Who Do You Trust ?

Looking at the recent tyre thread ....... who do you trust to change them? My concerns are letting some spotty faced yob at Kwik fit or the like near my cared for alloys .... at the right price .... or being wallet raped at the OPC with care? Anybody tried the high street approach?

I got it done from a local tyre/wheel specialist who does high-end cars everyday and apprec how essential it is to get it right first time for these cars. fraction of the cost of OPC and helps the local business.

http://www.elitedirect.com/ Always go here. They know what they're doing and more often than not they have the cheapest prices as they are such a large seller. A lot of local fitters actually stock off of them! They can do full geo set-ups also and have seated viewing areas so you can see them taking care of your car. Highly recommended if you around the E/London/Essex area. Taran :idea:

'Who do you trust' Not the Welsh.. :twisted:

Which firm is that? They wouldn't happen to be west-ish London?

Where ever you go, stand by and watch them do it, just to make sure nothing goes wrong.

www.etyres.co.uk - good price, careful with alloys etc & they come out to you. Why bother going to K-F or the like.

How about Steve from Simply Tyres or Dave Blackley from Elite Garages ( http://www.elitegarages.co.uk )

If you are anywhere near Brackley use Tyre Warehouse. They are the cheapest for miles and take extreme care with high-end cars... They even invested in a special jig for their wheel balancer for Porsche wheels (uses the stud holes rather than the centres for greater accuracy). They are very careful with alloys and even wash each wheel afterwards to get rid of any black rubber marks. No affiliation by the way - just 10 years of great service on all my cars: I won't take them anywhere else if I can help it. However, I did once get some tyres cheap in Jersey (no VAT), but took it straight to Tyre Warehouse when I got home as I had a bad vibration, and all four were miles out, despite me watching them being balanced in Jersey! Apparently, the Kwik-Fit machines only balance in one plane and don't account fro dynamic balance from side to side... Which is very significant on anything over 200 size width, but not really noticeable on your average 165/175 size tyres.

I've always used Bracknell tyres....when I used to shop around I couldn't find cheaper. I don't bother shopping around anymore... had all 4 tyres (Michelins) for £660 all in a couple of months ago.

I've found Micheldever to be cheaper than Bracknell tyres. Interestingly, a lot of the local BMW main dealerships have contracted Micheldever to do their tyre repairs/replacements, but with a suitable uplift. I suspec that the OPC also contract a local tyre company as well (for example, I am fairly sure that Guildford OPC, when it was AFN, used to use Town and Country tyres in a mobile van!!!). So to answer the original question, I would use a local specialist tyre company everytime and avoid being fleeced by the main dealer and the chains/franchises.

Yep, Silverstone OPC use a mobile van - saw it when I spent a bit of time there recently :wink: Scary thing is I didn't see a balancing machine, but I'm sure there must have been one in the van somewhere (can't believe it was the £20,000 bit of kit that Tyre Warehouse in Brackley use though!) Also, I thought balancers were supposed to bolted to a thick concrete floor? So if you get tyres at Silverstone OPC, they'll call out a man in a van, charge you about double what you would pay for him to come to you, then stick your p&j through their automatic brushwash - lovely :shock: Nearly forgot... he actually dropped a bare alloy off a 997 Turbo while I was there - but I'm sure he told the service manager and offered to pay for any repairs :wink:

Make sure they use plastic heads on their machines so it won't fu@k up your rims (ask me how I know) It may cost them more as the heads wear out more quickly but it will save you in the long run.