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Sep 5, 2009 - Ask Dub Schwartz!

Dear Dub,
Do you know a good class action lawyer? My Mazda 3 just eats tires like candy. I can't get them to last more than about 10K miles before one of them is completely shot, worn on the inside or cupped or feathered. I've had multiple alignments done and they say that there's nothing wrong and that everything's up to spec, but either the mechanic is incompetent or there's a major design flaw that Mazda needs to be forced to deal with. I love driving my car, it's so sporty, but whatever this problem is takes all the fun out of it.
Racer X

Well I hope you're sitting down Racer because I know exactly what your issue is. It's not the tires. And it's not your mechanic. It's not even the suspension on your car. There's no such thing as a "perfect" alignment. Ever try to get the players in an electric football game to go in a straight line? Can't be done. Even when an alignment is dead on specs, you're going to start to have uneven wear on the tires. That's normal. Think about it. Even assuming a perfect alignment, front tires are going to wear differently than rear tires because they're the ones that turn the car. Your driving conditions and habits may cause one side of the car to experience more or different types of wear on the tires on that side. As soon as tires hit the road, they are starting to wear. So what's the problem with your car?

The problem is you. You're expecting the tires on all four wheels to wear the same and they simply cannot. What you have to do is spread out that wear by rotating your tires religiously every 5-6000 miles. That will help you get as much life out of your tires as you can.

The only thing a lawyer is going to do about that is to lighten your wallet a bit.

3:06 am | Categories: ask dub schwartz, humor, tires Permalink | Alert Administrator

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