Out of All Available Tire Service Locations, How Do You Know Which One to Choose?

When it comes to maintaining your vehicle’s tires, there are many available options. When it comes to Cincinnati, car tire repair options are everywhere. But how do you know what the best place is to get your car tires taken care of properly?

The first place that comes to mind when you think about the best place to get new tires is likely a shop that specializes in tires. These are not bad options, but just because they are popular doesn’t mean they are the best choice for your individual circumstances. Less efficient options might include obtaining the tools and skills necessary to maintain your tires yourself or to hire a local mechanic to take care of them for you. Finally, you have the option of taking care of your tires at your local Cincinnati dealership.

But which of these options is the best, and why? Asking friends and neighbors will get you a myriad of answers, none of which are specific to your vehicle and situation. Nobody knows your pocketbook or your vehicle like you do, so how can anybody else tell you where to go to get your tires serviced?

Taking Care of Your Tires Yourself

You might think that taking care of your tires yourself is the cheapest route but think again. Servicing your tires is not like changing your wiper blades or changing the bulb for your brake lights. The tires are perhaps the most important part of your vehicle, and without tires that are running in safe working order, you are not going to get anywhere fast (if at all).

You might be able to take care of the air in your tires on your own using an air compressor or going to a local gas station. However, what happens when you get a hole in your tire that needs fixing, or you need to swap out your tire altogether due to worn out tread or other issues? Swapping out one tire might be as simple as sticking your vehicle up on a jack, but speaking from experience, swapping out all four tires is a severe pain in the behind with just one jack.

Imagine lifting your car to swap out one tire and then putting it back down and lifting it again from another point to swap out another tire, and then doing that again and again. Jacks are more dangerous than they let on in the movies, and one wrong move next to an unstable jack could bring your entire car crashing down, either damaging your vehicle or endangering someone’s life. And all this is assuming you don’t cause accidental damage or alignment issues when putting the tires on. Taking care of your tire needs exclusively at home is just not a safe or intelligent way to go, no matter how much money you may or may not be saving.

Having a Backyard Mechanic Service Your Tires

You might think it’s safer to hire a backyard mechanic to service your tires, and you would be right; a mechanic at least has some tools and equipment that would make servicing your vehicle’s tires a much safer option than if you were to do it yourself at home. However, is a backyard mechanic the cheapest option? Backyard mechanics tend to specialize in small jobs such as oil changes or transmission fluid swap outs. However, since mechanics don’t specialize in tires, they don’t have all the tools necessary to make tire services as quick and efficient as possible.

This means you might actually be spending more to hire a backyard mechanic to take care of your tire needs than any of the other tire options on this list. Your mechanic is running a small operation and, as a result, is only able to handle small jobs without spending an unnecessary amount of time, money, or both. Save simple things for the backyard mechanic and save the big jobs for the experts.

Visiting a Specialized Tire Shop

Most major cities, including Cincinnati, offer a few choices of specialized tire shops. These specialized tire shops are a better option than handing your tires yourself or hiring a backyard mechanic for the sheer fact that these tire shops specialize in one thing – tires. Mechanics may be decent at several things, but specialists are great at just a few things. Just like you wouldn’t go to your family physician for a major foot surgery, it is a better idea to go to a tire specialist than any random Joe (including yourself) to take care of one of the most important pieces of equipment on your car.

Another nice thing about visiting a specialized tire shop is that if you move to a new location or are traveling out of town and need help with your tires, these places are easy to look up. You know they will be able to do a decent job in a fair amount of time, no matter where you are. And because specialized tire shops do nothing but tires, you know they will have all the equipment necessary to get you on the road again as quickly as possible.

Why Visit a Dealership for your Tires?

The last and perhaps the best option for servicing your vehicle’s tires is your local dealership. But why visit a dealership for your tires? Because rather than just being a tire specialist, your local dealership is a specialist for your entire vehicle.

Because your dealership only deals with select vehicle models, they are going to know all of the things to watch out for when working on your car. Not all vehicles are created equal, and this is also true about vehicle tires. A Chevy Silverado is going to need specific tires and also require certain tire specs and regulations that are very different from a Ford Fusion. Plus, if you go to the dealer you bought your car from, they will likely have the same size and brand of tires your car already has in stock.

Another good reason to visit a dealership for tires is so that you can get multiple things done to your vehicle at once while still keeping your car in the hands of a knowledgeable expert. Because your dealer only works on certain models of vehicles, odds are good the parts your specific vehicle needs will already be in stock and ready to go. Your dealer’s licensed mechanic will be the fastest and most efficient option for taking care of any issues under your vehicle’s hood in addition to the tires. People like to choose backyard mechanics for their vehicle’s needs because, theoretically, the backyard mechanic can do multiple things at once. With a dealer mechanic, now you can entrust multiple vehicle needs without sacrificing expert knowledge.

Trust the Experts

Remember, tires are one of the most important parts of your vehicle. They may be the least talked about when you are shopping for a new vehicle, but without quality tires, your vehicle will be going nowhere fast. Don’t entrust the one thing your vehicle needs to get around safely to the hands of just anybody. When it comes to Cincinnati tire care, trust the true experts. Trust your dealership for specialized and efficient tire care. Because just like you can only trust a heart surgeon to perform open-heart surgery, you can only trust a licensed dealer mechanic to take care of your car’s tires.