Experience with Mr. Tire?

[Hokiefyd]

They just bought out a local Michelin dealer and it's now a Mr. Tire. They look to have decent prices on their website, and offer a "total" installed price, but don't seem to offer lifetime balancing or road hazard protection through the retailer. Does anyone have experience with this retailer?

http://www.mrtire.com/

 

[Tdbo]

They are owned by the same company that owns Monro Mufflers. I have dealt with them on and off. Quality fluctuates by store. Probably one of the better chain type stores that do tire/mechanical type of work. Much better than the NTB/Tire Kingdom/Big O (and whatever other name(s) they use) chain.

 

[javacontour]

I believe they are related to a local chain call Autotire. It's like anything else, the quality of service depends more on the staff of the store than it does the brand on the sign.

Good people deliver good service. Folks who don't care deliver service accordingly.

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: Tdbo
They are owned by the same company that owns Monro Mufflers.


Hmm, in the northeast it's "tire warehouse". Kind of a scattered chain.

 

[Tdbo]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
They are owned by the same company that owns Monro Mufflers.


Hmm, in the northeast it's "tire warehouse". Kind of a scattered chain.


Here in town, it is a Monro. Twenty miles north of me, they have both a Monro and a Mr. Tire on the same road less than a mile from each other. Many times, I have gotten two copies of the same coupon flier, one from Monro, and the other from Mr. Tire.

 

[scurvy]

Used them while living in Baltimore as a 'trusted installer' for some tires from Discount Tire Direct. No issues with the installation except they used their own valve stems and attempted to charge me for them (instead of using the valve stems supplied by DTD).

Fortunately didn't live there long enough to have any issues or attempt to get them to rotate the tires for free. Discount Tire gladly did that for me once we moved back to Illinois for as long as we owned the car.

 

[racer12306]

There is a Mr. Tire 5 minutes from my house that I use. I've found their prices close enough to buying tires from TireRack and having them install that I just buy direct from Mr. Tire. I've used two different locations, both were good.

On my Neon, they told me a tie rod end was going bad but I told them to hold off. Took it to my normal shop and got both tie rod ends done and alignment for much less than Mr. Tire wanted to charge for both. If this is the same of other non-tire related services, it seems their only good prices are on their tires.

Example:
Tires for our T&C, Yokohama AVID Ascend, 225/65/16
TireRack: $436 + $49.38 shipping + $78 install = 563.38
Mr. Tire: $623.96

$60 difference isn't too bad IMO and is worth the local support in the event of a failure. Plus being able to pull up and get a set of tires that day has a benefit.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

I chose them for the tires and alignment for my wife's Corolla late last year. They were nearby, they are a Michelin dealer (I wanted a set of Defenders), the prices were fair and I got a good vibe from the manager. Who knows what goes on in the background but I was happy with what I paid for. I'll go back again when my Impreza needs new tires.

 

[zzyzzx]

They are OK for Tire repairs, but their lack of lifetime tire balancing makes them unusable for anything else.

 

[racer12306]

How often do you really need to balance tires?

I've yet to have the need to re-balance a set of tires.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I've re-balanced every set of tires I've owned at least once. Most of the time, they recommend a re-balance at each rotation, because the balance of a tire can change over time (or you can lose a weight, etc). I don't have it done at rotation time (I do my own rotations), but I do utilize the lifetime balancing feature when I feel a vibration.

 

[racer12306]

That makes sense. Maybe I've been lucky enough to not lose balance on a tire. I tend to just use feel to determine if something is needed for tire balance rather than just doing it.

Is it really worth paying a slight premium when you buy the tires when Mr Tire gets $20 for a rotation and balance? I assume that would be slightly lower if you were to use the lifetime rotations that are included when you buy their tires.

 

[JHZR2]

Ive never had to rebalance a tire. If they are around, Id have a look at Justires. At least the one by us does not do anything but tires and alignments. The nice thing with that is the reality that one can go there, get a good price on tires, have an alignment worked up, and if the car TRULY cannot be aligned because something is seized, they will tell you so and ask you to bring it back repaired. As the name implies, they do just tires, so do not perform suspension work.

Thus no lies...

 

[scurvy]

I've had to rebalance a tire several times. Especially in the bad old days of crimp-on rim weights. Stick-on weights on the wheel inside wall seem to stay on much better in my experience. It's nice having the wheel balance checked at every rotation and as mentioned several times they have had to add or remove small amounts of weight.

Any of the places what do 'free' lifetime balancing & rotation will get my business over ones that don't... I really dislike rotating tires in my small 2-car garage.

 

[zzyzzx]

Originally Posted By: racer12306
How often do you really need to balance tires?


Every time you rotate them.