[vgiddings001]

I make sure my car is maintained at all times. It's small, fuel-efficient, and low mileage. I've had my oil changed at tire choice for quite a while and even bought tires from them. So, when they told me that I needed new struts and shocks, I choked at the price, but believed them. I knew I had to make some kind of adjustment to my budget in order to afford the repairs ($1200+) so I told them I'd be back. I happened to mention these repairs to a family member that evening and was told to get a second opinion. I called the auto dealership and they agreed that these repairs sounded odd. So after taking my car into a different repair shop, only a $350.00 alignment and once over was necessary. Oh, and my shocks and struts were just fine! My car runs better now than when TireChoice was taking care of it!

[CFrance]

You are lucky you decided to get another opinion. There are others who have had bad experiences with this company as well. See this thread: BEWARE of The Tire Choice at Colony

Welcome to the forum. Hope you will introduce yourself and say Hi.

[billethkid]

Did you confront the manager/owner with your findings?

They are a national brand, did you contact their headquarters operation?

The other oh so important things to do as well as warning the neighbors so to speak.

Actually it should have been done before you alerted us as now we will not know what the manager/owners/corporate had to say.

[annaconner]

We also have had bad experiences at Tire Choice, but In Wedgewood Ln. Several times we had expensive work done on our old Chevy Lumina, but now take it to George Nahas who says it is a fine specimen for it's age and only requires some fine tuning !!

[coalminer]

I had the same kind of experiance there also. Once I took their word and the repairs cost me nearly $800. The next time I went to the garage decided not to make their suggested $750 repair. Instead I put about 2ozs of power steering fluid in my car and it was like new. That was a year and a half ago. I will never go back there.

[justjim]

OP, appears you dodged a bullet. I don't understand how these places stay in business but somehow they do.

As a very young man in Illinois I had a similar Experence. I took my car in for a "special" and got a phone call that I needed new shocks. I had just replaced the shocks two weeks prior. The manager and I really got "into it" when I returned for my car.

I wrote to the better business bureau regarding the incident and reported them to the local chamber of commerce.

Bottom line----believe it or not----they are still in business and still "stealing" from people. What to do?

[applesoffh]

My husband took the car there to have the tires rotated after our drive down from NYC when we moved here. He was told new tires were needed as he was riding on "boloneys" and that would cost $1600. Considering he had just put new tires on the car before we moved here, he just took his keys back and off he went. What a rip!

[Mccannable]

Originally Posted by vgiddings001

I make sure my car is maintained at all times. It's small, fuel-efficient, and low mileage. I've had my oil changed at tire choice for quite a while and even bought tires from them. So, when they told me that I needed new struts and shocks, I choked at the price, but believed them. I knew I had to make some kind of adjustment to my budget in order to afford the repairs ($1200+) so I told them I'd be back. I happened to mention these repairs to a family member that evening and was told to get a second opinion. I called the auto dealership and they agreed that these repairs sounded odd. So after taking my car into a different repair shop, only a $350.00 alignment and once over was necessary. Oh, and my shocks and struts were just fine! My car runs better now than when TireChoice was taking care of it!

Hate to rain on your parade but $350 for an alignment? I'm not sure many exotic car owners are paying that much. Assuming it's not a German luxury car it should be less than $100; many places way less.

[Tbear]

Quite frankly, all of these franchise places thrive on doing questionable repairs on unsuspecting customers. I have listened to pitches given to customers while waiting for my oil change in various places throughout the country and always am amazed at what I hear.

I used Tire Choice at Colony to change the oil in my Lexus and they called me and told me I had a leak in my transfer case and needed a $2500 repair. I was told they see this at least once a week on my model car. I was a bit perplexed since there was no sign of a leak on my garage floor.

I told them I had an extended warranty on the car with Lexus and they said ' oh, this type of thing isn't covered by your extended warranty ' ( how would they know ?) and I should let them fix it right away. They said they would disassemble and rebuild it for me ( scary for a tire place to do this ).

I took it to Lexus and in fact they did find an ever so slight beginning of some seepage in one of the seals and replaced the entire transfer case at no charge under warranty. That's because You pay a premium for a Lexus car and they stand behind it. They told me it was cheaper for them to replace it then expend the labor to rebuild it.

I believe that few of these franchises are guilty of outright fraud. I would think that, as in my case, if there is any sign of an impending problem, ever so slight, they probably embellish the issue a bit and convince you the world will end if you don't get it fixed. My opinion is that many of the things they ' find' are either minor and likely not to become major in our lifetime. Quite frankly, if my car wasn't under warranty I would have probably monitored the situation for quite some time to see if it got progressively worse.

I needed new tires for my infinity and researched thoroughly what I wanted. I went to Tire Choice at Colony. I wanted a particular Michelin tire. They tried to sell me everything but the one I wanted saying it wasn't available.

I went to Tire Kingdom down past the Best Buy shopping plaza and had the tires in 3 days....

These places don't make a lot of money changing oil. It's everything else they try to sell you that creates high margin for them so buyer beware!

[shirart]

Maybe they should change their name from TIRE CHOICE to SUCKERS CHOICE. I stopped by there once for inspection of my my golf cart tires and after speaking to the desk clerk and garage mechanic I left in a hurry.... I don't accept sales pitches. I have had my car serviced by Walmart on Wedgewood & 27/441 and also Nahas Chevrolet on 44 and received excellent service from all at a reasonable price. Did have an issue once at Walmart Wedgewood as the mechanic didn't rotate all my tires as he was asked to do with my Prepaid service contract. Luckily I had marked my tires..not sure why I did but glad I did....and brought it to the desk clerks attention and immediately the car was taken back and the job finished. The mechanic came to me and apologized for the error...he said he was interrupted in the process and forgot to double check his work. I accepted his apology and left but did return many times later and had no issues.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I also had a bad experience with the Tire Choice near on La Grande. I won't go into details but I won't go back there again and would recommend that every one stay away.

[mtchl]

I went to Tire Choice at the Wedgewood location.I received a quote for a coolant leak - $1,800 to fix intake hose and other hoses and Thermostat. The car was worth only $1,500. When I told the Tech (Chuck) that he said he knew someone who bought cars like this for $300. What a scam!!!!
I took it to Tire Round-Up on 441. Repaired the only hose that needed to be replaced - $161.64.
Please do not take your car to this Tire Choice location and spread the word. It seems this place has done this to other people in this retirement community.

[tommy steam]

I always take my car to a dealer.

[jerhole1]

I brought golf cart to tire choice they told me needed 4 tires I let them do the job when they were done I looked at the tires and you know how the new tires have all those nubbies like the tire has' nt ever touched the ground, well 2 of them had them but the other two were the original wore tread. The bill had 4 tires charged for. When questioned they said they were sorry. I think they owed me more than that. There is still one tire that does' nt look like the other three. O

[SheilaO]

Glad you all filled us in…I took my golf cart and a new tire to Tire Choice-Colony and they put it on for free…but mentioned when I had time I might need another tire…I thought they were really nice…like I said, glad you filled me in…I won't go back…I feel so cynical about people trying to sell anything!!! It seems the majority just are't always honest…makes me sad!