Tire Change: Dealer vs other tire shops

[nlortizdpm]

Looking for advice: would you recommend changing your car's tires only at the dealership's shop versus an outside commercial tire shop? Many thanks!

[rbpeirce]

Depends on whether you can trust your outside shop or not. I get all my non-warranty work done at a local shop I've used for over 50 years.

[blueline]

I would add to the comment from 'rbpeirce' that other factors to consider might be whether or not your car is still under factory wty and what kind of relationship you have with the tech side of the dealership. Weigh those against the personnel at the commercial tire shop. Of course price comes into play too but many dealers will gladly try to match discounters tire prices if you ask. (The same wholesalers are often where they get their tires anyway.)

Another thought is that the Porsche dealer will go over your car with their Porsche-required complimentary brief inspection. They know Porsches and know what to look for. For tire changes they can check brakes, brake lines, suspension components, wheel bearings, etc. while changing tires.

Personally, for a Porsche I would always use the dealer over a commercial discount tire shop. Tire techs at discount types of shops are typically entry level and often not familiar with specialty or higher end vehicles.

On the other hand, if you have an great independent shop well-versed in Porsche types of vehicles and it's one you trust such as the shop 'rbpeirce' has been using for many years (50!), then I wouldn't hesitate using them for tires.

[Stormy_Monday]

With my previous cars, including a 2006 Boxster S, I ordered tires from Tire Rack and had them installed by a shop. With the Boxster, I still used Tire Rack but used a shop that dealt with high end cars.

My experience with my current GTS 4.0 and still in warranty, A year ago I had a tire going flat a few days before a trip and could not find an N spec tire. The dealer had one and got me in the next day. Tire price was ok but labor was higher. A couple of months ago at the BRBS I blew out the sidewall on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We managed to find tires of the correct size in Lenoir NC. Independent tire store. They did a very good job of getting me in and out.

I don't think the dealer here did any kind of "inspection" of the car other than to make sure they documented anything so I couldn't say they damaged the car.

So my two cents.

[FRUNKenstein]

I use Discount Tire, which now owns Tire Rack. I've bought probably 7 sets of tires from them for various Macans I've owned. I have also used them for my other Porsches, from a 1972 914 to a 2002 996TT X50. Always very happy with their selection, prices and service. They also give me a military discount (retired Navy). One very nice thing about them is that they don't try to upsell you on a bunch of things you don't need (brake bleed, coolant replacement, etc), which can be frustrating with other shops. I think that's mainly because they don't offer those things. They don't even do alignments, which seems like a missed opportunity for them since I normally have one done after a new set of tires. But, they give me a discount coupon for another local shop that does them.

[dr bob]

My too sense --

After too many years and some tub damage during lifting, wheel nuts loose, and frequent overtightening done at common tire stores, I've settled on hauling the wheels-only to tire shops.

Local place I used near Los Angeles balked a little when I added a note to the work order, asking them to not damage the wheels. Tech came to tell me that the wheels already had tool marks in the barrel. I told him I should have been more specific -- please don't do any more damage to the wheels than they already had. The search goes to finding a shop that has a good tire machine, and then getting them to use it. Most Porsche dealers are good for both, seem spendy sometimes, but the first avoided damage easily covers the extra $.