28/08/2026
A Customer Story From Today β What Would You Do?
Had an interesting and honestly pretty frustrating situation at the shop today.
A customer came in with a Toyota Camry running 215/55R17 tyres.
We had two options available:
Continental UltraContact UC7 β $195 each fitted & balanced
Continental EcoContact EC6 β $175 each fitted & balanced
Before recommending anything, I checked all four tyres.
His current setup was:
Front:
2 Γ Continental UltraContact UC7 β both quite new
Rear:
1 Γ Michelin MXV β manufactured in 2009
1 Γ Continental MC6 β manufactured in 2020, almost bald
The MC6 definitely needed to come off the car, although being a 2020 tyre, it could still be kept as a spare.
The Michelin was a different story.
It was manufactured in 2009.
That makes it around 17 years old.
So after looking at the whole car, my recommendation was simple:
Replace BOTH rear tyres with Continental UC7.
Why UC7 instead of the cheaper EC6?
Because the customer already had two near-new UC7s on the front.
For an extra $20 per tyre, he could have four matching Continental UC7s on the car instead of mixing different models.
So the final setup would be:
Front β 2 Γ near-new Continental UC7
Rear β 2 Γ brand-new Continental UC7
Spare β 2020 Continental MC6
To me, that was the most sensible setup for the car.
I explained it to the customer and he said, βYes.β
So we fitted and balanced two new UC7s.
Total: $390.
Then came the surprising part.
When he came back to pay, he said:
βI thought it was $175?β
I explained again:
βThe UC7 is $195 each. The EC6 is $175 each. We fitted the two UC7s we discussed.β
Then he said:
βI was only going to change one tyre. If you want, just take the other new tyre back off and put my old tyre back on.β
At that point, I was honestly frustrated.
We hadn't recommended two tyres just to make an extra sale.
One rear tyre was almost bald.
The other rear tyre was from 2009.
And the car already had two near-new UC7s on the front.
From a tyre shop's point of view, fitting two matching UC7s was simply the logical recommendation.
In the end, I told him:
βThat's fine. I'll give you the second tyre for free.β
So he left with two brand-new Continental UC7s fitted and balanced, but only paid for one.
Sometimes running a business is frustrating.
We spend time checking the vehicle, explaining the options and trying to recommend what makes the most sense for the customer's car.
We're not always trying to sell the most expensive option.
In this case, the difference between the EC6 and UC7 was only $20 per tyre. The UC7 simply made more sense because he already had two near-new UC7s on the front.
Maybe we need to change our process and get every tyre quantity, model and total price confirmed in writing before starting a job.
But I'm curious:
What would you have done in this situation?
Would you have taken the second new tyre back off and refitted the 17-year-old tyre?
Or would you have done what I did and just given him the second tyre for free?
Interested to hear what other people think.