Knowing that the good old days weren't always good, I must convey this happening. Sunday morning I headed out to the grocery store when my tire pressure light came on saying it was low. Hell, I haven't had anything like that happen for 6 years. Anyway, I had places to go and since it had only lost about 15 pounds of pressure in a 24 hour period, I just added air and used the car the rest of the day. Where was I going to find a place that would fix it on Sunday anyway.
Yesterday morning I went to well known road service center and explained that my left front tire had a slow leak. That is were the simplicity ended. Back in the good old days, due to necessity, I would just go to a auto salvage yard and by four "good" tires for $10.00 each and take them to a garage (service station, do any of those still exist) and had them mount and balance for $5.00 each and I was set for at least another year for a total expenditure of about $60.00 for four tires.
They took the car in and in about a half hour came out with a "list" of things that they felt I needed to have done. Apparently, the nail was in at an odd angle and couldn't be just repaired. (As a teen I worked in one of those service centers and probably repaired hundreds of nail punctured tires. Don't remember ever having to worry about the angle of the puncture.) Anyway, they couldn't fix it. So they gave me a quote for two (2) new tires because they felt it necessary to match the two front ones. There was only 20K miles on the originals. Add to that a road hazard warrantee that didn't make any difference in the tire that was already on the car and was the recipient of a nail on the highway. This was followed up by a need, in their mind for a four wheel alignment. The total estimate was $519.70 for a single roofing nail in one tire.
Gasp! You say? Well, I hope so. I know that todays world doesn't really lie they just tend to omit necessary information. Information like you don't need to "match" tires. That's a thought from years ago with bias ply tires, but the thought has been allowed to continue. Second my car was not thrown out of alignment because it came in contact with a a single roofing nail. So after quickly knocking off the unnecessary items it still came to $184.00 for ONE SINGLE FREAKING TIRE. But at least it wasn't $520.
I was brought up in a world of engines, cars, truck, buses and every type of wheeled vehicles possible and even though the last 10 years I have been pretty much out of the loop, it really bothers me that these tricks are used on the public. I feel for so many people that are not familiar with the mechanical items that they rely on. Young people or widows (in particular) that have usually never had to deal with automobiles and would have looked at the estimate, probably cried inside, but not knowing any better told them to go ahead with the repairs. That is the single reason why when my girls were in their teens I had them do their own oil changes, deal with tire problems including changing tires on the road, in one case even doing a brake job. Those places don't really lie unless you call it a lie by omission. $300.00 of my bill, might have not been harmful other then to my wallet, but it was completely unnecessary. Kind of makes me sad.
Yep, it’s definitely a confident feelin’ knowin’ enough about the mechanical, etc., workings of vehicles, so the odds of gettin’ messed over are definitely more rare.
The repair shop we’ve used for years knows us well enough, and has treated us well. They also know I, for the most part, know my stuff.
I too bought more than one used tire, back in the day, but, these days it’s a liability issue, and I haven’t been able to find one in quite a while (I would only put them on my car, and not a family members).
We’ve also used Discount Tire for years now. Among other things, they fix flats for free, even if you didn’t buy the tire from them.
Took DWifey’s car in last weekend. Had a screw in the drivers side rear tire. Dude checked the tread depth on all 4 tires, and showed me the electronic results, and I could visually see they were an issue. Both front tires were great, as they’re pretty new, and drivers side rear tire was in their fixable range, although close to not. But, if the screw woulda’ been in the passengers side rear tire, they wouldn’t have been allowed to fix it. Also, general tread depth is a pretty obvious thing to determine.
Ultimately, DWifey (we
) decided to put 2 new rear tires on her ride, of course, but, we also got a $44+ pro-rating, so there’s that.
Either way, tires just aren’t something that need to be neglected for one of my family members, as all kinds of dangerous things can happen...accidents, stranded on the roadside, etc.
Although, especially in my youth, it still cracks me up with some of the chances I took, and the way I rigged things with the vehicles only I drove...!!!!!
