Firestone Complete Autocare Centers, worth a visit IMO.

Completely dependent on individual location. We had one with an excellent manager and a crew of mechanics that had followed him to the location he was at. They did an excellent job. When the manager moved on, and so did some of the mechanics, things went towards the usual - and we left.
Yeah - ours is not bad - they have the tires on the Lexus and did a set of AT 285’s there before …
But in my small town we don’t go for lifetime alignment but prefer a lifetime alignment specialist 😷
 
I wouldn't expect that.
These businesses are too individualized. They're locally owned and staffed.
Yep, like any other franchise it depends on the ownership and management. Many parts stores are the same way. The Napa closest to me is completely useless, with a bunch of clowns running the counter. The one a few miles further is 100% worth the drive and I'll support them whenever I can.
 
Oh yes. One NAPA (8 miles away) services a bunch of garages and doesn't bother selling bottom rung parts.
Another NAPA was 1,000 feet away in a basement of an old bank and really was just a bunch of fetch and delivery vehicles servicing the garages nearby. The vault was cool to see.
They were good people but there was no good reason to ever call them as the other parts joints had PARTS had delivery cars too.
 
Belle Tire is my local go to. Will match pricing and has a good tire alignment guy that is willing to entertain input. Will sit in my car and add weight to passenger side to match real driving conditions while the alignment is done. Prefer to have the car alignments set up for flat road surface (no camber) and has always resulted in a true steering adjustment with good life on the tires and no uneven wear.

Hoping the guy hasn't moved on, as has been a while since I have visited as replaced both of our daily drivers that came with new tires.
 
unless you pull up in a pavement princess brodozer, Les Schwab won’t give you light of day.

Even in their native Oregon, I passed by a location in Portland - no one was there.
Local Les Schwab has been great by me, Mgr. comes out to greet you and the techs are top notch, take all our cars there and have never been tried to upsell, only hiccup was when my daughter took her KIA Soul in for an alignment for a left side pull and got it back with a slight left pull still, Mgr. told her to bring it back and they got it running straight, hear all this negative talk about Schwab but I this one is one of the good ones. (y)
 
A few years ago we had a company truck in for something simple like tires and they called with a ridiculous estimate. Ball joints, coolant leak, PS flush, I forget what else. Shop was on the way home so I stopped by to verify the needed repairs. They couldn't show me any play in the ball joints, the coolant leak was obviously a spilled soda in the passenger compartment, the other couple of items were BS as well. Tech showing me what was needed told me he wasn't the one that did the inspection and the guy that checked it out went home for the day :rolleyes:
 
My local one broke my TPMS on a flat repair breaking the bead in the wrong spot. When I came in they said "it was just broke, floating around in the tire - never seen anything like it". The TPMS's were like 8 year old but still worked. They wouldn't take responsibility so I haven't been back.

My story on the local mavis is just about as bad.

Luckily discount tire has moved in so have tires covered now.
 
We used to have a good Firestone Dealer here. I bought numerous tire sets from them. Husband was main tech, Wife was book keeper and main counter person. Good folks and I was friends with both. I was also service manager at our local John Deere Dealership. They did all our tire work and did it well.

Then a few years later, Husband took another job. They hired some city slicker service manager from out of town to run the joint. It went downhill from there.

My Daughter at the time was recently divorced and had a Daughter. Struggling to make ends meet. Also had a CNA job and taking classes to get her RN degree in nursing. (which she did) Was driving an old 1991 Buick at the time.

She just took it in for a $35 oil change. They presented her with a $2200 estimate on work that needed done. The car was not worth that much. Trans flush, radiator flush, etc.

She called me for advice. Honey, tell them to do the oil change and get the heck out of there! Never set foot in that joint again.

Too bad, because they used to be honest people and a good place to do business. You might get by screwing people in a city, but in a small town of 5000 people, it will not fly for long.
 
Our local Firestone Store tries to upsell all sorts of goodies. Women are there usual victims. The lifetime balance and alignment deals are to rope in unsuspecting marks.
I tell my women friends to call me before they ever go into Firestone/Big O/Jiffy Lube.

Men aren’t immune from swindling either. Especially if you come off not knowing about cars.
 
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