Pineville Tire
Pumping money into the old jalopy isn’t just for the thrifty consumer anymore.
As the economy worsens, and with new car sales down by more than 50 percent nationally, Carolina Tire & Service Center (http://www.carolina-
Data provided by the secretary of state’s office shows that new registrations for cars and trucks from the beginning of the year through February were down substantially, both statewide and in Mecklenburg County, compared to the first two months of last year.
In light of those numbers, Jim Seidel., owner of Carolina Tire & Service Center, said he’s seen a tremendous increase in the amount of people investing money into their current vehicles.
“People are keeping their cars a lot longer than what they had in the past,” Seidel said. “Older vehicles that would only be valued at $2,000 or $3,000 … people are going ahead and putting a motor in that car, because they’d rather keep it than go out and buy a new one.
“People can’t get the same quality of a vehicle if they spend $2,000 or $3,000 on a used vehicle, so they’re putting more money into the vehicles they already have and vehicles that they obviously know.”
Steve Case, owner of Case Tire & Automotive at in Gastonia, NC said he’s seen a similar trend.
“A lot of people are fixing the cars they have in their back yard,” he said. “I’d say our business is a little better than it was last year, noted Mr. Case.”
With this in mind, Pineville Tire is out promoting the "buy local" theme. Consumers have many choices today when it comes to automotive repair and for buying tires. Many times it seems like people have to call 20 places to find the "right deal". "Our customers are treated like family when they come to Pineville Tire" stated Mr. Seidel. "When consumers go to large corporate run stores they do not get that family attention, homey feel or that family trust", said Seidel.
To help shed more light on exactly who is owned by whom in the automotive industry, we have compiled a list of some of the larger automotive retail centers serving the Charlotte area.
Firestone Complete Auto Care is owned by Japanese conglomerate Bridgestone Corporation.
Goodyear Auto Service Centers – Headquartered in Akron, Ohio. 57.83 % of the top 10 stock holders of Goodyear Tire is owned by Wall Street institutions and hedge fund managers. The top 10 individual investors hold 0.44% or less than 1% of their stock.
Tire Kingdom – is owned by the Sumitomo Corporation of Japan.
Tires Plus – is owned by the Japanese Corporation Bridgestone Corporation.
The Tire Rack – Headquarted in Indiana, is partly owned by Leonard Green & Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California.
Discount Tire – 725 stores in the USA. They are headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona which is 2030 miles from Charlotte, NC.
Sears – Sears once America’s store in now owned by K-Mart and its top 25 stock holders own 92.16 % of the company which are all Wall Street financial institutions.
Carolina Tire & Service Center – is a local tire & automotive super center which is locally owned and operated by the Seidel family.
Carolina Tire practices what they preach when it comes to buying and selling local. As a subsidiary of South Carolina's XL Tire, Inc. (http://www.xltire.com), Pineville Tire's top two tire manufacturers are Michelin Tire Corporation and Continental Tire North America. Both of whom have their North American headquarters in South Carolina. "We want to do business with people who invest in our local community", stated Mr. Seidel. "This is one of the big reasons why we chose Michelin and Continental as our partners, our customers notice this and appreciate what we are doing" add Seidel.
About Carolina Tire:
Owned by XL Tire, Inc of Fort Mill, South Carolina. Carolina Tire boasts a huge 7,000 square foot automotive and tire super center located in the heart of South Charlotte, NC. With 13 HUGE Service Bays to accommodate many customers at one time. A huge, comfortable waiting lounge is available with comfy leather chairs and a couch. Serving Charlotte since 1997. With seasoned mechanics on staff for your entire vehicle needs. Carolina Tire is a North Carolina inspection station. They boast a 42 inch LCD TV with full Direct TV, gourmet Dunkin Donuts coffee and a movie theatre popcorn machine. Michelin, Continental and 32 other tire brands to fit any need. (Michelin is headquartered in Spartanburg, SC and Continental’
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