[Old Davy]

A tale of botched service with a happy ending, worth the telling:
10 days ago I put the winter wheels on the Outback, having purchased new rubber for the fugly Outback OEM rims at the local 'all purpose' Auto & Hardware chain two years ago. You'd think I would have absorbed the teaching moment that experience was. They 'forgot' to balance them as paid for and I can tell you it was an unsettling and hairy test drive! In the end they were balanced no cost and all is well two winters on.

Chapter 2:
The SVX came with two sets of alloys shod in appropriate rubber, balanced and ready to go...or so I assumed. So, last weekend I took the SVX winters to the same chain (Canadian Tire), simply to have the balance checked. Paid & picked them up, assured that they were balanced, only to have 3 of the new sticky weights fall off in the trunk. After some terse conversations in the office the next morning I determined that the wheels were not pre-checked for balance and the kid simply stripped off the old sticky weights (which were firmly attached), put them on his machine and stuck new weights (the exact same size, number and location) on top of the old rough foam adhesive patches, with black greasy fingers. How stupid do they think customers are? I had spent an hour the night before cleaning old previous adhesive patches off the freshly washed wheels leaving only the old solid weights in place. This should have been my clue that these wheels were not as new as they seemed.
Yeah, I know, your jaw is dropping at this incompetence.
The Shop Manager's lame explanation was that they were too busy at this time of year to take the time to clean off old adhesive. If I brought them back in this Friday - after I cleaned off the adhesive - they would re-balance them as a free repair. I shudder to think how many wheels done that weekend will throw weights come this winter...

Recalling two years before and examining my options I brought the wheels home, stripped off the 24 new sticky weights and again used Ronsonal lighter fluid to completely clean off the adhesive. During this chore my brain decided to start working again.
This morning I visited 3 actual Tire/Wheel/Alignment shops in town to research alternatives. At the third stop, the CAA garage, I was impressed with the cleanliness of the shop floor and no-nonsense, no BS explanation of how they would re-balance the wheels for pick-up at 2 PM. Normally I have my wheels swapped over at Jiffy Lube as well as all fluid changes, which they have done on my Subarus for over 15 years now. Jiffy Lube doesn't do balancing, just rim-mounted tire changeovers. I do believe in shop loyalty.
The CAA offer to computer balance my wheels was too good to pass up so in they went at 10:30 AM.
Phone call at noon. "Dave, we've balanced two of the wheels but the other two are bent out of plane, one by 1/8" and the other by 1/4". Probably from curb impact. Besides which the rubber on these tires have a date code for 2001 - 11 years old...and they are NOT ice or snowtires."
Oh crap. Well, I suppose I could just buy new winter rubber and have them put on the 17" summer alloys, which are graphite black. I was looking forward to lightening up the batmobile appearance of the car with the silver alloys.

What to do? I drove the SVX out to the CAA shop so he could see what the summers looked like and see if they had the correct winter rubbers in stock...or order them in. Fortunately the summers have a 2011 date code so that's all good.

Well, he, George, had a pleasant surprise for me. Yes, he had Firestone Winterforce rubber in stock for 16" and 17". My engineer's eye definitely approved of the tractor tread on the Winterforce 205/55/16 @$127 each. What's the point of Snow Tires if not to be able to confidently claw through deep snow, slush and ice?
George then proudly brought out another option...
A brand new un-boxed set of 16" silver FastWheels 7-spoke 'Salsa' alloys for my consideration @ $104 each. Did they spin my crank?
No-brainer. What I wanted in the first place, a dedicated wheel set for winter, in silver no less. Good looking without all that riceboy advertising cast on the spokes.
Trigger pulled, the whole operation took about 40 minutes while I waited. I was out the door at 3:05 for a quick test drive on the sideroads. Not anywhere as noisy as I expected, in fact no louder than the summer rubber.
All in, including tax, the bill for new alloys, new rubber, balancing and install came to $1100, which seems reasonable to me for winter snowshoes I can trust whatever the weather throws my way. Saved me the hassle & delay of driving all over Southern Ontario sourcing new alloys before the snow arrives.
Oh yeah, George checked the balance on the summer 17"s and they are fine. Plus a $50 rebate from Firestone for 4 new tires...

While up on the hoist I was able to examine & wiggle the underside bits and it sure looks like my exhaust piping back to the rear cat is shiny and new under the shields, making it likely I can get the old mismatched O2 sensors off and replace them with the new NGKs I got from Rock Auto. Maybe I'll let George do it for me...he certainly knows how to win new customers.

The SVX returned to my garage, drove back to CAA with the Outback to retrieve the summer wheels. Since the sun finally came out today for a few days and the temps are rising, tomorrow I will tackle the stabilizer 'thingy scratching my window' fix and I'll be all done for some extended road-tripping in the Dreamship.