posted December 31, 1999 10:00 AM           

This was my first on-line tire purchase. I highly recommend Tirerack. The
tires were ordered on Tuesday and installed (in Atlanta) on Thursday of the
same week....excellent service all around. I only encountered one problem
with the entire on-line ordering/installation process that I wanted to pass
along to others. I originally contacted an installation company, here in
Atlanta, that is recommended by TireRack (per their on-line listing of
recommeded installers). The company was Grand Tourismo in Atlanta.
When I called this company to arrange an appointment to have the tires
installed, they immediately tried to discourage me from buying the tire I
had chosen (which has turned out to be an excellent tire for the car) and
instead tried to sell me one of their tires. It was the classic "bait and
switch" tactic (e.g., bait you with the convienent installation of tires not
purchased at GT and then try to switch you to one of their tires). The
conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello, I've purchased some tire's from the tireRack and wish to have
them installed.
Grand Tourismo: Oh, our good buddies from the tire rack! What type of
tires are you getting?

Me: Dunlop's.
Grand Tourismo: Ooooh! Why Dunlop's?

At this point, the bait and switch tactic began in earnest! No need to
complete the remainder of the conversation. They strongly suggested that
I not purchase Dunlop's (even before they knew what type of car the tire
was going on, or before knowing what specific type of Dunlop). Then
came the sales pitch to purchase their Michelin XGT-V4's (not Pilot's).
These are the tires that came on the car and are terrible tires in my
opinion.

So, I strongly recommend the Dunlop SP9000's for S70 T5's
(205-55-16)and also can recommend the on-line purchase of tires. The
only catch is: Some local installer's have not yet moved into the 21st
Century and are not yet willing to give up their "Profit machine's" (e.g,
installing only tires purchased at their local store's). Persistance pay's off
however. For those of you in Atlana, I highly recommend Chris Volvo for
tire installations ($55 dollars to install/balance all 4 tires....what a deal)!