McGee Auto Service & Tires - Tallahassee, FL

A little while back I had the C6Z up on my lift and while poking around underneath, I noticed that the threads were showing on the inside edges of both of the front tires. I had an alignment done not too awfully long ago, and afterwards I really wasn't very happy with the way the car was driving. Steering seeming loose and vague, with the car wanting to drift first one way and then the other. Obviously the wear I was seeing was pointing to the alignment not being what it should have been.

I asked around and got a name of the guy up in Thomasville who I think did the alignment on my C5Z, and that car feels just rock solid on the road. But never did get around to contacting him. Can't really say that I am all that thrilled about going up into Thomasville anyway, as the place has some bad memories attached to it now.

Anyway, I went and ordered two front tires from TireRack, and they got here basically overnight, which was pretty astounding. So I contacted Scott at McGee Auto about installing the tires, and talked to him about doing an alignment on the car as well. So we threw the tires into the back of Connie's truck and headed up to McGee's one morning.

Long story short is that the alignment feels *perfect*. We took the car on a drive down to St. George Island afterwards, and I swear it felt like I could steer the car with just one finger on the steering wheel. The car handled like a dream and instead of fighting the steering wheel, it almost felt like the car was anticipating the road direction changes. I believe the guy who did the alignment is named "Toby", and he certainly did a bang up job with that alignment for me.

So, I want to take Connie's C6 coupe in to have that car aligned as well, as the alignment on it is definitely out of whack. Connie doesn't like driving it too much because it wears her out fighting to keep the car from drifting to the right constantly. So hopefully Toby will straighten this out as well.

Anyway, if anyone near by to Tallahassee is looking for a GOOD wheel alignment, I think McGee would be worthwhile taking your car to. They seem to know what they are doing over there in that department.

I haven't been to that neck of the woods, but the info may come in handy someday. :thumbsup:

I was going to ask, how many miles do you have on that C6Z Rich? I think the first alignment is covered under warranty and if your tires have wear like you describe you might get GM to replace them. Moot point now probably.....or are you out of warranty on time? Seems like just yesterday that you got that car.....

Well, I originally took the car back to the local Chevy dealership here in Tallahassee because of anomalous wear on the right front tire and had it aligned, and no one there mentioned anything about it being covered under warranty. Can't remember exactly how many miles I've got on the car off hand, but it was under 17K miles as of the first of the year, and I haven't driven the car much at all since then. And I have a 7 year extended GM warranty on the car, so it is certainly still under warranty.

I believe I bought the car after Chris Harwood had my blue C5Z for about a year, with no end in site for my getting it back, so it was likely April, 2010 when I bought it new. I bought the car from a dealership up in Washington D.C. because I just could not get a decent deal locally. Interestingly enough, I have been getting letters from the local Chevy dealership indicating that they want to buy that car from me. But I'm sure it's just so they can throw a sales pitch at me for a new C7 using the car as a trade-in. Thanks, but no thanks.

Oh well, just not worth the hassle to go back to the dealer and bitch about not getting a free alignment. What is done is done, and I would probably get a song and dance anyway, wasting my time in the effort.

Still haven't gotten around to taking the silver C6 Coupe to McGee's yet. For being retired, still seems like there is always something sucking up available time around here.

Matter of fact, I really should take the blue C5Z out for a spin today. Looks like we've got rain in the forecast for this upcoming week.

Yeah, we keep getting letters from the Chevy dealer too, having an "urgent need" for my wife's Trailblazer.....

Speaking of C7's, saw a beautiful red one at a restaurant off Thomasville Road last week!

Hey, what happened to the edit feature on these post? I was going to add this to my prior post....

Sorry. but posts made in this particular forum (Board of Inquiry) cannot be edited nor deleted once submitted.

Ahh, how soon I forget.....

McGee Tire

In 1994 I got transfered to Lakeland. At that time Corvette Fever was out of Lakeland and we did their security. I got to know them quite well and asked where they got their work done on their Corvettes. They told me McGee Tire. At that time they only had two stores in Lakeland (their home base) and I did their security. Over the years I did all their stores as they built more. I never had a bad experience with them and heartely recommend them for any work on Vettes. Good people!!! :crazy03:

The local McGee Tire store is gone from Tallahassee. Apparently it has merged with The Tire Choice. Not sure what this is going to mean when I need those fat tires on the vettes changed out. Hopefully the same people are working there with the same equipment, and only the sign on the building has changed.

I've been using these guys since the late 80's. They were able to solve problems that other shops couldn't and they are honest. They're just outside Capital Circle and US 90 west. https://www.sirmonsalignmentandbrake.com/

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to need to replace the rear tires on the C6Z sometime soon, and from what I understand, not every tire shop can handle those wide tires/wheels.

I bought a used Suburban from a private owner that appeared to have been well kept about 15-twenty years ago. Had all service records. It had a vibration and it needed tires so I bought a set from brand x. The vibration was still there so I took it back and had them rebalanced. STILL there. I made an appointment with MR. Sirmon (Rick's dad) and he checked the balance. He took the Suburban for a test drive and brought it back, jacked up the left rear, pulled the tire off and got in, put it in drive (Chocked the front tires) and ran it up to about 55-60 mph. We could see the axle shaking like crazy! He pulled the brake drum off. It looked fairly new, not very much rust on it and no discernable wear. It was stamped, "made in china". He said, "There's your problem". I went home and looked at the service records and sure enough, they had a brake job done on it and the shop that did it had replaced the drum.