We’d like to share a money-saving “public service announcement” for any of you who own a car.

If you plan on keeping your car(s) for three or more years, here is a simple way to save quite a bit of money. At least what it costs for a set of tires.

Wheel alignments – an important, often overlooked maintenance step

The fastest way to wear out your tires is by having wheels that are out of alignment.

Wheel alignments should be addressed as often as you get your oil changed, especially on the shoddy roads in NJ and the NYC Tri-state area.

But most people don’t think about that. As long as the car drives straight and doesn’t pull.

However, when you see your tires balding prematurely – only then do you think about aligning the wheels. And often too late. That happened to us recently, wearing out a great set of tires in about 20,000 miles – when they should have lasted 50k!

Lifetime Wheel Alignments

tire bald due to no wheel alignments

Bald because of misalignment!

Wheel alignments are around $100 a pop, give or take.

But did you know that some places offer “Lifetime” wheel alignments? There are at least two in the NJroute22.com coverage area.

Pep Boys and Firestone.

Starting at about $150 for most cars (more for AWD), you can pay ONE PRICE for wheel alignments for as long as you have the car.

They suggest every 6,000 miles – but often allow it sooner, especially if you say you “need” it.

This way you can get maximum life out of your tires. And if that prevents needing just one set of tires, it saved you $1000 or more!

(And don’t forget keeping the tires properly inflated as well!)

We wish we knew about this lifetime wheel alignments plan – we would have purchased it years ago – and had a lot more money in the bank as a result.

That’s today’s NJroute22.com PSA.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

About the author

NJroute22

NJroute22 (site admin) is an avid traveler along NJ Route 22 (and almost all of central New Jersey!) Family man, pet lover, and property owner who has a natural curiosity for everything around.