I acquired the poomobile (the name I've given my dark brown Nissan Altima I purchased in July because it's poo brown in color) used a couple of months ago from Chapman here in Tucson. They're lovely people to deal with but I knew there was one potential issue with the car when I drove it off the lot. It had tires that were probably going to need replacement in a year or maybe two. They had decent tread but looked like they had been the original set that were on the car when it was new.
It turned out that my suspicion was more right than I knew in July when I drove it off the car lot. A little over a month ago I had to take the poomobile to Discount Tire to repair a leaky front tire. It had a nail in it and was slowly leaking since the day I drove the car off the Chapman lot. Not a major issue, Discount repaired it for free. The worst of that experience was that it wasted two hours of a Saturday six weeks ago so I really couldn't complain too much.
Fast forward to Friday. I had no leaking issues in any of the tires until I got into the car to leave work Friday night and the tire pressure monitoring system beeped at me. It indicated that the driver's side rear tire had lost 15 pounds of pressure while it was sitting in the parking lot while I was working. I attempted to inspect the tire for damage and couldn't find any, or a nail or screw, but sometimes that's tough to spot with the tire still on the car.
I drove to QuikTrip and filled it back up with air (QuikTrip offers air for free, a wonderful service). A few hours after I was home I went outside and checked the pressure and it had lost 10 pounds in four hours. I knew I was going to be spending time at Discount Tire again yesterday to get this tire fixed.
A closer inspection on Friday night with a flashlight showed that the tire that was losing air had several repair plugs in it. A closer look at the other tires also showed repair plugs in those, too. I realized I needed to empty my checking account now instead of waiting until the tires were really worn out and just get a new set so I didn't have to worry every day that this was going to keep happening. The poomobile had been a rental car before it ended up in my possession so they probably had to repair the tires quite often since people who rent cars aren't exactly careful with what they drive into...or over.
$500 painful dollars later at Discount Tire and I have a new set of Falken tires. I decided on those because they have my name in the brand -- FalKEN. Extra good luck for long lasting tires, I hope.
By the way, if you EVER go to Discount Tire for anything always go online to the DiscountTire.com website and make an appointment. It doesn't cost anything and speeds the process along a great deal. You don't have to wait nearly as long and you'll thank me later.
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| Lobby of Discount Tire on Tanque Verde Road. These people didn't have appointments and they had to get their stuff done after the poomobile got it's new rubber. |
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| FalKEN tires with enhanced dry performance and reliable wet traction. Sounds like a date I've had. |
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| One of the new tires installed on the poomobile. You're looking at $125 for just this one tire and I purchased three more. On the bright side, my wallet is lighter and much easier to carry around. |
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| FalKEN tire! |