(May 9, 2025 at 10:32 pm)Fireball Wrote: It's page 444, so I'll interject some trivia. I used to work as a mechanic, and I learned a lot about the industry, in general. If you took your vehicle into a Goodyear tire shop, they had a sales pitch called the 4-4-4. Four tires, four shock absorbers and four ball joints (suspension parts on vehicles of that era). They'd prey on young women, and sell them all those parts, which came to a lot of money. My youngest sister fell prey to it, and the mechanic even offered my other sister (who was with her) a ride home, as the car was "considered unsafe". My sister called my mother to come get them instead. My mother was a real spitfire, and went to the tire shop and read them the riot act. Little sis went home without the new tires and all the other shit they tried to hussle on her. I found a tire shop to replace her tires without the extra sales pitch. I ended up buying the car from her, and I did actually replace those parts, years later.
I had a couple similar experiences back in the late 80s but with Firestone. Before my ex deployed to Korea, he got a Firestone credit card so that if I needed anything for the car I could go there. I went in with a tire issue one morning. They replaced or repaired the tire, I don't remember which, and when I left the car was running like absolute crap. It had been running fine other than the tire problem. Luckily my ex had been in the motor pool on base so I knew some mechanics. Turns out that the guys at Firestone had unhooked a vacuum line. I wrote it off as an oops, till the next time I went in the exact same thing happened. They were taking advantage of military wives left stateside in hopes that they could force then into some sort of engine work. I went all sideways on the manager at that store and wrote a scathing letter to the editor warning others of what they were trying to do. I have never stepped foot in a Firestone store since then, and never will. Buncha scammers.
I'm your huckleberry.
