Well there's certainly a diversity of opinion on this forum. When I posted in the past about problems with a tire retailer people posted that they employ young and/or little trained mechanics so what did I expect by going to one. I got the sense that others on the forum were sorry to hear about the troubles, but also thought I was a little foolish to have trusted our fine performance car to a tire chain. So ya'll convinced me not to go to those stores anymore. And now that I've decided/posted about going to a dealer for the same type work, people are asking why I'm not going to a tire chain, and it comes across that people think I'm a little foolish for not doing so. I have to get the work done someplace.

So, I am going to a dealer in large part because of past problems with tire retailers. Also because the TPSM is so sensitive and I don't want to have to go to a dealership afterwards, to reset or repair it. Also by shopping around I found a dealer who beat my local tire retailer's price and tirerack.com's price.

And I figure if I'm going to the dealer I'll take a Xfi mechanic - it, to my knowledge, doesn't cost any more than the generalist mechanic.

Thanks I do appreciate everyone's feedback, just got a chuckle about first hearing "you get what you pay for" at the tire retailer and then hearing go to the tire retailer.