I'm happy with the tires I got for my Taurus at WalMart last Christmas. The cheapest tires in the store, they stick as well or better than the Continentals I had, and go through 1" of water at 50mph with no trouble. Tire guy put the wheels on with quick burps of a air gun, backed up by what was probably the weakest torque stick in his kit. He then put the car on the ground, and hit each nut twice with the torque wrench. Then he handed the wrench to the service porter, and drove around the building. When he got back, she went around the car with the torque wrench.
Two months later, I broke a spring and it poked a hole in a sidewall. The replacement was free, but they charged me 89 cents to dispose of the ruined tire. I'm quite satisfied with Walmart tire service. OTOH, I recently overheard a conversation in which it sounded like they were insisting on overfilling a guy's Colorado in an oil change. He was telling them what factory spec was, they were saying it took at least a qt more to hit the "full" mark. I should have told him to let them overfill it, then check again after it sat overnight and make them fix it if it read high in the morning. Mitch.
