I heard Townfair Tires pricematch tires from the web, so I went online and found out they also throw in the installation and alignment of the front wheels and a warrentee on top of that for free. Pretty sweet.

So I went and talked to them today and they said they will only install the tire onto the rims and would only re-align the front wheels after I install the wheels onto the car myself. Which is pretty strange, so I didn't even wanted ask if they would align the wheels of a lowered car.

So do you think they would? And would the warrentee of the tires be affected if I have a lowered car?

BTW: I heard from a couple of people that Townfair scruff a lot rims during the installation alot? Is this true? Should I just forget about the whole thing and just buy the tires online and bring it to Firestone or something? The tires and rims isn't big or anything (225/40/18 and 18X8.5) but I just want it done right.

TIA.

 

Whomeva you talked to must of been new or a complete idiot.
Townfair Tire to my knowledge installs the tires, mounts 'em, balance's them, does a front end alignment, does free winter change over all in the same package if you buy the tires from them (regardless of price matching!). Oh and you get free rotation every 5k to boot.

Yes they do scuff up tires, I made the mistake of assuming they'd use a padded maching for my dark chromes.. umm.. nope I had a small scuff afterwards on two of the tires. The other two where fine and I chaulked the other two to sheer stupidity oh the techs. Which store did you go to? I've been to two so far the one in Pawtucket recently for my change over (pretty busy store 2.5 hours for a tire/alignment/balance job), and the one in Dedham, MA. I recommend them to everyone soley because of the price match and they are overall the cheapest in town regardless of Pep Boy's Buy 3 get 1 free specials.

 

I went to the one in Quincy. Seems to be a lot of unwritten rules because they outright refused to install my brother's Volk rims because it was brand new last month. Is the one in Dedham any good? And is there any way of avoiding the scuffing? I really really don't want it scuffed because I spent so much for it (well, so much for me anyways lol).

 

i had a good experience with them

https://www.rx8club.com/ne-rx-8-forum-29/great-tire-shop-town-fair-tire-milford-ct-116659/

 

So will they deal with lowered cars?

 

I exclusivly use TFT for my stuff. Get to know your local guys and they will usually take good care of you. I can get custom alignments, they pad all the rims so they dont scuff them, they even let me go in the garage to watch while they pull my car in (its lowered).

 

Don't go to the chain stores...its almost always a bad idea. As Clavius said they scuffed up his tires/rims on the install.

Talk to a few local car guys, and find a small respectable shop where you can get to know the head mechanic/owner. I would never bring my car to any sort of big commercial entity like that for work. They're just not trustable.

 

Hence why i said to get a good rep with your local store, they get to know you and treat you as if it was a little local shop.

 

They have some pretty f8cking stupid "policies", imo. They also seem to have some idiots working for them who are completely in the dark when it comes to what TFT allows.

After several dealings with them I ended up talking with a store manager who almost flipped his **** when he heard my story. Basically, a dumass at one store told me to get my WinterSport's through Tirerack b/c of the price. I ended up buying through TownFair at a matched price w/install and alignment thrown in, too.

There's more to it, but basically said manager was also pretty ticked off w/his guys b/c they told me they would NOT do an alignment on my car.

Here's the deal: They will do an alignment on any car. Period. They will do all that free change over, rotations, etc. as long as you buy EVERYTHING through them. However, they can get just about any rims - also pricematched - so it's a pretty good deal. They may very well install a tire backwards, scratch your rims, or do something else really stupid. That's the "giant chain store" aspect, deal with it (but do a good job looking everything over b4 leaving.)

They will NOT, however, install tires onto aftermarket rims that were not purchased through TFT. So if you have rims they won't do **** for you. Pretty stupid, imo. I think they figure it's a liability of some sort, but it makes no sense to me. Basically, w/non-stock wheels the Mgr at the one near me told me I could order the tires and they would mount & balance, but would not install them on the car. I laughed.

*they do seem to have some good people. But it seems to be hit or miss. Same as anywhere else in life, I reckon.

 

Darn.

These were the answers I hoped to avoid.

What if they do scratch your rims? What happens then?

 

you get pissed, try to have them pay, they dont and your stuck with a scratched rim?

 

same thing that happens at any big or small shop. not much of anything i would guess.

 

I just came back from the shop. There's a couple of other fees I guess I didn't know about.

Mounting- Free
Warrentee- Free
Alignment Front- Free
Alignment Rear- $49
Balance- $13 per tire
Valve Stems- $3 per tire

I'm going with the 225/40/18 Nitto NeoGen ZR for $116 Pricematched from discount tire.

So that Equals:
116(4)+13(4)+3(4)+49+tax= $551.2 total.

What do you guys think?

 

thats a good price

 

The $3 stem fee is pretty standard, and most places charge 19-22 bucks per tire for mounting and balancing plus another 10 each for install (sometimes more) - so that seems like a good price. And when you factor in the free winter swaps and rotations it's a good deal. Though rotations seem completely unecessary since right about the time you're due it's usually time to swap anyway.