Um, aren't YOU supposed to know that?

[Dave1982]

So I had to get a damaged tire replaced on my car yesterday (), and was thoroughly unimpressed by one particular local tire store chain.

They either can't or won't look up your cars tire size by year/make/model.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but can't, well.....EVERY tire shop do that? This is my 4th car and hardly my first time getting new tires, and I don't ever remember having to supply the tire size myself. I was so befuddled I almost had to hang up and call back, but then I mananged to get it googled.

Seriously....why did I have to do that? It's not like I've got non-factory wheels or anything.

They also asked if my car was 4WD.........ITS A HONDA FIT!!!!! of course it doesn't have 4WD!!!!

And to top it all off, the lowest price they quoted me for ONE tire was $160, not including installion.

Me: yeah lemme think about it. *click*

I went to their competitor across town. Paid less than that including installation.

Oh, and why do all the tire shops around here other than Sears close at 6 every day? Do they expect people to take time off work?

[Ironclad Alibi]

Oh, and why do all the tire shops around here other than Sears close at 6 every day? Do they expect people to take time off work?

They are a left over from the Good Old Days™ when all stores were only open from 9 to 5, M-F. The wife was supposed to do all the shopping while the husband worked.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Oh, and why do all the tire shops around here other than Sears close at 6 every day?

Probably for the same reason why banks, doctor's offices, etc keep to the same hours; because there aren't enough skilled people willing to work later hours to make staying open later worth it.

[protege]

So I had to get a damaged tire replaced on my car yesterday (), and was thoroughly unimpressed by one particular local tire store chain.

Is this the place with the three-letter name, that also sells batteries? I only go there if I have to, as they pissed me off the last time. Last time I checked, it should not take 2 hours to do an oil change and rotate the tires. I could understand if they were busy...but my car was the only one in the service area--I could see it sitting on the lift. Found out later that the reason...was that the entire staff had walked up the road to the bar, and was putting down a few. Haven't been back since.

[Dave1982]

Is this the place with the three-letter name, that also sells batteries?

No. It was "we're always here to get you there" tire.

[Rosco the Iroc]

www.tirerack.com
You can find out Y/M/M size on there.

As for time- yea maybe they don't want to work retail hrs, can you blame them?

[CyberLurch]

Um, it sounds like your local shop has a terminal case of the lazy. Even if they were unable to actually look up the size of tire you need (and I'd be very suspicious of any tire vendor that makes that claim), they don't actually NEED to. The size of every automobile tire made in like the last 40 years (probably longer) has the size molded into the sidewall. All the guy has to do is look at the tire (either the one he's working on, or if it's too badly damaged, one of the other tires) and he'll get the information he needs, INCLUDING SIZE, LOAD, AND SPEED RATINGS. The owners manual (assuming you still have it) will also have this information in it, and even if all else fails, there's this wonderful device called a telephone, which can be used to contact a Honda dealer, another store in the chain, the head office, etc. And, as you mentioned, the man at the counter could always google the information.

There is so much fail here that I would be physically compelled to write down names, dates, times, and any other pertinent information and forward an account of your experience to their head office. In fact, I'm reasonably certain I would place that call right there at their service desk, as they watched. I'm sure their bosses would be very interested to hear about this level of incompetence.

[wordgirl]

The size of every automobile tire made in like the last 40 years (probably longer) has the size molded into the sidewall. All the guy has to do is look at the tire (either the one he's working on, or if it's too badly damaged, one of the other tires) and he'll get the information he needs, INCLUDING SIZE, LOAD, AND SPEED RATINGS. .

I got the impression that Dave was calling the shop to get a quote and that they wanted HIM to go look at his tire, rather than just look up the standard tire size for a Honda FIT.

And I kind of understand where they were coming from ... my particular car and model year, there were seven different trim lines (including special editions) and three of them use a different tire size.

For the 2013 FIT, just to grab a random year, Tirerack tells me there were FOUR different tire sizes depending on trim line, and a few other sizes that would work if all four tires are replaced at the same time.

The problem arises if the owner doesn't know which trim line s/he owns, and I would suspect tire shops would be more suspicious of someone who says "um, just the base model?" rather than someone who says "It's the Branson Sport S3X with the Dognapping package added by the dealer." And then you throw in the post-dealer mods and it becomes very tricky.

Increasingly, tire shops tend to share inventory on a regional basis - so the tire they're pulling up might need to be brought in from another store, a process that is often not transparent to the customer. If they don't have exactly the right tire, they need to be sure they can get it on short notice.

It's a lot of moving parts, all of which can be circumvented by answering one question: What size tires are on the car right this very minute? And if the car's not there, there's only one way to find that out, and it's for the owner of the car to look.

That said, I'm sure Dave knew what trimline he had ... if he had the requisite info, they should have looked it up based on what he told them.


.

[Dave1982]

I got the impression that Dave was calling the shop to get a quote and that they wanted HIM to go look at his tire, rather than just look up the standard tire size for a Honda FIT.

Right, what she said.

[Daskinor]

I have been having issues myself.

Yes it is a 1998 Volvo V70 xc, it would normally take 205/65R15. But these rims are from a 1999 V70 T5, so they are 205/55R16. So Sell me the 205/55R16.

What do you mean you can only put the tire the computer says the car takes. I want to purchase the 205/55R16. The orginal rims that take the 205/65R15 have snow tires on them.

Worst off I went to 3 places before someone would sell me the tires I wanted and put them on the car.

[Nashida]

That's so weird...when I got tires installed on Panzer (my Subaru) the guy asked me make/model and as soon as I'd rattled off "2011 Subaru Impreza 2.5i hatch" he'd found the right size.