A "tired" old scam

Everything I know about car maintenance and repair I learned from my first car, an '83 VW Rabbit. It was a solid piece of automobile, complete with metal bumpers, that I overpaid for and constantly had to tweak just to keep it running. There was no fuel injection on that beast, so it's fair to say that aside from the basics, I know nothing about today's engines. And I know less about suspensions.

Not surprisingly, my wife knows very little. More surprisingly is that there are repair shops that didn't learn from all the hidden camera investigations that revealed mechanics attempting to persuade female customers they needed expensive (and completely unnecessary) repairs.

Am I making inaccurate, wild or irresponsible accusations? Judge for yourself after reading the facts.

A short time ago, my wife took one of our cars to a Northeast-based national chain that specializes in tires to get four new ones installed. (Rather than refer to them by name, I'll simply refer to them as Tire Giant to keep the lawyers away.) Through social media, Tire Giant provided us with a discount on the service, so it seemed like a great deal.

Once the car was in Tire Giant's possession, an employee told my wife that the tie rods and boots (among other things) were shot. Unless we spent more than $1,000 to repair them, Tire Giant wouldn't be able to perform an alignment. Nor could they guarantee their work. Being naturally suspicious of repair shops, and wanting to have the problem checked out by our regular garage (friends of the family), she declined the repairs. As you might imagine, the car drove very poorly without that alignment. Especially at high speeds, which, when someone commutes by highway an hour each way to and from work, is not only annoying, but downright dangerous.

Fast forward to our regular shop, where we took the car for an inspection. After performing a thorough examination of the vehicle as they usually do when we bring it in for any service, they not only issued an inspection sticker, but didn't see anything wrong with the items Tire Giant had mentioned. Unfortunately, this garage doesn't do alignments, so we had to find a new shop.

Yesterday, Don Foshay's Discount Tire in Biddeford performed the much-needed alignment - for $39.95. They had no trouble doing this with the supposedly "shot" tie rod et al, nor did they mention that those items needed to be replaced. How odd.

You may disagree, but from where I'm sitting, if one shop wants to perform $1,000+ worth of repairs, shouldn't another? I'd think so. But neither of the two other shops where we took our car did. And one of them was able to perform that "impossible" alignment without those repairs.

No wonder repair shops and mechanics get a bad name. All of this makes me wish I knew more about cars and could perform more work myself. Apparently, it's possible to do your own alignment, but while I love learning new skills, in matters of safety I'll leave that to the professionals.

Unless those professionals work for Tire Giant.