Tire Shop Recommendations

[87325is]

Can anyone recommend a good tire shop in the gaithersburg area? I have had no luck over the years and am out of options. Every place has given me problems in one way or another.

Jared

[1996 328ti]

I used to use Craven for my Mazda. Not sure if they moved or went out of business. For the BMW and Mini I've always gone to Radial in Silver Spring.
There is also Costco.

[87325is]

Looking for something closer then silver spring, but if that is where i have to go so a bone head does not touch my car so be it.

Is it privately owned?

[wolfgang20878]

Radial Tires, contact Paul? re BMW's at 9101 Brookville Rd, Silver Spring, tel. (301) 585-2740. I've gotten 3-4 sets of tires, no problems yet but have had to wait for 2 hours. They're into racing Audi, Porsche, and BMW, so can supply that stuff, too. Can also do on-wheel balancing, solved a problem I had with a past Audi.

[1996 328ti]

Looking for something closer then silver spring, but if that is where i have to go so a bone head does not touch my car so be it.

Is it privately owned?

Craven was privately owned. Just don't know if they are still around.

[OwnedbyDuncan]

Craven is still around at least in VA. A step up from Merchant's or Bj's.

Have been buying tires from Radial Tire and Paul for over 16 years now and never had a problem. If you go on a Saturday morning you need to get there approx a hour before they open. They are busy. I drive from Clifton to Silver Spring and if I have to take half a day off from work to go to Radial Tire. Only shop in the area that offers on the car balancing. And if you really wnat to have a good time go looking for used rims with Sam in the back warehouse.

I usually plan on it taking me 4hrs from my house to Radial and back to get tires.

Last march when I was there mounting and balancing was $10 a tire. Beats some Tire Racks approved shops that are charging $30 to $40 a wheel.

Dave Apker and the collies

[SharkD]

Dan Martin does have a mounting and balancing machine in his shop in Gaithersburg, although he might have a dedicated tire shop that he'd recommend.

http://www.dvsmith.net/bmw/dc_service_shops.html

Personally, after my first time at Radial, I'd never use them again. I needed to purchase Toyo RA-1's for the soon-to-be race car & they're the only shop in the area that A) sells Toyo race tires and B) shaves tires.

• They quoted me a significantly lower price on the phone.
• Paul repeatedly ignored me in the waiting room after a couple of employees had pointed-out that I needed to ask him about shaving my race tires (it was supposed to rain and I was curious about the wet performance of brand-new shaved RA-1s and the dry performance of full-tread RA-1s); he never spoke to me, but had more than enough time to pal around with "regulars"
• The guys in the shop forgot about my job, because the wheels were not attached to a car
• They discarded the tires that they were unmounting, despite the fact that I had explicitly stated to both the counter rep and the guy who wheeled my wheels into the shop that I wanted them back (and it was written on my sales order)
• They (apparently) repeatedly mis-balanced the wheels
• They unceremoniously dumped my wheels with the new tires on the concrete of the shop floor (right before my eyes) and offered absolutely no assistance in taking my wheels back outside (mind you, they brought out a hand truck and did most of the heavy lifting when I arrived, but at this point, I'd already paid, so I no longer mattered)
• One of the employees' girlfriend/fiancée/wife double-parked behind me, stormed inside to have a fight with him in spanish in the customer lounge and then proceeded to cuss me out in Spanish after I asked her to move her toyota so I could at least load my trunk, and finally
• I waited for almost 5 hours, starting at 9:30am, on a Wednesday (mind you, 10-15 other customers arrived and left after having their tires swapped, alignments done, brakes replaced, etc all in the time it took for them to unmount 4 tires and mount 4 tires -- no shaving)

Your mileage may vary, but they lost a customer in me that day. (And I'm more than willing to tell people about it.)

[87325is]

Wow. I thought i had it bad but you may have me.

At least your tires hold air and you did not have go back three times... and have your pregnant wife who did not have another ride home sign something which said old rims (94) may need to replace and may be the cause of the air leak! o and they only mentioned the old rims after the third time.


I will have to see who dan recomends. I have only been to him once but thought he was on the level.




Dan what break pad did you end up trying on the e30?

[SharkD]

Dan what break pad did you end up trying on the e30?

Blues right now... HT-10s when they finally ship.

[AlfaEric]

Dan Martin does have a mounting and balancing machine in his shop in Gaithersburg, although he might have a dedicated tire shop that he'd recommend.

http://www.dvsmith.net/bmw/dc_service_shops.html

Dan's current equipment can't do all tire sizes. Fortunately, it was fine for my E30. If anyone is considering using him, you might want to double check to verify his equipment can do your tires.

---Eric