contributor

    Peter Veldman Dead At 87

    The founder of Tire Rack Peter Veldman has died at the age of 87. He had opened their first store in South Bend, Ind., in 1979 and in the early 1980s they began advertising nationally and quickly became the go to source in the direct-to-consumer tire business.

    They sold tires that you just could not find by walking into Sears or Kmart, or any other tire store. Also, they got new tires and hubs, not used like other people.

    He had a keen vision to get Tire Rack onto the internet as TireRack.com in 1996 and became instantly successful by starting an affiliate program, much like Amazon got jump started.

    We even had them on our own car buying advice web site as an affiliate advertiser.

    The rest is history. RIP Peter, you are an auto industry visionary.

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