Had my 2018 Honda Civic SI to the dealership in August. My ex BF is a Honda Gold certified…read moretechnician there, so I thoroughly trust him to take excellent care of my cars.
He did the inspection, LOF, and alignment. It passed inspection and his only recommendation was to replace the two back tires before the first snow since the treads were getting a bit low. My son drives this car on a two hour round trip every day to work in Bristol, PA.
In September, my son started complaining on a very rainy week that the car seemed to be hydroplaning extremely easily, even when he was only going about 35 miles an hour on the turnpike when it was just wet (not even any puddles). I know the car hydroplane is pretty easily anyway... It always has from the time it was new so I figured maybe he was just being a little overdramatic.)
But I knew where we were going to need new tires on it anyway so I asked him to stop by the Mavis near my office in Malvern/Frazer on his way home on a Thursday, since that's where I typically get my tires done and they have always done a great job.
Staff has definitely changed recently. The manager, Bobby, said they were busy and asked if he could make an appointment to bring the car back the next day. My son did that and made a special trip back to have the car/tires checked out to see if there was any reason why it would be hydroplaning more than normal. Bobby checked the tires out, showed my son the measurements in depth of tread and recommended the same thing that Mike had just a few weeks before. Just replace them soon with a tire that was specifically designed to reduce hydroplaning.
Fast forward only 4 to 5 days... my son said the car felt funny on the last little bit of his drive when he jumped off the turnpike, but he made it to work, which is only about one to 2 miles off the exit. A little later, one of his coworkers walking through the parking lot noticed the left rear tire completely flat.
They jacked up the car and took the tire off and replaced it with a doughnut. This is what it looked like! (See photos included)
The right Rear tire was almost as bad. My son could have died, all because Bobby at the other Mavis didn't actually take the time to assess the tires properly. It's literally a miracle that this did not become a major tragedy, severely injuring, or killing my son and any other motorist and their passengers, when people routinely drive 70 or 80 mph on the turnpike.
I called and spoke with a wonderful guy named Rob who works in the call center at Mavis, and he was highly apologetic and said that's not the way they operate. He gave a heads up to Mgr. Kenny at the Bristol shop and they made arrangements to put new tires on the car and get my son back on the road that same day.
Kenny was amazing, as was the rest of his staff. Between Rob and Kenny, they discounted the cost of the tires and the alignment for us.
Unfortunately, after replacing the tires and doing the second alignment within two months, my son noted that the H in the middle of the steering wheel was not lined up when the tires were straight. Kenny asked if we could leave the car so I drove the two hour round-trip to pick up my son and bring him home. The next day they had a master mechanic come in and check the car out to figure out what the problem might be. He noticed the camber was off, so they adjusted that. However, upon test drive, the car was still pulling hard to the right.
Pretty sure they did everything they could to figure it out, but in the end, Kenny recommended we take the car to a body shop to first rule out any damage to the sub-frame before they start replacing parts randomly in the suspension, as there were no obvious issues with the suspension that they could see.
I found Kenny and his staff to be very honest, efficient, and extremely helpful during this pretty traumatic situation and after our bad experience with the other Mavis. We super appreciate all of their help, and I would highly highly recommend this Mavis to anyone. It's hard to put faith and trust into many businesses nowadays, but we would not hesitate to use the Bristol Mavis if the need arises in the future.
Thank you so much, guys, and I hope you all enjoyed the Bang gourmet Cookies from KoP!
