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Where is the best place to purchase/replace/align tires on a Model 3?
- Thread starter maryginnebaugh
- Start date
It's worth remembering that most national chains are just brand names operated by local franchises, local managers, and local techs. Thus, the quality of the experience will vary from location to location. Get to know yours, and the people who work there.
The smaller the shop and the older the techs, the more likely they are to know what they are doing, and to remember you.
Once you find a local shop that good, patronize them, and spread the work. Or go onto one of the local performance car clubs' web sites or message boards, and find out what shops to they patronize, and go there.
You do NOT need to do an alignment after installing new tires.
Tesla, or any other auto OEM shop, would be the last place I would go for an alignment as much as for tire installation. For the same reasons - they don't do it often enough to get good, and they over-charge through the roof.
HTH,
a
P.S.: I use local Discount Tire and a local in-town independent shop for all of my out-of-warranty suspension related issues that I don't want to work on myself.
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I used Discount Tire and was pleased. Researched tires and the cost of ordering the ones I wanted was right on par with Tire Rack. Plus they have free rotations on tires you bought from them.
Wish they did alignments too cause the local places that will even consider aligning a Tesla are outrageous. I quoted the Service Center at $280 and another chain was $300. After much searching I found a place that would do it for $200. Also had one independent guy refuse to do it cause he said he couldn't get the Tesla service manual and was afraid he'd mess up the car if he aligned it and it didn't have the latest update. I explained to him that the suspension has absolutely nothing to do with the software and he didn't believe me. Amazing.
Wish they did alignments too cause the local places that will even consider aligning a Tesla are outrageous. I quoted the Service Center at $280 and another chain was $300. After much searching I found a place that would do it for $200. Also had one independent guy refuse to do it cause he said he couldn't get the Tesla service manual and was afraid he'd mess up the car if he aligned it and it didn't have the latest update. I explained to him that the suspension has absolutely nothing to do with the software and he didn't believe me. Amazing.
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I've used multi-year alignment packages before and it wasn't really worth it to me then, But this was back when an alignment was $60-80. I think I got a 3 year package for $300 which means you need to have the alignment checked about 4 times to make it worth it. I just never had that many problems with the alignment on any of my previous cars to justify it.
Now that an alignment is north of $200, it might be worth considering if the price is right. My only problem with Firestone is they try to upsell the crap out of you every time you step foot in the door, even more than the average chain store.
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I bought Firestone’s lifetime during their New Year sale and had first alignment with no upsell and excellent work.
6 months later, had to replace control arms and Tesla recommended alignment after suspension service (makes sense) so took it back to Firestone and, again, no upsell with good service and good results.
Pretty much already paid for itself with 2 visits compared to what Tesla would’ve charged. Of course, different centers get different reviews so YMMV.
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I bought lifetime alignments for my BMW 328xi for $300 and have had at least 6 done so far. Definitely worth it. Strongly considering doing that for my M3.
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ODWms
Member
Not trolling by any means. It's more than possible. I've posted here before that I got over 50k on my original 20" PS4s (I want to say it was over 51). I am now at almost 40k on the 2nd set, and have no doubt that they'll go to 50 too. I do mostly drive pretty vanilla but have been know to whomp on it occasionally, even a couple of red light races that I posted about here. I even have read about folks only getting 10-15k which is pretty crazy to me.
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