Grand Vitara has brand spanking new shoes

Today at lunch, my friend came with me and introduced me to her mechanic. He's a friend of her bf's.  I hate going to garages and going to a new garage is always somewhat traumatic for me.  I probably wouldn't have felt comfortable going to this garage alone. Perhaps it was just a fluke but everyone I saw there was male.

 Anyways we went at lunch time and my car was ready by 4:30.  The tires were changed to those almost new Firestones I picked up in Pointe Calumet.  I asked to look if there was a problem as the tires seem to wear unevenly. His comment was, that these type of tires, once they get bald they wear even faster. That there did not seem to be a problem with alignment or suspension causing the tires to wear unevenly.

We'll see how well these tires do. The previous tires, the Dunlop 225 60R18 99H, from what I read were High performance tires, which adhere well to wet pavement, and ride quietly, are also softer rubber and they wear faster.  The Firestones are 225 60R18 99T. Not sure if the T stands for Touring, but if I understand correctly they are rated 20 miles per hour slower and are made of harder rubber. They are a bit noisier, but they should last longer for the type of use I make of my vehicle.. where a percentage of the time in the summer, I'm riding on gravel or dirt roads.

I also got an oil change, always a good idea after a 2 week road trip where we drove almost every day.  They also changed 2 of the filters. 

The only thing I don't like about my grand Vitara is that I'm not as sensitive to it's engine sounds as I was to my prior Protege. It had that small Japanese engine sound, that I could tell if it was even slightly unhappy, and the engine always had a nicer sound after an oil change.  I do like the V6 and the fact it can take off like a bat out of hell, if I gun it... but  I can't tell the engine is happier after an oil change.