Buying tires and having a heck of a time
 

So Michelin is running their Memorial Day rebate and I'm looking to buy some tires. I thought I'd check the dealer as often people say you can get some better deals through the dealer on batteries and even tires. Well my local Honda after much running around between the main location and their satellite service center, apparently they state the do not have the equipment to change out the low profile tires that come on a stock S2000. I was stunned. I had called and spoke to a service advisor, made a Saturday appt and she was ordering the tires for me. I called the satellite location as I had talked with them a month ago about prices and that guy was gone. The new guy who actually has the knowledge of what they have at both locations and brought to my attention said he recommended going to my Acura dealer in their family network as they work on low profile tires and when I called them apparently they don't have the ability to do it either. This is insane that a Honda dealer who sold S2000's for a decade doesn't have the ability to change tires on one. In fact the Toyota dealer I bought the car from installed 2 new rear tires on it before I bought it. I had hoped taking it to Honda would be taken care of a little bit more gently than some local tire place.

Moved to the right Forum....
There is a local shop that works only on Hondas, Acuras and now Toyotas. I've used them before but they're way on the other side of town so not as convenient to get over there and back and not open on the weekend. I called them and they quoted $132 more than Honda quoted me at first (before it was realized they couldn't actually mount the tires). The guy was getting a little fired up when I mentioned the price difference and he was spouting off the number of years experience of their mechanics and avg age at Honda was in their 20's etc and no way were they charging only $20 per tire for mounting and balancing (well they were, that was what was quoted to me).

So now my question is where do you guys go to buy/install your tires? We have a discount tire but just nervous about bringing my car somewhere that always felt like the McDonald's of tire shops. We have a local chain here that I always take my cars to for tires but not sure I want to take my S there. Interested in your opinions. Thanks

I order from tire rack, and use their mobile service. The work happens in your driveway. You can watch every move. No hiding novice worker screwups in service bay.

It seems they only let proven workers alone in truck. Truck well equipped. Kinda hilarious a mobile truck better equipped than dealership.

Honestly, I would bever take a car I care about to any dealership. Worth it to me to pay more elsewhere, but elsewhere usually cheaper to boot (even if not true in this case).

If a tire place, especially a well known chain, damages your wheels, they'll pay for them to be fixed. Helps of you have beofre pics of wheel from when you dropped off car.

If a dealership damages your car, they'll fight you tooth and nail every step of the way. Their goal will be to get you to pay more for their screw up.

Sounds amazing. Ballpark, How much is it for them to come out and install?

Tire Rack has a website, you could even call and get a quote if prices aren't listed on the website.

Right, I’m familiar with Tire rack, didn’t know they can come to your site to install so wondering if you had a general idea. I’ll check it out thanks.

I recall it was competitive with install cost at local Firestone. Actually slightly less.

I was skeptical, but end result exceeded expectations.

I believe its actually a third party that TR has contract with. So not literally TR employee. But its their main source of biz, so going to always make sure TR cust happy.

I tried it out on their site. Looks like (at least in my area) they contract with several tire shops around town including Jiffy Lube (!). I see Discount Tire (Installation Total Costs:$ 98.00) and NTB (Installation Total Costs:$71.92) both on here so might call both of them to feel them out for putting on low profile tires. I'm still stunned that Honda and Acura both said they don't have the equipment and don't understand that. The woman I spoke with at Honda said they didn't even have a lift to put my S2k on which was bogus because I told her I've seen my car on the lift in their service center when I had it there to have my clutch fluid changed. She then said they don't have the equipment to work on the low profile tires.

Anyway, I like this mobile option since I work from home and can just schedule them to come by and take care of it in my driveway for a reasonable cost (assuming that THEY can change out a low profile tire) :P

Dealer is being an ass. Discount should be fine, the local one here changed the tires on my brothers corvette without issue a month ago, those are larger and certainly as low a profile as our tires.

I may have to go with DT. I misread TireRack's website and looked like they had all these shops that did mobile install but after looking further, they are locally contracted to install but at their own location. There is a different icon for any that offer mobile on site installation and there are zero in my area.

Looks like I'll have to check out Discount Tire or maybe one of the local tire shops that I would typically go to. As for the dealer, yeah more like incompetence. I actually ordered tires and scheduled a Sat appt with the service girl - it was just matter of luck calling their satellite service center to talk with the previous guy I had talked to who had since been let go. The replacement really knew his stuff and the fact they didn't have the ability to work on low profile tires. I didn't realize putting tires on this would be such an issue. I may be overreacting, I just don't want anyone to hack up my wheels or scratch the car.

You aren't over reacting in my view, I always sweat when it's time for tires on the S and worry about my wheels. Another option but will probably cost more, is calling a Porsche dealer, they definitely can handle low profile tires.