Colony TireChoice - GET A SECOND OPINION!!!
 

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!

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: https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...-colony-93999/

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

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.

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 !!

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.

You dodged a bullet
 

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?

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I always take my car to a dealer.

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

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!

Personally I would only buy tires at a tire store. It sounds like there is a lot of fraud going on around the Villages when I comes to tires and auto repair in general. If you get these needed repairs in writing you can then contact the State to investigate assuming they are bogus. When I called around for new tires for my Corvette the prices that I was quoted were all over the charts for the exact same tire. I will be going to Orlando to make my purchase.

Unfortunately, we are soon going to need two sets of tires at the same time. Please let us know where you go in Orlando.

Best place to start any tire search is "Tirerack". Site is easy to understand and their prices are reasonable and they will ship to a local repair facility who will put the tires on for the price stated on their site. No need to go to Orlando.

http://www.tirerack.com/

I need someone we can trust to tell us what's a good tire and what's not. We put a set of tires on our old Audi before giving it to our daughter-in-law. They came highly recommended by Bell's Tire in Michigan. After 30,000 miles, the car started wobbling. Thinking there was something wrong with the car itself, our son took the car to his mechanic, who said the tires were coming apart from underneath the tread. He asked how far he had to drive to get home, don't go over 30 mph, and replace the tires immediately.

They weren't particularly cheap tires, either.

I had a flat yesterday so we decided to put on a new set of tires since we have a big trip next month. Hubby stopped at Colony Tire Choice and they quoted him $1200 for the same tires we currently have. Because we had heard bad comments on this Tire Choice, he called the one on Wedgewood Lane and their quote for the same tires was $750! Shameful! Going to Wildwood Tires for $740 and trustworthy service.

While back in Maine working my wife took our vehicle to a local Tire Choice with a drywall screw in one of our tires. I told her to let them change oil as there is not much profit in patching a tire. I shouldn't have worried. She was told tire could not be plugged and she would need to replace it. Not knowing enough to be comfortable challenging the opinion she had all four tires replaced, along with a 110.00 alignment, 70.00 road hazard warrenty, the 80.00 balance and valve service, and the most expensive oil change I've paid for in my 62 years. My Maine concern for their profit was misplaced. Back home I would be very comfortable leaving my auto servive person a signed blank check to fill out himself. Toto we are not in Maine any longer.

I agree to be "careful". This company has a reputation for high pricing and poor service.
They are approved by the Developer to be in the Villages and know they have us in a lock due to minimal if any competition. If you can find it elsewhere you might save yourself problems. Doubt if this Tire Choice dealer could survive in an "open market" where they have to compete.

So, the developer vets businesses to be sure they meet some criteria before they can have commercial space? You don't think the department that handles commercial property just finds a tenant and that's it? And Villagers cannot use any other tire/service entity so Tire Choice won't have to compete? Really? I agree this company had a reputation for inflating repairs. But it's the developer's fault for leasing to them and giving them a captive market?

approved by the Developer
 

Will I have to be "approved by the Developer" when I move to TV.
Is there a exam I have to take.
Can someone tell me how this works.
:D

Where is a good reputable place to take the vehicles? I agree about Tire Choice. Be very careful of them.