NTB?

I need to get my car inspected and of all the places I have called, the local NTB location seems to have the best tire pricing and seems the most honest. I am most likely going to need tired, brakes and rotors. Any insight of using NTB?

I've bought tires from them and had them mount rallycross tires for me. Depending on which guy I get at the counter it ranges from a pleasant experience to downright annoying. It's like just about any place in that regard. You local one might be good, it might suck, depends on the guys working there.

+100 on the depends on the guys working there.

Where I live the NTB on my side of town has a good reputation. The NTB on the other side of town doesn't. Just the opposite when it come to Big 10/PepBoys.

Back in their hayday during the mid '90's (before the totally closed in this market) they were a large sponsor with SCCA and our west side local shop did the best autocross alignments around. They would allow you to sit in the driver's seat the whole time they were aligning the car (for weight compensation.)

They treated me good for 2 sets of tires. They just did a giant upsell that bugged me. Then they called me 2 weeks later to upsell fuel injection and radiator flushing service.

My basically-brother-in-law used to bounce around the region getting the problem stores back in line. As others have said, it really depends on the location, and sometimes the particular guys. At his places, he'd recommend the tech, and we trusted them enough to send the Campy mags off of my dad's Lancia for a mount and balance. They came back in the same condition we sent them, with the addition of new Hoosiers and wheel weights.

If you manage to get past the salesmen/managers and find a guy who's an enthusiast or at least gives a crap, latch onto him and he'll probably treat you right.

But in terms of pricing, yeah, they can do really well since they move such volume.

Merchant's Tire and Auto is the same company. After they mounted all 4 of my racing tires backwards (the sidewalls even say "OUTSIDE" and "INSIDE") and then blamed me for the problem ("You brought us four wheels and tires not mounted on a vehicle!") and didn't even apologize, that whole company can get brain herpes.

I started doing my own alignment after all the problems I got from them.

The first time I put some coilovers on my NX and drove to the local NTB. The coilovers had slotted holes for a little camber adjustment, and I told three separate people there this including the guy that was doing the alignment. They said it would take 2 hrs and they would call when they were done. 4hrs later I had to call them back. They said they couldn't get the alinement set right. They said they were going to charge an extra $200 for what they thought might fix the car. " Ok do what you have to I need my car for work" I tell them. By the end of the day they said they didn't have enough time to fix it.

The next day I call back again they still can't get the alignment right, I go over the fact that the coilovers are adjustable and the mounting bolt holds have adjustment. They tell me they know all about it but that is not the problem, but they have one last idea. So a few hours later they call me and say the car is ready for pick up. I get a ride down and pay the insane alignment bill. The guy at the register says we were lucky one of the guys had a drill in his car... Like a year or so later I found out what I actually paid for.

The car was eating tires and changing alinement mid corner. I took the car to a different NTB. I found out they randomly drilled out holes in the strut towers and stuck a pile of under sized washers on the tops of the struts.They put in one crash/camber bolt... what the extra $200 was for. This other NTB told me they would pay to fix the damage and this work was idiotic... right up until they called the first NTB whom of course denied everything.

I used to work for a local Merchants/NTB and the service/treatment def depends on the store and who you get. I wouldnt rec my old store to an enemy.