moab

I'm pretty annoyed with what happened to me today at Downtown Porsche. Appreciate people's thoughts on whether I am overreacting. The story is as follows: Was driving yesterday around 11:00 a.m. and the flat tire indicator light goes off for my rear, driver side tire. I get to my destination about 20 minutes later and look at the tire and I notice a nail in the tread, well away from the sidewall. I take the car to the dealer this morning around 8 a.m. and from the time that the indicator went off, until I dropped off the car, the tire lost about 4 PSI. I figured it was a slow leak that could be repaired. Service advisor calls me a couple of hours later while I'm at work and says that my rear tires are now discontinued so they will have to order me two new tires at a cost of $1200. I say, can't you just repair it, to which he responds, no, we can't repair performance tires because it is dangerous for track use. I tell him that I don't plan on tracking the car with these tires (i.e. they are for daily driver use) and he says, sorry, we don't have the abiltiy to repair, only to replace. I tell him that I view this as a cash grab and that I'm pretty pissed off and he says that they can fill the tire up with enough air that I can take it somewhere else if I want it plugged. So no resolution by the time I leave work and I end up taking the subway home. Awesome. I really had no time to deal with this garbage today and had a brutally stressful day at work and now I have to deal with this crap. Very disappointing experience.

jasonintoronto

A tire shop will plug it.

GentlemanRacer

Based on what you said that the service advisor said, he is technically not misleading you. Usually dealers won't patch repair tires, they only replace them. An independent will fix them. I had a similar story when I owned a BMW, my adviser suggested that I go to a tire repair shop he can recommend, because the dealership can only replace tires.

If it's a nail then take it to any superior tire and they will fix it for 60 dollars. This would be fine for daily driving at any speed.

Brian 162

I wouldn't have taken the car to a dealership for a tire repair. You would of been better off going to a tire shop that specializes in performance tires. Depending where you are there is Braiden Tire in Markham, Sports Car Boutique in Richmond Hill. If it's not too late thank the dealer for their time and take the car somewhere else.

By the way I had a slow leak as well. I took it to a Firestone dealer. He used a vulcanized patch that goes on the inside of the tire. It cost me under $30. I used it on the track with no issues. That was 3 years ago. I still use the tire on the street only since I now have track wheels/tires.

moab

yes, but I purchased the car from Pfaff and they threw in the tire hazzard warranty. As luck would have it, I got a flat two days after I picked up the car. Ended up calling roadside assitance and they towed it to Pfaff and they "elected" to repair it because they likely did not want to have to pay the cost for a new tire (the insurance is through Pfaff, not Porsche Canada). So when it suits a dealer, they will repair, but otherwise, they won't. And before you ask why I didn't take it to Pfaff this time around, the answer is I live at Bathurst & St. Clair so Downtown is closer. Just another example of crappy customer service. I'm in a very bitter, angry mood today.

BioBanker

If they'll put enough air in it for you to drive it elsewhere and charge you nothing so far, I think that's reasonable. I'd be surprised to see them plug it.

Drive it to my house in the Beach and we can plug it if you like.

Sultan

Go to the dealership tomorrow with a jack stand, put it up, take the tire/rim off take it to Simply Tire, Allen will charge you $25 to patch it, go back to the dealership, and slap it back on. Before getting back in your car, give the dealership a press moon against the service window.

moab

ha, yes, great idea!

moab

Thanks for the offer.

GentlemanRacer

I am beginning to see why this is bothering you. It might not be worth your sanity to figure out why dealers do anything. Hopefully you are able to let this incident out of your system. It might be better to just get it repaired at a tire shop.

Good luck

Imo000

Canadian Tire sells the plug kit for around $10. Comes with 5 plugs and you can plug it with the rim on the car, just remove the valve first. I've done this to my cars for years.

Turbodan

maybe with the hazard warranty they will get you 4 new tires. If they say they no longer make your tires then why did downtown suggest only 2 not 4 or is it the size that is no longer made?

Christien

This. I've used the plug kit from CT for years with no problems. Takes less than 10 minutes.

Many shops won't repair tires because of liability issues. That's not at all uncommon. DFC and Pfaff are completely different operations, so I'm not surprised one wouldn't honour the other's warranty. Though usually it's DFC that offers the superior service.

Sultan

Imre, I do the same, but whats the logic behind removing the valve (cover)?

Ronan

Had the same experience at BMW. Generally I never go to a dealer for tires. I use Active Green + Ross who are close by. Obviously if there is a nail at a critical point in the tire nobody will repair it. As others have said, dealers are twitchy about liability issues.

For the record, I have had very good experience from DFC over the last five years, but I guess stuff happens occasionally.