I have never been to Belle Tires and stopped there because it did not look busy and I figured I could get new tires on my wife's car that day. After the Belle rep looked at my car, he gave me about 5 options of tires to choose from. I thought the prices were a bit high but it sounded like the rep would negotiate on the price. Luckily, I just came from Costco with a quote (I would have gotten my tires there if they had them in stock) and my Costco quote was $200 cheaper than the Belle tire quote and the Belle quote did not include labor. I was happy to hear the rep would price match my quote from Costco. I should have left at that point knowing they mark their prices up so much. I also got a synthetic oil change for $89. (Tried getting the $59 partial synthetic but they insisted I needed full). I was there for two hours and the while there they recommended a few items that needed fixing that they quoted at about $1200. I figured I would go somewhere else to get it looked at since the car drove fine before I got there, other than needing new tires.
Six days later my wife called me at work to tell me that her left rear tire is flat. Luckily, she works close and drove the car home and walked back to work at lunch. When I came home from work, I filled up the tire and headed back to Belle. They looked at the car and said 3 of the stems on the tires were leaking air and showed me in water. They said they normally do not replace then stems when replacing tires if the old ones looked ok. They sealed the tires and replaced the stems at no cost. While I was there, they showed me that my control arms and ball joints were loose, referring to the original quote I was given. When I was leaving the store manager said he would work on the price, if I decided to do the work there.
The next day my wife again called me from work and said the car broke down in the parking lot and will not move. (my daughter was also in the car) The tire was rubbing against the car and bent outward. Luckily, she was not driving on an expressway. At this point it was not drivable. I called back the store manager and he said he could, most likely, get the original quote with everything included for $1000. I then told him that I had to tow the car in and they could do the work. He then said it may be more now if there are additional things wrong with the car. I was not in a position to shop around for quotes since I now had to tow the car. I took the car there and the next day I was called saying they took a few things off the original quote (which we negotiated to be at about $1000) but had to add an axle for about $375. They ordered the part and the part came in wrong, then they ordered the correct part which came in the same day. I picked up the car and it was just under $1500 (a few hundred dollars more than expected) I was so aggravated at this point, I just wanted to get the heck out of there.
The next day my wife calls me and said the check engine light just went on!! I will not go back there after making four trips and spending $2200. ($2400 including tow) Entirely, too many coincidences of problems with the car days after I leave. I was there just to get 4 new tires a week and a half ago. read more