I will tell the story below but for anyone in the Florida or S Georgia that gets a damaged or scratched wheel they should contact should contact a company called Turbax for repair or re-finishing. Their web site is Turbax.com.

I picked up a nail in my rear tire that was to close to the sidewall to patch. So after reading reviews at the Tire Rack site I ordered the Goodyear F1's to replace the OEM Potenza's. The first several installers from the Tire Rack list couldn't mount the rear tires because of the size, 255/35/18. So I stopped off at Big 10 tires where they said they could mount the tires. When I left Big 10 it was raining, I was returning phone calls, making sure I got my wheel lock back etc. and didn't look closely at the wheels. When I stopped for lunch I took a good look and wiped off some brake and 1 of the wheels was scratched all the way around. They let me leave without bringing it to my attention that they damaged the wheel. I went back and they tried to contact someone who has done repairs for them in the past. This repair guy is located in a bad part of town, no one answered the phone and the voice mail was full. My confidence level in their repair person was zero and there was no way I was leaving my car or wheel at that shop.

I called one of my friends who is a sales manager at a local dealership who contacted their body shop for a referral. They send all of their wheels to Turbax. Turbax provided excellent service, picked up the wheel at my office and had the repaired/remounted wheel back to my office in 48 hours. They had to repaint the entire wheel and the cost with mount/balance, etc. was $195.96. I didn't know the exact wheel style but it appeared that to replace the wheel at Fields BMW would have been approximately $575. Big 10 tires did the right thing and re-imbursed me within a week.

The tires had approximately 12,500 miles so I didn't replace the fronts although I had purchased them and they were in the garage. I thought I'd try to get a few thousand more miles out of the front tires. Bad idea. I can't believe how poorly the car drove with mismatched tires (Goodyears on rear/Potenza's on front). When we went out Friday evening my wife thought I took the afternoon off from work and spent it drinking. The car veered in both directions and it felt almost like I was on driving on ice.

So now its time to get the fronts mounted and I'm nervous. I was getting ready to take a 500 hundred mile trip and needed to get the fronts mounted. First stop was Discount Tire who was about a 3 hour wait. Pep Boys is located behind the Discount Tire so off I go. I spoke directly to the service manager who said they had the equipment to to properly mount the tires, put the weights on the inside, etc. After they are done, I pay, they hand me the keys, again its raining out and I go to inspect the wheels and 1 wheel is all scratched up. They say they'll take care of the repair but they wanted me to leave the wheel with them for a week to ship it off for repair and I can't go a week on the small spare so we are trying to come up with a way to get the wheel fixed. They think they can get it fixed for $75 so we are currently negotiating a fix.

This has been frustrating and really had me P.O.'d. I don't know why neither place brought it to my attention that an accident happened and offered to fix it without my bringing it to my attention. Neither place tried to deny that they damaged the wheels.

I don't think it had to do with the places I brought the car as much as a hurried or careless employee which unfortunately could happen anywhere.

I don't know if I can handle the strain of replacing any more tires and may just sell the car when its time for tire replacement. (just kidding)

In closing if you are in Florida and need wheel repair I can't say enough good things about Turbax and check your wheels before leaving the shop when you have your tires changed.