Salamanth

After 17,000 miles my stock blowtenzas were shot, so I decided to swap tires. With the 8 being my daily driver and living in MD, I needed all season rubber (unfortunately). After reading some reviews and checking my bank account balance I decided the Yokohama Avid W4Ss were about right for the price and my local Mr. Tire was offering a buy-3-get-1-free deal for me after I asked them if they could beat the Tire Rack price. FYI their price included an alignment CHECK (keep this in mind, it gets important later), valve stems, disposal, balancing and mounting.

I bit the bullet and they had them ready to go on my rims after a weeks time of ordering from their warehouse. I stood outside of the bay and watched them, not trusting them to take good care of my baby. Glad I did .

Snafu #1:

The technician installing the tire started cussing up a storm over near the mounting machine. I poked my head up and asked what was wrong... apparently he managed to break one of my TPMS sensors . Not a huge deal for me as his manager immediately showed up and said they'd replace it for free.

Snafu #2:

After mounting and balancing the wheels, they moved the car to the alignment bay. The tech managed to stall my baby 4x while moving it. Again, not a huge worry for me, but it was painful to watch. I had explicitly stated that I did NOT want an alignment, as I planned on taking it to a nearby performance shop that just got a new alignment machine and getting something a little more performance minded.

They got it on the lift, mounted the reflectors and one of the techs said "Oh, your front toe is out, let me fix it." and before I could say a word he was under my car. Took him all of 20 seconds. Amazingly, my alignment was within spec other than that slight adjustment.

I went inside, fairly satisfied, and started the checkout process. At this point I stupidly handed my debit card to the manager and he swiped it. After he printed the receipt, I noticed it was not for the original price I had been quoted but rather for $90 more. I immediately questioned him why this was and he responded I had received an "alignment". I told him I watched and at no point was anything done, he told me that the 20 second un-requested (and in fact, it was requested that I NOT receive an alignment) was considered an alignment.

After I calmly explained I would certainly not be paying $90 for a 20 second unrequested adjustment, he performed a charge back on my card... then he ran my card again and overdrafted my bank account resulting in an overdraft fee and a negative balance because the charge back did not take effect yet .

Long story short, it's been a week and I've cleared up the issues with my bank and had my overdraft fee refunded. Mr. Tire still hasn't gotten my TPMS sensor in despite my repeated calls to find out what the hangup is. During a call today I was told it was on order and they were waiting for delivery.

Admittedly, they've been fairly pleasant to deal with, however I'm not 100% thrilled.

If anyone is wondering, this is the Mr. Tire at Warren and York Rd in Timonium MD. I can't complain too much, but keep this stuff in mind if you want tires.

Tire Review

As far as the tires, I'm fairly happy with them. Definitely less traction than the stockies. The back end kicks out more easily under aggressive acceleration while turning in first, however they feel like they have plenty of grip while cornering. They are smoother on the road with less road noise and have better wet performance. All in all I am satisfied with them, but I really feel a burning desire for new rims and ultra-high performance summer rubber this spring!

Sorry for the rambling, if you made it this far, thanks for reading.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

damn, that sounds like quite an ordeal! Where'd they order the TPMS from?

blackenedwings

Ugh to the OP. I totally understand your pain, I went through a remarkably similar situation with the Mr. Tire on Dobbin Road in Columbia, MD. They charged me a ton of "fees" and inflated my new Falken's to 48 psi... The bursting pressure on the tires is 51? So one of the seals busted and I started losing air. First it drained slowly and 3 days after the install (because I foolishly didn't check the pressure they set them at) the pressure monitor went off. I refilled and went about my business. Eventually the car wasn't holding air for more than 20 minutes and I had it at the Mr. Tire and they basically said "eh, we are full on tire repairs, you should take it to another location."

Thankfully there was a Mr. Tire down the street from them that not only took the car, they moved me in immediately, were huge fans of the Rx8 and did the repair for free, called up the other shop and yelled at them, then I took the manager for a ride in my 8 for payment. Guess which branch will be getting my money from now on?

Conundrum

iTrader: (1)

man... sorry to hear about the troubles you had... now I am afraid of getting tires installed with TPMS, for the RX-8 at least, before I didn't care with my other cars as they do not have TPMS.

Salamanth

They ordered the replacement from a mazda dealer about 5 blocks down the road. I don't know why the *bleep* they couldn't send someone down to pick it up.

Finally replaced it today, free of charge. This time I had a much more knowledgeable tech.

Glad that is all over

Salamanth

Just thought I'd update everyone, I'm up to 32,000 miles now and I've rotated the tires once...

My initial comment concerning less grip than the stock tires has turned out to be false, they are at least as grippy if not slightly more so. Their wet performance is loads better as well.

They aren't great for any sort of very spirited driving, wouldn't recommend them for auto-x for instance, but for throwing it through turns they handle everything I can put them through with a minimum of complaint.

I'm VERY happy with these tires and would definitely get another set.

(Though I still want super sticky summer rubber and new wheels! )