Regards,
Regina

Several years ago, Ford Explorer air pressure specs were considerably lower than what Firestone told them to use — because Ford wanted its vehicles to have a softer, more “car-like” ride for competitive reasons. The result was many deaths due to rollovers, especially when the vehicles were heavily loaded, towing a trailer or driven at high speeds in very hot weather. Google “Ford Explorer Firestone rollover” and you have tons of material to read.

Tire manufacturers actually test their tires well above the air pressures molded on their tires’ sidewalls: their tires will perform very well at and beyond the tire mfr’s spec limits.

Three other factors to consider:
* From a handling perspective, an underinflated tire is extremely dangerous, especially if you drive with heavy loads or on freeways. If you inflate your tires only to the specs given by the vehicle mfr (typically lower than the tire mfr specs), and you don’t check your tire pressure frequently enough (at least monthly), then you will lose air in your tires and soon be driving on severely underinflated tires.
* Underinflated tires wear out much faster than fully inflated tires. Soft rides = more frequent tire replacement = $$$ to your tire shop.
* Underinflated tires have more friction with the road, so you gas mileage goes way down. More $$$ to the oil companies. You can save real money by fully inflating your tires and checking the pressure frequently.

For best performance & tire life, check the air pressure and adjust when the tires are cold.

But on big ticket items, always get the second opinion. And, if they differ substantially, don’t be shy about getting a third. If you can do this with a knowledgeable friend, you’re chances of a good outcome will be even better.

Unless you take the time to research, learn about your vehicle, learn about “common” issues with every vehicle on the road, you are either setting yourself up to sound like an idiot when you walk into the shop “pretending” you know what the hell you are talking about, or you are going to be “taken” AND look/sound like an idiot.

BEFORE you go to the shop, talk to someone who knows cars, and/or take them with you — we all know someone like this. Or study a little bit about your car — not in the owners manual, actually take the time to LEARN about your vehicle. There are THOUSANDS of forums on the net that are specific to pretty much EVERY car built. 99.9% of the time you can explain the symptoms, and narrow your issue down to the exact cause within an hour.

The problem is people are WAY too damn lazy. We care more about what we can get out of doing so we can sit on our butts watching Desperate Housewives than we care about saving money — and then everybody in this damn country wonders why the economy is in the sh**house, and no one has money.

And to the guy that goes to school to be a Tech — let me know where you work, or will be working, I will make sure everyone avoids your shop at all costs. People PAY you, ALOT to fix their junk. The quality of work you do should have ZERO bearing on how they talk to you, my god

Second opinions are hit and miss. Just because one shop says “your drive shaft is slightly bent and is going to need replacing, no I’m sorry it cannot be repaired it must be replaced, that’ll be $1500″ and you go to another shop and they say something like “Oh your drive shaft isnt bent its perfectly fine.” Your going to believe the second shops word because you, being human, is exactly what you want to hear, you want to hear that you don’t have to spend any money. When in fact your driveshaft WAS bent, and over time it became worse thus potentially destroying the internals or your transmission in the process THUS costing you a hell of alot more money. The point I’m trying to make is, second opinions are hit and miss. No two technicians think or work the same and certainly no two technicians have the same amount of knowledge. Your taking a chance and rolling the dice no matter which way you go.

Just because your shop says that they are ASE or AAA certified, dosn’t mean the tech working on your vehicle is, and most of the time they wont be, sorry but its true

Don’t go into a shop with an attitude, it MAY reflect on the job done. Oh you say we purposely made your car worse…..ok prove it for me please.

For pete’s sake don’t yell at a tech, most of them could probably kick your ass, and you certainly wouldn’t dare speak to a tech the way you planned on his own turf the way you would in public now would you???? Doubt it, so drop the future tough guy acts because we WILL remember you….point in case goes to my little topic just above this paragraph.

For HEAVEN’S SAKE, don’t say you want the old broken part back, it just makes you look stupid, we both know you have no idea what it does or how it functions, even if we explained it to you a dozen times you wouldn’t know what it does and we certainly doubt you have a collection you keep of old parts somewhere in your home. Getting a “second opinion” on old parts goes back to my first topic.

The morale of the story is be nice to your techs, it wont go unnoticed, and if it does and you get poor service then go somewhere else. We look at you as potential bad guys just as you look at us that way. Techs aren’t the bad guys, we work too just like you, we don’t work for free and I doubt you do either. You may not be able to control your next visit to your local repair shop (and this whole article really does nothing for you btw) and that might scare you, but theres plenty of other things that I can’t control either………which makes technicians human just like you…….FYI

SO BE NICE AND WE WILL BE NICE!