I reeeeeeally needed new tires. Despite being fully aware of this, I took a 50-mile bumpy-ass dirt road into the middle of Death Valley to a remote hot springs. There was no cell service, and I carried no spare -- what can I say, I like to live on the edge :)\n\nSure enough, I hadn't been back in town more than a few days when I blew out a tire. Thank dog it didn't happen in the middle of Death Valley! I went over to the Big O on Jones & Desert Inn, where I've been going for years...but unfortunately the place was closed, because the cool-ass man who ran it had passed away :(\n\nSo I went to another Big O, which shall remain nameless...and after upselling me on needless services (transmission fluid, power steering fluid and brake fluid flushes), the guy had the chutzpah to call me up the next day and ask me out on a date!!\n\nNow I can't fault the guy for asking me out -- after all, my usual m.o. when going in for automotive work is to wear skimpy clothes in order to wangle the best deal from the grease monkeys. But to rip me off and THEN have the balls to ask me out?! Inconceivable!\n\nI know they ripped me off, because my regular oil-change guy later told me he'd just changed my power steering fluid a few months prior...so it DEFINITELY did not need flushing. Lesson learned: check records before agreeing to services!\n\nAnyhoo, now I decided to get a full set of new tires, just in case. But I sure as hell wasn't going back to Big O! Someone recommended Discount Tire, so I went and checked it out.\n\nThe staff was courteous, the waiting room was airy, clean, and stocked with lots of magazines, and one of the grease monkeys offered me a bottle of water while I waited. The total cost for all the tires only came to $340, and I was in and out within 30 minutes.\n\nThis all just happened today, so I'm still waiting to see if these insanely cheap tires blow up prematurely. I'm also waiting to see if anyone calls to ask me out! \n\nBarring those eventualities...this place rocks!