I feel I have to recommend the tyre fitter at "We R Tyres" here in Sunderland for his attitude and prices. I have no interest in this business other than being a loyal customer.
This well-mannered chap has charged me only £5 per tyre to fit, balance, dispose of old tyres, etc. tyres that I had delivered from MyTyres. He did the job well, no scratches on my alloys and the wheel bolts tightened with a torque wrench.
At the time I enquired about puncture repairs. A well-known tyre fitting chain who are not slow charge around £17 for this service, enough to buy a new budget tyre for some cars. My fitter quoted £7. Well, I had been tempting fate as only 3 days later my daughter had a nail in her tyre. I took it to be fixed. "How much did I quote?", the fitter asked, "£7.50?". I said no, it had been £7. "Oh well, £5, please", he said.
The loneliness bit. Well, he works on his own in the corner of the premises of a large coachbuilders and I asked if he found it lonely, he replied that he did. I think treating him with respect and as a human being has paid off for me here. I only hope that his "off the cuff" pricing policy that I have highlighted does not cause him problems with his employer.
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do you have contact details for him doctorchris? I need a couple of self-supplied RFTs fitted shortly, don't live too far from Sunderland, and he seems the ideal chap.
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think I just found him at yell.com doctorchris, I take it this is him? 'Unit 4, Leechmere East Industrial Estate'
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That's the place. Part of Clarks Coachbuilders.
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doctorchris,
Care to pass onto the relevant person so that it's included in HJ's good garage guide?
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=56741
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Thanks for the tip, looks like i'll be ordering Hankooks after all!
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Does he ever come darn Sarf?
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I think treating him with respect and as a human being has paid off for me here.
Well, it certainly beats the, "I say, you lackey, I'm terribly important so perform this menial task immediately" approach :-)
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Nice report and sounds like a great chap to know.
However, there is no way a stand alone business could survive charging those sort of prices if it had to pay normal overheads. It is only possible as it is part of a larger workshop and the management don't realise that the bloke is probably losing money for them hand over fist.
eg. Puncture @ £5 is a 15-20 minute job plus the cost of materials (valve, balance weights, tyre bead sealer & patch). A fiver would hardly cover the bloke's time.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
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not necessarily
the economics dont work like that
some stuff can be done as a "loss leader" to build up good will and get folk to like the business, same pricing strategy as baked beans in the supermarket
same reason an oil change can and is regularly done below cost to get the punters through the door and try and upsell them something else or at least build a good relationship with the likely local customers
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There is a lot of good service out there, we forget that sometimes...
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It sounds like the chap is making a bit of tax free pocket money. I don't blame him neither, but word of mouth and cash probably suits him better than being included in a checkable 'good garage guide'. Or did you get a VAT receipt
Edited by none on 23/10/2007 at 20:38
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All done legitimately through the computer and a proper printed receipt issued.
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If like drbe you're looking for a friendly, genuine tyre business 'darn sarf', I'd warmly recommend Tyranis Tyres of Reading Road, Woodley, Berks. I had an experience there with SWMBO's Mini that I haven't had for over 20 years - they actually mended a puncture. They also supply new tyres - when you really tnned them - at very competitive prices. As I've said before, family businesses are almost invariably the best for the customer.
Otherwise there's the better-known Micheldever Tyres in Hampshire, in the village of the same name. They usually undercut the likes of Slow-fit.
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I've used him before without complaint and one of my neighbours highly recommends him too.
I think that it's quite a clever setup actually, here you have a coachbuilders that obviously has cause to fit a lot of tyres to damaged cars (it's quite a big operation), so, rather than keeping their tyre fitter to themselves they fit out a small corner of the building and setup a small operation that is open to the public offering good prices, it probably just has to cover the cost of the wages plus a little bit more besides. I'm sure they aren't doing it at a loss, they've been there for at least 3 years that I know of!
On the same industrial estate I can also recommend Val-It-All, I've always been fairly pleased with their efforts and their prices are reasonable, Clarks seem to send all their work round there for the valet rather than paying their own valeters.
Blue
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Otherwise there's the better-known Micheldever Tyres in Hampshire in the village of the same name.
They have supplied and fitted every tyre any of our cars or motorbikes have needed for about 5 years now. Never had any reason to complain. Friendly staff, cracking prices, and I have never seen them use an air-gun to tighten the wheelnuts. Unlike a not slow lot mentioned earlier. Their tracking set-up is good as well, with a full comprehensive printout with figures for before, after, and factory spec. The Mondeo felt 50,000 miles younger when they'd finished with it.
Cheers
DP
--
04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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I've used We-R-Tyres before and been quite happy with them, one of my neighbours also recommends them.
I think it's quite a clever move on the part of Clarks, they need their own tyre fitter anyway, so why not open up a small corner of the building to the public and get him to rake in a small profit when he's not working on damaged vehicles.
I can recommend Clarks Coachbuilders as well by the way, they did a very good job on my MK6 Fiesta.
Blue
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i used to like "custom cars" in coventry, about 20 years ago they were a great bodyshop, been where they were more recently and theyve built a bypass straight through where the premises were, wonder where they went
they did some really great work, making the car better than the original after their bodywork repairs
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So the clarks coachbuilders don't sell their own tyres? They just fit online purchased tyres?
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No, Clarks will supply and fit tyres but I wanted all-season tyres marked M+S for my Panda 4x4 and they could not obtain them, or not at a reasonable price. So, the tyre fitter agreed to fit tyres that I ordered via the internet from MyTyres at the very reasonable price of £5 per tyre.
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Oh, and Clarks are also recognised fitters for Blackcircles, another on-line tyre supplier.
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And to all the people looking for Micheldever tyres in Micheldever. It isn't . It is in a seperate village called Micheldever Station which is two miles up the road back towards the A303. And yes I do get fed up telling people that when they stop for directions !!!
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