to be suspicious of this garage?

[secretofcrickleyhall]

Have taken my car to a chain of garages for a few years now, for its MOT and also for tyres and when it broke down last spring.

Every time it has been in the last eighteen months, I am told at least three out of four tyres are dangerously low and need replacing urgently or I could get points on my licence and a fine. I have always done so until this week. My car needed a new tyre, I left it with them and went to work. Sure enough, the phone call came "it's bad news I am afraid."

The thing is that my car has a death sentence and a shiny new one will be mine on March 22. So I explained this to them and asked them just to fit the flat one. Ominous silence, and dure warnings followed which was pretty annoying as I was busy at work.

I then had it again when I picked the car up.

AIBU to think a car shouldn't need three new tyres three times a year ... ? Seems odd.

Yanbu. It shouldn't need that many tyres unless you do a ton of miles or the tracking is majorly out and is ruining the tyres

Yes sounds dodgy, have you looked at the tyres? It's quite easy to see if the tread is getting low, especially if you turn steering wheel so tyres are at an angle?

Thanks, it does seem really, really weird. It is just that it has been to different branches of this garage andevery time they insist the tyres are at death's door ... they use the same turn of phrase as well, which does make me wonder

Is it kwikfit?

Exactly how many tyres have you had replaced in the last 18 months?

as soon as i see three times a year all i could picture was op getting pissed off on the m25 and deciding to rally it through the fields. yanbu sounds like they are stitching you up

shutup yes, it is!

Cozie, it had 2 new ones in August 2011, then 3 new ones when it had its MOT in March 2012. Then I had a flat over the summer and took it in and they insisted it needed 3 new ones, which I went along with. Then just recently they insisted again it needed another 3. That'snot normal, is it!?

It's been the same garage but different branches every time!

Had this at every branch of Kwikfit I've ever been into. .. that and things need fixing after they've had the car that were perfectly fine before

Have heard of this before, I would go elsewhere if I was you

Do they have form for it then? I'm pretty pissed off to be honest at the lengthy reproof I had the other day, both when they rang me up and when I collected the car. I have a 20 minute commute to work for less than a fortnight, no way was I going to be forking out hundreds for a car I won't have for long.

I am lucky enough to have a trustworthy local independent mechanic who mends my car when it packs up, gets it through its MOT etc. He has always maintained that Kwikfit are dodgy, and rip people off. They are renowned for it in the trade apparently.

My friend was stopped by a police officer a while ago for some reason or another. He checked her tyres and told her one of her tyres was illegal and needed replacing. She duly took it to her local Kwikfit who informed her that all 4 of her tyres needed replacing as they were all illegal. Apparently the Kwikfit mechanics face was a picture when she explained that the Police Officer didn't think so the day before!

www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/legal-advice/tyres.html

Fit for purpose means that a tyre must:
be compatible with the types of tyres fitted to the other wheels
not have any lump, bulge or tear caused by separation or partial failure of the structure.
not have a cut or tear in excess of 25mm or 10% of the sectional width of the tyre, whichever is the greater, and which is deep enough to reach the ply or cord.
^not have any part of the ply or cord exposed.

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Tread depth
Passenger vehicles (other than motorcycles) for not more than 8 seated passengers - At least 1.6mm throughout a continuous band in the centre 3/4 of the tread and around the entire circumference

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Should be easy to tell by yourself.

I'd go to Trading Standards and email Watchdog for that.

Coconutty god that's awful of them to put a guilt trip on you for the kids! Glad you got it sorted! You too myliferocks

I've noticed now with 3 different Kiwk Fit garages they use exactly the same turn of phrase when they ring you up - "Bad news I'm afraid."

I reckon I'll be going somewhere else in future

Kwikfit for me has been fine. We have had all needing replacing, but we knew that before due to the suspension going very suddenly and with much rubber smell!
Last time I went in the very young mechanic not only remembered that my car (fairly ordinary) had had 2 tyres replaced the last time, but also which ones they were, what type we'd replaced them with, and that it had ben 15 months the last time we''d been in.

He also looked and said that we only needed one replacing. Apparently our wheels were out of alinement, which wears the tyres down quicker.

Apparently potholes and going over speedbumps (if you go over with the wheels either side) increase the wear on the tyres.

Don't tyres come with an amount of miles they can do before they will need to be replaced? I get told they should last for x amount of miles last time it was 15k on either front or back can't remember and £20k on the other set (f/b)

Sorry 20k miles

That's why I'm interested in the number. The OP likely has them coming or going - either they were replacing unnecessarily or they were selling sub standard tyres. (Assuming the OP doesn't go off roading or drive long distances badly and at speed.) It could be fun if she's up for a fight.

I bought a secondhand car and took it into quick fit after a month as the exhaust had a hole. After a bit the garage phoned to say that it was needing a new catalic(sp?) I phoned them back to tell them to keep the exhaust as It had had a service from the garage. The guy told me they'd cut the exhaust already but I said I still wanted it. 10 mins later I got another phone call to say they were wrong and it didn't need a catalict and they hadn't cut it.

I actually reported them.

I don't know much about it but isn't there a little knobbly bit somewhere inside the groove of the tyre so you can feel if the tread is level with it they need replacing but if the tread sticks out further than it it's ok? I'm sure I was taught this for my driving test. Otherwise I dreamt it.