The new Proxes

To: Customer services:
This morning I left my MGF with the branch to have new tyres fitted to the pristine rims I travelled three hundred miles to buy last Saturday. I gave written instructions to use the jacking points which had been painted for identification and gave both torque settings and required tyre pressures.

The car was returned with chips to tworims, both identical in pattern and caused by the removal equipment. The original 20 year old tyres were fitted to the rims and had never been removed. The wheelnuts were all overtightened by varying amounts. All tyre pressures were between 2.4 and 2.6 bar as measured by a pressure gauge calibrated to National Standards and not 1.8 front, 1.9 rear.

The notified jacking points were not used and the car was returned with 205 section on the front left, 195 on the front right, 205 on the rear left and 195 on the rear right.

I am very disappointed with the service which has hitherto been first class, which is why Protyres were chosen to fit these tyres. I am happy to provide details of my written instructions and photographs of the damage caused to my rims together with evidence from the man who sold them to me and photographs of their condition before new tyres were fitted.

I feel that your organisation should be responsible for rectification of the damage caused and wish to pursue the matter to achieve satisfaction.
Sincerely, Tom Sheppard.

Commiserations, people seem to be happy with poor service, if not, the standards in many areas would be better & how many folk would inspect the work done. If you had accepted the job as correct & cleared off at a rate of knots, you could have made a line or two in the local paper, “Well loved local man bounces off two hundred year old oak” & caused inconvenience to other road users whilst the recovery unit dragged the wreckage of your car out of the greenery.

Four correctly specified tyres on the car and with the correct ride height, new spheres and dampers and 26 front 28 rear, it should feel pretty good. The front is very vague in the straight ahead and the back controlled but not yet confident. Miles will sort the latter, as will winding off a little rear toe, currently +10' each side. The front is a little too keen to follow camber which suggests the toe needs to come in a smidge and that a pound more in the 195 fronts would sharpen it up. Work in progress, as there is to be a TF rack fitted next. The ride is very much better on the Toyos. I just need to scrub the newness off them and then find out what they grip like.

Sorry to read the first post above.

The TF rack is a great improvement over the F rack, defiantly worth doing.

As a Brit my feeling having just visited my Mum in the Uk there is the attitude there that 'it will do'. Nothing quite works as indicated by your experience of fitting tyres. People need to complain a lot more directly to suppliers like you.

Speaking of tyre wear, the UK roads are a disgrace vs the extensive French roads where the surfaces are perfection. including on white roads. The Brits seem unable to build road drains that do not sink or roads with smooth surfaces - crash bang every 5 yards and that is in an Audi A6 - what it is like in an MGF, god only knows. The UK roads are being re-patched or not re-patched at all, with big deep holes and roads not resurfaced regularly like French roads. UK Councils/highways need to be taken to task by the residents.

Norfolk was bad (other than around Sandringham) and Bath was awful.