Here's how all this started. My wife needed one new tire on her Ford Ranger XLT Extended cab (2WD) without delay and the rest of the set of four shortly. The one tire had a nail right where the sidewall joins the tread. The plan was to replace the one tire now and get the rest of the set soon. The vehicle came with nice Goodyear raised white letter tires. So, I sent her to Discount Tire in Poway CA where we live because they sell Goodyear. 1st thing they did was tell her the tires were discountinued. Then they bullchitted her that a set of raised white letter tires would be over $650 (more on that in a moment) They tried to sell her a set of 40k blackwall BF Goodrich for $450 a set. I paid that for a set of Cooper All Terrain white letter tires for my full size Dodge Power Ram here in Maine - - which is what was the catylst for this thread. So anyway, I logged onto Goodyear's website. Not only are the tires that came on our 08 Ranger still being made, they are the OEM recommended tire for the vehicle. Lie #1 from Discount Tire. Goodyear has a rebate program going that the dealer will try to tell you is for on-line orders only Lie #2 from Discount Tire. The selling dealer can download a coupon for you, fill in his dealer section and you mail it in a get $40 per tire or a whopping $160 for a set of four. SO now, the tires my wife needed, tried to buy, should have been easy to obtain but were made unvailable to her by a authorized Goodyear dealer can be bought for $500 for a set of four. These are 50,000 mile tires with a road hazard warranty, all applicable taxes and disposal fees plus mounting and balancing AND available from a tire shop less than 1 mile from our home in Poway. I called them, verified everything I found on Goodyear's website, was given two names, one the guy I spoke with (one of two store managers) plus the other store manager's name. They took down my name, wrote up the order. The guy even downloaded the rebate coupon while he was on the phone to me. Bottom line, is that Discount Tire is a total ripoff business OR, this is just one more example of how auto service businesses try to hose women because the vast majority of women simply are not into this level of detail like guys are. No disrespect intened just the way it is. Sure gets my BP up though. Don't know if this story will save anyone money, but we all know it pays to do your homework.
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