I've never been to the Merchant's in Reston, but I'll provide this review of the Merchant's in Burtonsville (in the AutoPark on Briggs Chaney Rd):
Several months ago I needed new tires. One tire was punctured and the plug had failed. So basically, I could use an emergency pump and get a few miles before the thing was dead flat again.
So, onto TireRack.com I go and order up a new set of tires (the others I had on the car were wearing thin so it was just time to do them all). And lo and behold, Tire Rack lists the Merchant's in my town as a certified installer! What marvelous luck! I can have the tires shipped there and then make the short trip for the install without unduly endangering myself and everyone else on the road by driving on a completely flat tire.
One, two, three ... tires delivered / installed / everyone's happy. Until a few weeks ago when I decided I
really needed to clean at least my wheels (inside and out) if I couldn't clean my whole car. Break out the tire wrench and *UUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!!!***** WTH? Change my grip on the wrench and *UUUGGGAAAARRRRHHHHHH!!!!!** The damn lug nuts won't budge!!
Time to take advantage of having a Harbor Freight nearby. I bought a
torque wrench, a
breaker bar, and some sockets.
Back to the car - using the torque wrench I determine that the lug nuts were torqued to 115 - 120 ft-lbs!!!! Best I can tell from searching through NAS**C, Subaru lug nuts should be between 70 and 80 ft-lbs. WTF?!?!
So using the breaker bar and torque wrench I cracked all the nuts (I know that's gonna be added to the quote page) and re-torqued them to the correct setting.
In conclusion - all Merchant's suck.
CN: Merchants in Burtonsville over-torqued my lug nuts to 115-120 ft-lbs! Damn bastards!
--Alan