Last weekend I went to Costco to have my recently ordered Bridgestone tires installed on the rear rims of my 348. The guy behind the register began asking me questions about my car (the car the tires were going on), so he could fill out the work order. I politely told him that I brought just the rims in for him to install the new tires, instead of them having to jack the car up and remove the tires.(because I don't trust anyone to do this) When he got to the make and model of the car, he asked me "What kind of car will the rims going on? I told him "Ferrari" Then he said something that I was perplexed by. He asked me "And who makes it"? At first I wasn't sure what he meant. I thought he was asking who makes the tires that I have on the car now. As I looked at him and I started to say Ferrari, his lips mirrored mine and at the same time we said "Ferrari". He nodded as if he was testing me for the answer and continued to fill in the work order. Apparently he thought "Ferrari" was a model of GMC or Chevy, or Ford or something like "Suburban" or "Metro" or something. I had to try and keep a straight face throughout the remaining paper work sequence, because I was going to tell him to be extremely careful when mounting the tires so as not to scratch the rims. I felt if I ridiculed him, he might get offended and scratch the rims, so I kept a straight face until I left then laughed for about 8 minutes after I was out of sight.
I had a Mustang owner a few weeks ago tell me that Ferrari was owned by Ford. And that Lambo was only owned by Lambo and Volkswagen had no part of Lambo whatsoever.. He also told me the production XJ-220s had a V-12 in them and not just the prototype ones.
You did the right thing: You were courtious and polite. You may think about going back there and offering the guy behing the rigister a ride,
Rivee: I'd like to have you check the following thread and give me your comments - particularly, have you driven your car at freeway speed since the new tires were installed, and does everything seem to be OK? In the old archives, threads start at the bottom. Thanks, Miltonian. www.ferrarichat.com/discus/messages/112/315127.html
Good thing you kept the Fiat thing on the down-low! Oh yeah, last time I got tires at Costco, there was a huge gouge in one of my alloy wheels, spinning several inches out of one of the lug holes - obviously an air wrench mishap.
Its always prudent to have a supervisor type person to look at the car prior to the work. Point out existing scratches, dents. etc. in the area to be worked on and that any other 'new' scratches, etc., the shop will be liable. It's the same thing that car rental companies do before you leave with a car.
The old rear tires that were on the car were Bridgestone 255/45/ZR17 RE-71's. I replaced them with Bridgestone 255/40/ZR17's Potenza S0-3. Before I had the new ones put on I don't really know if they would sway back and forth or not, because the cord of the left rear tire was showing on the inside of the tire and didn't want to take her to speed with it like that. However since the new tires have been put on, I have noticed that "swaying" feeling on the road at about 80+mph. At 100+ it is even more exaggerated. I don't know if the new tires are the problem or not. The front tires are still B.S. RE-71. I didn't replace them because they still have about 70% of the tread left. Someone told me that if I adjusted the front alignment so that the tires cambered towards each other just a slight bit it might stop the "tracking" on the highway. The car feels as if it were tracking the grooves in the road. Like the previous thread said it jumps back and forth a little (not a foot or more like the previous thread) on the hwy at speeds over 80mph or faster.
At the risk of sounding sexist, how could any MAN not know what a Ferrari is? This guy works with cars! All 4 of my little GIRLS know what they are. I'm not sure I'd trust this guy to do an air change in the tires. An air change?........
in actuality didn't GM end up with a significant piece of Fiat during a "Sharing" project? in that quazai warped plane you could say GM owns Ferrari but the truth is Fiat is the main operating company....
What you just did is increase oversteer. Your rear wheel overall diameter is lower then your front tires, making the fronts wander more. Not a good thing at speed. Why did you drop the rear size to a 255/40 from 255/45? It was a bad idea if your fronts are (estimating) a 225/45 or even worse a 215/50. A temp. fix will involve bumping up rear tire pressure, with a slight drop in front pressure. If you give me exact details of what the front rubber is, the pressures you have F/R set to, etc, I can try and help as much as I can, but the best fix is to get the proper rear size at 255/45 or to drop the front down on a 225/40 to rebalance the car (this is not as good as using the proper diameter tire front and rear though).
John/Rivee: Thanks very much for your detailed response. It's hard to tell for certain what to think about this. Does your 348 feel somewhat unstable because it has only two new tires? Is your car out of alignment, as indicated by the uneven wear on your old tires? Were the 730 tires I mounted on the rear of my 348 actually defective? All I can say for certain at this point is that the steering/tracking on my 348 went totally to hell when I mounted the two new 730's on the rear only, and went back to normal feel when I mounted the full set of S01's. If I were you, I would pay very critical attention to the behavior of your 348 over the next 100 miles or so. It only took me about 10 miles of driving on the 730's to know that something was drastically wrong. Hopefully your car is OK on the S03's.
Sheesh, that would be like marrying Jenna Jameson and only being able to enjoy her cooking and good housekeeping. Why would any company agree to buy the bloated pig of Fiat Auto without the crown jewel?
australian auto-franchise's don't know what a fiat is either. for some reason they always think i'm talking about a ford. then i show them the car, and they look up triumph...
Thanks Aura for the response. I got the 255/40/ZR17 because Bridgestone doesn't make a S0-3 in the 255/45/ZR17. Only in the 40 series. My fronts are Bridgestone RE-71's 215/50/ZR17 with 30lbs of air and about 70% tread left. When Costco mounted my rears they filled them with 35lbs of nitrogen insteads of air. Don't know if it makes a difference in the handling or not. I've only had the car for 4 weeks, so I don't really know how it was supposed to handle at speed before I changed the rear tires. The steel belt was starting to show through the inside of the rear tires, so I never wanted to get it up to speed to see how she handled. I don't know how the alignment is. The front tires appear to be wearing evenly. Is there a way I could check it myself to see if it is in alignment by measuring the toe-in or toe-out or something?
Understandable why you went the way you did, S03 is a wonderful tire, and has saved my life a number of times in heavy downpour. If they wearing evenly you should be fine in the front in terms of Alignment. You do not want to messup the alignment too much as most modification will result in uneven wear. Your fronts are already very low, so try bumping the rear pressure by 2PSI or so. (assuming it is at stock pressure now), If that helps try another 2PSI. Try and 'feel' for where you get the best balance back with the car. If you add and it feels worse, drop a litte. When you do change your front, try to see if a 225/45 is available.
I can beat all of that: Some spoilt kid in my English class saw me on barchetta in the library and came up to me and said "there any 550's or 360's on there?" i replied that it was a vintage ferrrari site. He said that the 550's and 360's were the nicest and best ferraris. i nodded to play along (sorry if i offeneded anyone, i love the 360's and 550's but just like the vintage cars more). Then he said something i will never forget, it was something along the lines of: "Do you know ferrari makes everything now? When i went to Italy, there were Ferrari garbage trucks everywhere". I had no idea what to say....
FIAT is several things, but mostly it is a holding company that has a stake in several operating companies including FIAT Auto which has no connection to another FIAT investment, FMG (Ferrari Maserati Group). GM bought a piece (20%) of FIAT Auto, but has zero interest in FMG. one of FMG's largest shareholders (approx 38%) is a consortium of banks led by MedioBanca. Piero Lardi Ferrari has 10%. FIAT Spa has a huge chunk of FMG but the reality is that their holding is pledged to Mediobanca to secure their (FIAT Spa) debt. FMG will most likely be spun off as a separate public company at some point when the market conditions in the EU are favorable and FIAT can get enough valuation to retire their very significant debt.
