About Maple Tire
We’re an independent tire shop on Castlefield Ave. Not a chain, not a dealership, not a general garage that also does tires. Tires, wheels and alignment are the only things we do — which is why we’re fast at them.
What We Actually Do
Tires, wheels, alignment. We don’t do brakes, we don’t do oil changes, and we won’t tell you your suspension needs two thousand dollars of work while your car happens to be on our hoist. If we see something outside our lane, we’ll point at it and tell you to get a second opinion from someone who does that work for a living.
Four bays, six people, open since 2014. In an average October we do about six hundred changeovers, which is the only reason a forty-five-minute promise is a promise and not a slogan.
How We Price
Every price on this site is what you pay, plus HST. You get a written estimate before the work starts, and we can’t exceed it by more than 10% — that’s Ontario law, and we’d do it anyway. Disposal is itemized at $5 a tire because that’s roughly what it costs us. There is no “shop supplies” percentage on our invoices, because that line exists to raise a price after you’ve agreed to it.
The full price list is here. Compare it before you drive anywhere.
The Equipment, and Why It Matters
Road-force balancer
Presses a loaded roller against the spinning tire to simulate the car’s weight. Finds stiffness variation a spin balancer can’t. Most of the vibration complaints we fix came from a shop that only had the cheaper machine.
Four-wheel alignment rack
With printed before-and-after reports. If a shop won’t give you the numbers, you have no way to know whether anything was actually adjusted.
Touchless mounting
For low-profile, large-diameter and run-flat tires, where a pry bar against a stiff sidewall does invisible damage.
EV lift points and torque specs
Pucks for Teslas, correct pads for the rest. A jack in the wrong place on a battery pack is a five-figure mistake.
What We Won’t Do
- Sell you four tires when two will do
- Plug a sidewall and call it a repair
- Quote a price on the phone and change it at the counter
- Charge you for an estimate, or for looking at a tire we can’t fix
- Tell you winter tires are legally required in Ontario — they aren’t, and any shop that says so is selling, not advising
What’s true about winter tires: below roughly 7 °C the rubber in an all-season hardens and stopping distances grow, and every insurer in Ontario is required to offer a discount for four winter tires with the mountain-snowflake symbol. That’s a good enough argument on its own. It doesn’t need help.
Hours, Seasons and Honest Wait Times
October through December is our busy season, and April through May is the smaller mirror of it. In those windows we’d rather tell you “Thursday” than pretend we can fit you in this afternoon and have you sitting in the waiting room for three hours.
Booking online always beats walking in during changeover season. Outside it, walk-ins for flat repairs and quick checks are genuinely welcome — that’s what the front bay is for.