Local Knowledge....

One thing I need to keep reminding myself is to ask for referrals from people I know in a given locale for services I need.  When I needed the water pump replaced on the VW I asked Debby (Bill and Debby's Wild Ride) who is from South Lake Tahoe originally.  She referred me to Eloise Autmotive who, in turn, referred me to Higher Ground Autoworx.  Now, when I needed new tires why didn't I call John at Higher Ground first?  I'm still asking myself that question.  Instead, on Wednesday, I head immediately for Les Schwab Tires (a national chain) to get new shoes for the Beetle.  I have bought tires from America's Tire Store, and Discount Tires in the past and had good experience, and always liked the fact they have tire stores all over the U.S., so I guess my reasoning was "they're a national chain, that might come in handy down the road".   

The Beetle has these cool 17" rims with low profile tires, and it looks kind of cool, but the ride on those low profile tires is a little rough, so I thought I would replace them (and they do need replacing) with a slightly higher profile tire, and Les had what I wanted in stock.....for $617 (4 tires installed).  That seemed a little high to me, but I haven't bought new car tires in about 4 years, so what do I know?  Prices go up, right?  So, reluctantly, I agreed, signed the paperwork and promised to return in an hour to pay for, and pick up the VW.  TLE and I walked over to TJ Max to browse (she was looking for small trash can for the bathroom). While we were browsing I got a call from the service rep at Les Schwab asking where the lug nut "key" was......hmmmm....I didn't realize one was needed, but apparently there should have been one, but I knew there was not one anywhere in the car.  The service guy advised they would have to order a "key" from the VW dealership down in Reno, and that would take a few days.

So, what to do?  They can't remove the wheels without the lug nut "key", so I call John at Higher Ground to see if he might have one since he works on so many VW's.  He advised he did not have one, but would do some checking around town with other tire stores.  He then asked "Where are you right now?", and I replied "Les Schwab".....there was this momentary silence, and then he came back "Why?  They are a bunch of hacks!" (John is a pretty blunt kind of guy, which I like).  So then I asked "Where should I go?"  John responds with a question "Have you paid for anything yet, and have they put any tires on yet?"......I say "No".  He then advises me to get my car out of their service bay and head for "Ken's Tire Center" and tell them John sent you".

So I did.  Ken's is just down the street, and I have seen their sign many times as we have ridden our bikes down Tahoe Blvd.  We arrived at Ken's around 11 am, and had a quote with in seconds for 4 tires, just the size I wanted, for $417!  Wait, what?  Two hundred dollars less for virtually the same tires?  I looked at TLE and just said, "Why didn't I ask John in the first place?".  The downside, and this is small, is that they have to have the tires delivered from Carson City....they don't have them in stock, but that's a small downside, and I'm certainly willing to wait for 2 days to save $200!

In the mean time John called me back and advised that Lilly's Tire Center would be able to remove the lug nuts requiring the special "key" on Thursday morning.  He advised "just call them and ask for George, and set an appointment for Thursday morning and they will get them off for you".  So, you see, ALWAYS, ALWAYS seek out local knowledge no matter where you are.  Not doing so could cost you hundreds of dollars in needless expense.  I am so grateful that my wheels require this special "key" to take off the lug nuts, otherwise I would be $200 poorer today.

So that was pretty much the morning portion of our Wednesday.  When John called me back we had just stopped in to Jalisco's Mexican Grill for lunch.

Now, we had a plan of action, so we finished lunch, headed back to Ken's to have them order the tires.....we had waited to find out what we were going to have to do to get those wheels off short of driving to Reno.  Once the tires were ordered and the appointment was set with Lilly's we headed over to Heavenly Village Cinemas to watch "Lucy".  This movie is a good example of some movies with great "trailers".  Based on the "trailers" we had seen I wanted to see "Lucy", but, unfortunately, the "trailers" we saw were the best scenes in the movie.  It wasn't a bad movie, it just wasn't what I was expecting, and the story line was a little thin, even for me.  I see that IMDB gives it 3 out of 5 stars, but I would only go 2.5 max......should have gone to see "Guardians of the Galaxy".

We were back at the coach by 4 pm, and while TLE took care of some housekeeping things inside, I spent time vacuuming out the car.....there were a lot of pine needles on the floor mats, and it was time to remove them.  I also removed all the lug nut caps in preparation for having the offending "locking" lug nuts removed.  To my surprise, only two wheels had the special lug nuts.  It is now obvious that the prior owner knew of this problem, and had already had 2 of them removed.  Well, that will make it even easier Thursday....only two lug nuts to remove and discard.  On top of that I am feeling blessed that the first wheel Les Schwab attempted to remove was one of the two with this "locking lug nut".

To cap off the evening we watched "So You Think You Can Dance" and a new dramatic series premier called "Legends"......not sure if I'm going to get into that one, but we'll give it one more week and see.

Thanks for stopping by!