Really tire shop, really?

spitfirebill wrote: I've bought my last three sets of tires from Discount Tire in Spartanburg, SC. I could not be any happier. While I like to buy from the local mom and pop stores, the best store in town refused to put HR rated tires on my wifes Solara. When I pressed the issue, he said he would do it but would not warranty them. He was also $300 higher.

Dude. I live in Greenville - small world. I use wholesale tire in downtown Greer - great place. They beat discount and tirerack on price and pulled the wheels off the car one by one with the owner working the floor jack because the lifts were all taken. Nice.

I've been fortunate to have a couple of tire mounting options over the years. For the past couple of years I've been going to a shop run by one of my MINI friends. Unfortunately, their lease wasn't renewed and his father was forced to close and the new shop he's working at is on the other side of Philly from me.

So... I'll likely be going back to my previous shop: EG Tire in Dayton, NJ. They used to be managed by a NNJR autocross guy and we've had good luck with them. They would do "to-spec" alignments and didn't go dumb if you brought them a modified car. No issues with bringing Tire Rack orders to mount either. I would typcially drop off tires & wheels on the way home from work and then pick them up the next day. For awhile I was having so many tires mounted the manager would give me a pretty good discount; 2 for 1 one time.

That said, if I can build my shop, my own tire mounter and balancer are high on the "want list". It's not so much the cost, but also the convienence.

+1 to Spitfirebills' experience.

The Discount Tire here in Boulder is good for price, service and general attitude.

They have only screwed up once, and took full responsibility. (Didn't torque the locking nuts after a tire rotation.)

They just mounted a set of slicks for me for half what the local race tire shop wants.

I'z a happy customer...

Rog

Friends dad once had new tires installed on his C4 vette. They got the tires facing the right way, but had mixed up the directional sawblade wheels, the wheels in each side were facing opposite directions. He didnt notice but I pointed it out to him. lol.

I had the local chain store forget to put the oil filter back on my car. Then for some reason they rolled it out of the bay. I twas told later by my lawyer that they were out of stock on the filters and had moved it to get another car in. I picked up the car later that afternoon (about 6:00) after the mechanics had left (at 5:00), I pulled out on to the street and was accelerating rapidly to get up to speed. Just before I was going to grab for third there was a big bang and the motor locked up. I looked under the hood and there was a big hole in the block and the oil filter was missing. Walking back to the service center I saw a pool of oil in the spot where I was parked and a trail leading from it.

Long story short it went legal. Even though the owner of the franchise admitted guilt the insurance company was a real SOB. To make things even more fun at the advice of legal counsel I had left my car with them to hold until the matter was resolved. I get a call three weeks later from the owner asking me to come down as my car had been in a little accident. Turns out that one of his employees had run in to it with a tow truck that had been in for service. The car at this point was a total loss. nose fender hood alu rim (custom set I had put on) suspension and the upper strut mount looked to have been pushed over. By this time I was beside my self. Now a 2nd claim was going to have to be filed. BTW it was an 83 Firebird I had purchased new in 84. The car was technically less than 1 year old.

It finally all went legal and really messy as the insurance wanted to pay out on the two separate incidence individually. My lawyer took them to town. I won plus damages loss of use to the car compensation for lost work, legal fees and on and on. I ended up with a big pile of $$$$. The owner of the service station actually was paid for storage fees of $25 a day. (funny how that worked). I went and purchased a new 86 Formula Fire bird. My car stayed in the store lot for about 3 years. I later found out that the owner had purchased it back from the insurance company instead of collecting the storage fees. He eventually fixed it and I saw it driving around town for 10 + years after that.

In the end it worked out but what a PITA the whole thing was!!