Baby's new shoes.....

The Denali came with Bridgestone tires (big ones) as original equipment and they have proven durable, so I decided that I would replace them with the same model tire. I checked Costco and then Discount Tire for the new sneakers for the Denali. Discount was about $100 cheaper for the set, but the local store didn't have the correct size in stock. They found a couple of stores in the San Diego area that had some in stock. Since I wanted to go to Clarence Brown Alignment in KM to see about front-end alignment and brakes, I decided to go to the KM store.

On the way, I stopped at Bridgestone/Firestone to get a price. It was about $350 more than Discount, so I asked them why Discount could sell their tires cheaper than the company who manufactured them. They told me that they would beat any documented price on their tires, but I didn't have any quote on paper from Discount. I finally convinced the guy to log into www.tires.com (Discount's web site) and showed him the price.

He called over the manager and had a confab and the manager told him to "beat" that price. He did, but not by much and he had to take out the Road Hazard Insurance to do it. I told him that I would think about it.

I then stopped at Clarence Brown and the technician looked over the old tires to confirm that the Denali did need alignment because there was abnormal wear that indicated a toe-in problem. He told me to go get my new tires and come on back for the front-end alignment.

I then went over to the KM Discount store and told them about Bridgestone/Firestone's pricing. They immediately lowered their pricing to beat (not by much) the Bridgestone/Firestone pricing and included the Road Hazard Insurance for no extra. Presto, 45 minutes later I was back at Clarence Brown.

While they were doing the alignment, I was just hanging around chillin'. The technician who was doing the work comes out and asks if I am going to be the only driver. I told him that it would be me primarily (99%), but that Susan would drive it occasionally. He then asked me to come sit in the driver's seat while he set the alignment parameters.

I told him that no one had ever asked me to do that before and wondered why. He told me that he guessed that I had never had alignment work done by a perfectionist before.

Hot damn! I am not the only guy with OCD on this planet.

Brakes were good to go. At 40K miles they still have 60% on the front and 70% on the rear. The boys at Clarence Brown were very complimentary about GMC brakes (only since 2001). Lot's-o-stopping power. Should go to 80K-100K before pads need to be replaced.