I can drive again!

Well, I finally got all my tires replaced today. Thanks to George and ANg for their expert advice, and to Esther for being my chauffeur all weekend. George recommended I buy the tires from tirerack.com, and I highly recommend it as well. Each tire has hundreds of user comments that you can read to get the "real" scoop.

From the user comments, I learned that a lot of the tires that new cars come with are really awful and way overpriced. I think the tire company figures that when you need to replace your tires, you're just going to get the same ones your car came with and will pay whatever price they set [Don't fall for it!]. For example, the stock tires my car came with cost $150 each. Without knowing any better, I was just going to get the same tires. But after checking out the user comments at tirerack.com, I found out that my stock tires are pretty bad, and there is no shortage of other tires that are actually vastly better in every category for less than half the price.

Just goes to show how some companies really try to capitalize on people's ignorance (and succeed.) This only motivates me more to someday take an automotive class and learn the basics of car repair. Every time I take my car in for scheduled maintenance, and they add somthing, I can never shake the feeling that they're trying to pull a fast one on me. Hrm, people say the same thing about doctors. Haha, I guess this is how a lot of patients feel when I'm talking with them.