After spending the past week or so dealing with a car that a) even in 2nd gear has issues getting moving when there is even a hint of moisture on the road, and b) generally has the handling characteristics of a brick, I decided to pull out the ‘ol credit card to replace the bald tires on the Accent.

After repeatedly being dicked around or otherwise screwed with at the Troy Discount Tire location over the past few years, I decided to check out the Discount Tire in Center Line after Christa got tires there 2 weeks ago and was generally pleased with her experience.

I had done the research up front on what tires I wanted. I was all prepared with a backup set of tires on the off chance the ones I wanted were out of stock. I had also perused some of the cheap tires that got horrible reviews just so I could know to avoid them if they tried to sell me a set of those instead. Well as you can probably imagine, the 2 different sets of tires I was prepared to buy were not in stock. Super. So what do they have _IN_ stock that would be a decent all-season? Something I’ve never heard of and don’t remember seeing on the review website. Instead of walking out and trying another store for the tires I wanted I made the mistake of falling for their bait and switch.

What a sucker I am.

So almost 2 hours later (after a 40-45 minute estimated wait time) I was out with the new tires. Not just tires that got a few poor reviews online, but tires that got HORRIBLE reviews across the board online. All-season? They don’t even say that on the tire description. As a matter of fact, many of the reviews said not to purchase these tires if you are in a rainy/wintery climate as they have very poor handling in these conditions.

Awsome, and the Discount Tire return policy?

If you are not pleased with the merchandise that you receive, or you have simply changed your mind, we will provide you with a refund within 30 days of the date of purchase.
…
Tires must not be driven on (used).

Well that works out well, since, well you know, I had to drive off the lot of Discount Tire to get home to read the reviews to get all worked up and pissed off.

The only lining to this story is that I don’t think I want to own this car for more than a year, so maybe the 15-20,000 miles most people were able to get out of these tires will get me through until the time I dump this car.

So the moral of the story? NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM DISCOUNT TIRE AGAIN. This time I’m going to stick with that.

I wish I could do this with their tires right now: