At the Century City Mall parking, they are getting ready to open up electric car charging spaces soon. Apparently, it’s to promote these Coda cars which they are showing in the mall. I’m assuming any electric car can park there but I’m not sure.

Parking spaces for Coda electric cars

The tires on my old 2004 Toyota basically are bald. It’s time to get new ones. In the past, I’ve used the dealer but I know they charge more. But now that I’m buying everything online, I decided to try buying tires this way and hopefully save some time and money too.

Using google, I found Discount Tire Centers, which apparently has stores all over Southern California.

Discount Tire Website

Their nice website allowed me to pick my tires based on my car, and even make an appointment at their nearest location, which was just down the street from me. Their prices were very competitive too. Nice.

So on the day of my appointment, I arrive at the Discount Tire Center at 1992 S. Sepulveda in West LA, park and go inside. There was nobody behind the counter. Strange. After just a minute, a guy comes out with a customer and they start discussing his options. While this is going on, calls are coming in and this lone employee must answer the calls while trying to help this live customer. I could tell this was going to take a while.

Fast forward to my turn. I show him my appointment print-out and he starts typing into the computer keyboard. I can already tell there’s going to be a problem. He tells me he doesn’t have any record of my appointment but he’ll check to see if he has the tires I need. He then literally calls 2 places on 2 phones simultaneously. One on each ear. Talk about multi-tasking. Unfortunately, this amazing phone trick yields zero tires.

Actually, what’s amazing is what happens next. He tells me that the online appointment system is run by another company and I need to call a guy at that company. With that, he wipes his hands of me and the sales pitch is over. The strange part was not that he wanted me to call some other guy, but that he didn’t try to sell me something. This was a perfect opportunity for him to upsell me to some expensive tires that he has in stock. But no upselling. In fact, no selling at all. It was just bye-bye.  Weird.

So I called the number he gave me and indeed it was the voice mail of the guy that he says the number was for. I explained my situation and left my number for him to call me. It’s been months and I’m still waiting for a call.

At this point, it was apparent that this company didn’t know online from hole in the wall so I was no longer thinking that I was actually going to get tires from this company, but I didn’t want my credit card being charged and wanted to cancel my order.

After getting back home, I went back to their website and found their corporate phone number. Amazingly, I got a live person there without any waiting. I explained my situation and she explained to me that the online service simply emails the local store and it’s up to them to take care of the appointment and ordering of the tires. So apparently, either the local store didn’t get the email or more likely, they don’t know how to read their email.

She was very nice to me on the phone and explained to me not to worry about the credit card because it doesn’t get charged until all the services are completed. She also told me that she would look into the apparent disconnect between their online system and their store.

That’s all nice, but it’s too late for me.

In hindsight, I should have double checked my appointment before going there and I probably could have avoided the problems I had. I still may not have been able to get my tires, but at least I wouldn’t have gone there and wasted my time. I guess the official looking print-out I got from their online website gave me a false sense of entitlement.

By I digress.

On to the next website I go looking for tires. The next one I found was tirerack.com. This one is different in that it just sells the tires to you and ships it to a tire installer near your house. As you can see from the website below, my car can have 2 different sized tires depending on the options I got on my car.

Tire Rack Website

Unfortunately, being the moron that I am, instead of double checking the tire size simply by going to the garage and looking at my tires, I decided that I knew my tire size from memory. You already know where this is going. I went ahead and ordered the tires and had it sent to a Firestone Auto Care center near me. Because Tire Rack is an online company, there is no sales tax so even with the UPS shipping, the cost was basically the same as Discount Tire. Nice.

Unlike Discount Tire Centers, Tire Rack emails me automatically when my tire shipment has arrived at Firestone with their phone number and instructions on what to do next. So far so good. I call Firestone and they tell me the tires have arrived and I schedule an appointment to come in a few days later.

When I arrive at Firestone, unlike at Discount Tire Center, there are 2 people behind the counter, not to mention other people sitting in a waiting area for their cars. This looks much more promising so far. The guy behind the counter goes to the computer and my appointment is actually there. He asks for my key so he can get my odometer reading.

Unfortunately, when he comes back, he gives me the bad news. I’ve ordered the wrong sized tires. He tells me I can send the tires back to Tire Rack and have them ship the right sized ones, or he has the right size in stock but it will cost a little more. Yes! This is the upselling that I was expecting at Discount Tire Center but didn’t get.

At this point in the game, I was happy that he was upselling me and quickly told him to write me up and install those more expensive suckers right on my car.

While waiting for the installation, I called Tire Rack and they said I can either take the tires to UPS, or have UPS pick them up at Firestone, which would cost more. Completely defeated at this point, I told them to have UPS pick it up and I’d be happy to pay extra to end this nightmare purchase.

Finally, after about 2 weeks of online play and false starts, I had my new tires installed at a cost higher than initially expected, not to mention the extra UPS cost I incurred. The guy at Firestone told me there were other things wrong with my car but I ignored him and drove away quickly before he did any more upselling on me.

At this point, you’re thinking this epic fail is over. No it’s not. After a month, I noticed my credit card wasn’t credited with the return of the tires so I called Tirerack and learned that Firestone had sent them the wrong tires. That’s right.

The customer service lady was kind enough to tell me that she would contact Firestone and work this out with them for me. However, she also told me that this could take a while to work out because they will probably dispute the claim. And she wasn’t kidding. In this case, a while may mean forever. It’s been months and I’ve pretty much given up on it.

So in the end, not only did I waste weeks, got frustrated and spent a long time on customer service calls, I ended up spending hundreds of dollars more than if I had just had my dealer put the tires on. What an epic fail this turned out to be.

So what the moral of this story? There are more than one lesson to be learned here.

First, when making an appointment online, do not trust that the system works properly. Double check the appointment by talking to a live person.

Second, don’t be a moron. Double check before ordering online to make sure you are ordering the right thing. Just because the website tells you what to order, doesn’t mean that’s what you should get.

And lastly, sometimes in trying to save a few bucks by ordering online, it may end up costing you more money.

I’m going to take tires off my list of things to order online.

It’s about that time again when I have to start looking for a new car. Last time back in 2004, I was looking at the Prius but because it was so new, there was a long waiting list to get one. Now, the current generation Prius is readily available, but there are new ones ready to come out in the near future.

The word is that a new low end “C” model will be coming out in 2012. This model will be smaller and lower cost than the current model. The concept looks more sporty than the current generation and will compete with the Honda CR-Z.

Prius C Concept

I’m not sure if I should wait for this model, not knowing for sure if it will even come out in 2012. Waiting for new car models is a lot like waiting to buy the latest smart phone or other high tech gadget, because a new one will be announced as soon as you buy it.

Nissan GT-R

Checkout this Nissan GT-R I saw parked in Westwood. In case you’re interested, the MSRP start at around $84k. This one I saw had a flat black paint job which made it look like Batman’s GT-R. Me likey. Motor Trend gave this car their “Car of the Year” award in 2009 and says this baby can go to 195mph and reach 0-60 in about 3.2 seconds. Nice if you have to go after those pesky bad guys.

Hyundai Equus

According to Autoblog.com, the new 2011 Hyundai Equus will come with a free iPad (16g, WiFi) with the owner’s manual pre-loaded. Apparently, the manual is an app (not just an iBook) and will allow the owner to schedule maintenance on the car and make contact with your dealer.

There will also be video in this app to show the owner how to use the car. Maybe there will be a video showing what will happen to your car if you use the iPad while driving.

Hyundai will update the owners manual app via iTunes so that owners can keep up-to-date on anything new with their car (like recalls). That’s assuming Apple accepts this app to be in the App Catalog.

Manuals are becoming scarce, especially for gadgets, and are going more to online versions. If Hyundai is the future of what’s to come, Apple will have to have a special app section just for interactive manuals. This is good for trees and people who are running out of space for all their manuals. I think I still have my manual for my Atari 2600 somewhere.

The day is coming when printers and the Postal Service are gone.

There are new high tech parking meters in downtown Los Angeles that take credit and debit cards. You simply slide and pull out your credit card, just like at the gas station, then use the blue “+” and “-” buttons to add or subtract time to enter into the meter. Of course, you can still use coins.

There are green and red LEDs on the opposite side for the meter-maids to see when they drive by. On the user side, there’s an LCD and 4 buttons to control usage. The unit gets power from a solar panel on the opposite side, but I’m not sure it’s not getting some power from the grid also. Somehow, the meter checks your credit card and authorizes or rejects your card. I’m not sure how it’s doing this but it’s pretty fast. Not sure if they have WiFi or underground wires.

So far, I haven’t tried using a bad card but I assume it’s really doing the check. One thing I don’t like is, when you put your credit card in, the amount defaults to the maximum ($2) and allows you to reduce the amount using the minus button. However, it will time out automatically and charge the maximum if you do nothing. This is a problem if there’s something wrong with the buttons and you cannot enter anything. In that case, you will be charged the maximum automatically. I guess with LA’s budget crisis, they have to do everything they can to make a few extra bucks.

Be sure not to use your credit or debit card if you’re going to commit a crime. They’ll be able to trace you down to your exact location from your card.

Update 6/14/2010:
I just found out that the balance on the debit card that I was using at the meter was zero but the parking meter accepted it. Either the “Authorizing…” message is fake or I’m going to get a letter from the city.

While commuting, I came across yet another Tesla in the wild on the 405 freeway transitioning to the 10 freeway west. These things are starting to pop-up now. Pretty soon, it will be like a Prius.

Tesla Motors has a showroom in West LA where I drive past sometimes dreaming about how I could obtain one in this lifetime. However, until this week, I’ve never seen one in the wild.

I was driving on the 10 Fwy and I see a sports car coming fast on my left. I tried to figure out what it was and I wasn’t able to recognize it. I got my camera out and managed to get a few blurry shots of the Tesla in the wild.

To add insult to injury, it even had the car pool lane sticker on it.  Damn.

The Honda FCX, which has been around since 2007, was sighted on the 405 recently. Apparently, it’s a prototype and not available directly to the public. This one looks like it’s a dealer test car. The FCX is a hydrogen fuel cell, zero emission vehicle (ZEV) and the EPA has confirmed a range of 210 miles. Must be nice.

According to Honda’s website, the Honda FCX Clarity is their production model of this ZEV and about 200 vehicles will be available for lease in Southern California. I wasn’t even aware that Honda has such a car out in production. Looks like everybody else is going to be playing catch-up.

I’ve seen the TV ads for the Nissan Cube but had not seen one in the wild until recently. I saw this one parked in the Ralphs parking lot in downtown.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to talk to the owner about the car because I was in a hurry and had to leave. But if I ever get a chance, I’m going to ask the owner what they think of the car.

The most interesting feature of this car is the right rear window area which has no blind spot at all.

Frankly, I wish Ford had brought their SYNus concept car to market.  I’m sold on that concept car 100%. Not only does it not have a rear window, it also has a metal front windshield cover that comes out of the hood.  See the SYNus video below.