Sitting at the Dealership Waiting for Service
August 22, 2007 – 8:31 am by Dan Volkens
Filed under Car Care, Volkswagen GTI
Once again I’m at my favorite dealership in Cincinnati, Century VW, waiting for new rubber to be mounted and a frontend alignment which is desperately needed.
I imagine your first question is, why go to the dealer to get tires mounted and balanced? Experience is telling, and Tekmassa can tell you all about it, that your average tire shop doesn’t do an outstanding job at mounting/balancing new tires on our OEM 17″ wheels. Tek had his shop try to balance them a few times before giving up and heading over to his dealer to have it done right.
Soooo, I figure I’d skip that hassle and go right to the source. And needing an alignment, another thing those shops don’t do very well, prompted me even more to just go to the dealer. Luckily, it turns out that the cost is about average for the mounting/balancing at around $20.00 per tire. Not terrible. The frontend alignment is going to be $66 and some change. Not incredibly bad either.
I’m kicking myself right now though because here I am with time on my hands and I forgot my camera! You should have seen it. Four 225/45-17 tires lined up in the back of my GTI, with the hatch closed and the rear seats only loosened for a little extra room. :D There’s also a new R32 sitting about 20 feet away from me that I could have snapped some shots of. Oh well, sorry guys, maybe next time.
Anywho, hopefully the service goes well and quickly, and I’ll be heading off for the office shortly.
Sitting at the Dealership Waiting for Service
August 22, 2007 – 8:31 am by Dan Volkens
No camera?! Doh! :)
It is tough to sit there and stare at the beautiful new ‘dubs and not do anything. One has to keep himself busy - otherwise he starts envisioning himself in one…
Hmm. I just had the tires on my ‘04 passat replaced. I was sad to see the original continentals declared warn out at only 32K. they still road pretty good, but would probably be dicey through the winter. I asked a reputable tire place their opinion (it was my v-dub dealer who said they were looking kinda sad) and they said I’d be ok over the winter (mainly cause its a 4motion passat), but I’d probably get hit with a usage fee when turning the passat in next summer at the end of the lease.
So rather than wreck my car during the winter, I opted to replace. The new tires are supposed to be pretty good (firestone fuzions) but they don’t ride nearly a nice or quietly as the old conti’s (which I didn’t feel like paying for only a years worth of use on…)
I’ve been trying to make it back to the tire shop to make sure they’re balanced (free for rotate/balance for life at this shop). hopefully they’ll be able to get things straightened out and I won’t need to go to the dealer to get the job done right (on my own dime…)
Yeah, definitely Jason. I think you made a good choice with it. My OEMs had almost 60k on them, so I think I got my use out of them. I just had my first trip with them on coming back to the office, and they are outstanding! I’m very happy. For about a third of the price of my OEMs, they’re more stable, quieter, and ride smoother. Wewt :]
Hmm. that makes me wanna get back to the tire shop asap and get mine checked out. the car has been pretty wobbly (for lack of better term) since the new tires were installed. kinda unstable at highway speeds.
price-wise, dealer wanted $462 (plus labor) for new conti’s. the tire shop charged $397 for the fuzions, installed.
If you’re getting vibration from the tires, definitely get the balance checked out. That’s a pretty good deal. My tires, which are Kumho Ecsta ASX’s, came out to $415.94 shipped with the Road Hazard program from Tirerack, and mounting/balancing at Century ran $85.20. The alignment cost $66.71.
I was just glad I was able to fit this on my one CC card I use, and was able to do some side work to cover most of it! I really needed that as some house expenses are coming up. :D