what’s the alignment rate at craigs?
I never said it was the internet that “makes the tire prices”. What I was referring to was an alternate place to get tires which shook up the entire tire business. Please do not tell me about what it costs to run a shop, I know. And I do work for a company that needs to turn a profit to stay in business but when when it boils down to it, mounting and balancing tires is NOT what keeps a shop in business and it is completely ludicrous to even elude that shops (like yours?) need to charge upwards of $50 a tire to mount and balance.
I’ll be the first to tell you, I work for a cell phone company as a tech support coordinator. You cannot tell me that you have never looked at your cell bill and said “what the hell? why do they have to charge so much, this is crap” or something of the sort. I agree that most cell companies don’t have to charge as much as they do but do you know what is costs to build 1, just 1 cell tower? Approximently $3 million. Multiply that by thousands of cell sites and then keeping them maintained not to mention all the employees that work in customer service and sales, tech support, engineering, marketing, etc. So its apples to apples, every business has costs but there is a fine line between doing business honestly and ripping people off.
It is just as I said earlier, shops are losing money on tire sales so they are screwing people who found tires cheaper elsewhere. If shops lower their prices on tires and not nickle and dime you to death for everything, you’d see a lot more people buying locally rather than finding better deals online. To touch on what you said for “book labor”, 2 hours to mount and balance tires is absurd and noone but the dealership actually goes by “book”. I used to go to a great mechanic in Fairport who was probably the most honest mechanic I have ever known and dealt with for years until he retired. He would mount and balance a set of 4 tires in about an hour or less and charged about $60 bucks to do it in which he never even broke a sweat with as many times as I went to him. His shop was always packed b/c he was honest. That is the difference, shops that do great work who are reasonable don’t HAVE to nickle and dime people to stay in business and take advantage of people who don’t know any better. I said right from the start that I didn’t want to know about shops who charge ridiculous prices and have some dumb kids that don’t have a clue what they are doing. So, once again, if you don’t have anything constructive to contribute to this thread, please stay off it. This thread is not about having a flame war and I’m done responding to your posts. If this thread gets any more out of hand, I will most likely just delete it in which the community will lose a great resource.
Jim
When I talked to them yesterday, its about $100 for regular alignment, about $150 for custom set up which honestly, is a great price and a shop that seems to have a ridiculously good reputation and very updated equipment. I will most likely be going there and can report back on this thread about my experience if anyone wants to know. 
Jim
see: http://www.roclife.org/forums/showthread.php?t=90719
there is some new shop, Metrix Motorsports that looks promising.
Yeah so just for people’s future reference.
Mounting / Balancing tires = Arango Automotive in Webster (they are sponsors on rochesterracing.com) they do great work and they do it cheaply without scratching wheels, which is important.
Alignment = Craigs Autometrics
Do they have a road force balancer?
They have some expensive machine I think.
Couldn’t hurt to call?
(585) 216-9391
Ok so I made the appointment with Arango for next friday to have the tires mounted and balanced. Talked to Mark who sounded like a real stand up guy. He quoted me $65 to $75 to mount/balance all 4. And just made the appointment with Craig Autometrics for the alignment next friday as well after the tire mount/balance. $104 if they don’t have to use the special clamps but if they do have to use the special equipment, ~$150. I shall let everyone know my experiences but I think I will be more than impressed! Thanks to everyone again who had positive info to share, much appreciated!!
Jim
if your wheels are aftermarket they’ll charge you the $150… they do great work, but I’m not going back for another $150 alignment if I can avoid it.
If this thread gets any more out of hand, I will most likely just delete it in which the community will lose a great resource.
no matter how out of hand it gets you can not delete your thread. that is all, carry on
Why would aftermarket wheels make a difference? Mine are aftermarket 17x8.5 Fittipaldi Tubulars. Older wheels but I was trying to think would the difference would be relating to the alignments. I even confirmed with Scott when I made the appointment about the 2 pricing levels and said I wanted the cheaper of the two options but he did not ask me any questions about my wheels and if they were aftermarket or not. I guess I will find out next friday. I hope I can get away with the $104 alignment!
Jim
same thing happened to me last month. they are afraid of hurting wheels and won’t proceed unless you pay up. I wish you better luck. they won’t be able to tell you until they look at the wheels.
Oh my wheels are all chewed up anyway… I really don’t care. The tires are used that I am mounting on them just to pass inspection and be able to drive the car until I can buy the set of 18’s that I want but that wont be until the end of summer and then I won’t even have the tires for them until next year. It’s just not a priority right now but I have to get the rims b/c they sell out as they are no longer made anymore and its SO damn hard to find attractive rims that fit past the huge calipers on my car. They can scratch up my Fittipaldi rims all they want… HA!
Jim
Jim,
Is your car yellow or Green by chance? I used to know a Jim with a 94 yellow TT in Rochester, but that was years ago…also have seen a nice green 94 cruising around…just wondering if it was you.
wow. you guys have basically the same screen name. better be careful! lol
Hey mine is the Pearl yellow but I used to have a green NA stealth way way back in the day. I have had the yellow one for about 5 years now. Who are you? Your screen name looks REAL familiar…
Jim
haha it is you!
It’s Jon…GTO1994 from 3si lol. Had the 93 RT/TT…STEALTTH plate 
When you mentioned the wheels I figured it was you. I remember that you had just picked up the car before the 3SI gathering at Hooters. I’m out in Rochester now and I know there are only a few TT’s around so I figured it might be you. Hope all is going well man.
HAHA! Nice! Ya Jon, I remember you well. First had to white SL with the Ronal rims and then the green RT/TT. What are you doin in Rochester now? Work? You still have your TT? I do remember that show we did at Hooter’s well, that was the 3rd and last one we did. Everyone left!
Jim
Yeah man, I Live in Webster with my Fiancee. Just bought a house and have had the new job for about 8 months now Getting married in a few months! Glad to see that you still have the TT…mine is gone 
How’s yours running?
webster ftw