[gk1234]

My new set of tyres had clocked nearly 5000 kms since October, and given that I have a few long drives ahead of me in the coming weeks, I thought it best to do tyre rotation, balancing, and alignment. So, on a Sunday evening, I looked up for tyre shops on Google Maps, and found this reasonably well-rated tyre shop called TyreX, not far from my place.

Wasn't particularly crowded, but there were two cars in their repair bay, and one already in place for alignment. As soon as I pulled over, one of the technicians came over and asked about the service requirements. Waited for a good 20 minutes before they started the work on my car, but I didn't mind the wait. There is an AC lounge with a pool table you could use if you want to, but I didn't want to be seated in an AC room with strangers, given the rising cases of Covid again in Kerala, so I waited outside.

Anyway, soon after one of them took my key, without even informing me, he took the car out for a drive. Sure, it was only 5 minute drive, but come on, he could have just told me what he was planning to do. I waited there, a bit puzzled and annoyed in equal measure, but I wasn't keen on taking this up with anyone yet. But what annoyed me further was that the guys weren't even pretending to care about wearing masks! The fellows attending to my car had also turned on the AC (which I had decidedly turned off before handing over the keys because of covid concerns). It wasn't just one guy; no one working there was wearing a mask, as far as I could tell.

That said, the technician assigned to my car was quick on his job, and knew what he was doing. And after rotation of tyres, he went for a drive again, and then again after alignment was completed, and was not wearing a mask at all (and in complete disregard for public health and hygiene). Aghast, I decided to inform the polite lady behind the counter that their staff must necessarily wear a mask during these times. She realised the folly, and quickly offered to sanitise the car with a napkin and some sanitizer. Even though I said no, they insisted and rubbed some local sanitizer with a thin napkin all over the leather wrapped steering wheel and the perforated seats! Thankfully, it didn't appear to do much damage to the leather and I was quick to wipe it off with a dry cloth as soon as I pulled out of their bay, all the while muttering, "Never again..."

They did a decent job, and the technician attending to my car was polite and professional otherwise. I just wish these people would be more careful during these Covid times, and also be more informing of test runs on my car. I would have happily tagged along in the passenger seat! I am also given to understand that these practices are commonplace and there's not much room for overnight changes to discipline.

Barring these, I was satisfied with the job. They charged me 1800 rupees for the whole works, which I think was a tad overpriced, but not by much. When asked for a receipt, though, they said that the alignment report is as good a receipt.

Oh, and once the alignment was done, they stuck a label on the door sill, recording the odo details for the next round of tyre check. I thought this was useful:

[neil.jericho]

Ive done 140 odd kilometers on the new Continental tires. I found that the car was pulling very slightly to the left and it didnt make sense to invest any more time in going back to Tyrex for more trial and error. So I took it to a small tire shop near my place that has the Hunter alignment machine. I had recently taken my Dad's car there for the balancing and alignment and they had done a really good job. They checked the alignment of the car again and found that the caster was slightly off on the left side. They mentioned that it was surprising how nobody from Tyrex had noticed this in the alignment report. They also tweaked the alignment a bit and the car holds its line very well now.

I will get the caster checked the next time I take the car to the Honda SVC.

Originally Posted by R2D2

I really have to wonder why you let them touch the alignment if the car was ok to begin with. Except just once, when I had an experience that was similar to yours with the steering being off centre when the car was pointed straight ahead on a more or less level road, I never allowed anybody except the ASC touch my car's alignment. And I most certainly would NEVER let a tyre shop employee drive it!

Ive had terrible experiences with company SVCs and their efforts at alignment in the past. So, Ive been getting my cars aligned at Madhus in Bangalore for over a decade now. Though I moved out of Bangalore a few years ago, I used to visit the city frequently and always made it a point to get the balancing and alignment checked at Madhus every year.

The Honda SVC here refused to even route the dashcam wire in my Jazz or check the after market fog light that I had installed and asked them to look at.

Originally Posted by gk1234

Anyway, soon after one of them took my key, without even informing me, he took the car out for a drive. Sure, it was only 5 minute drive, but come on, he could have just told me what he was planning to do. I waited there, a bit puzzled and annoyed in equal measure, but I wasn't keen on taking this up with anyone yet. But what annoyed me further was that the guys weren't even pretending to care about wearing masks! The fellows attending to my car had also turned on the AC (which I had decidedly turned off before handing over the keys because of covid concerns). It wasn't just one guy; no one working there was wearing a mask, as far as I could tell.

Yeah, even I noticed that most of them werent wearing masks when I went there.

Originally Posted by gk1234

When asked for a receipt, though, they said that the alignment report is as good a receipt.

This is hilarious.