This morning, while drinking my coffee and making a routine stroll through shop preparing for the days work to come in, I ran into a wall of tires! Literally, I actually walked into this wall of tires. This wall wasn’t there last week but somehow grew to over 6ft high in less than a week. Now, I am happy about tire sales increasing but quite upset about coffee down the front of my new shirt my wife bought me for my birthday. No honey, I wasn’t dribbling today! As I was wiping the coffee from my shirt and beginning to fume why the tires were still in the shop and not outside waiting for proper disposal by our friendly solid waste guy, something caught my eye.

Looking closely at this pyramid of used tires I saw that some were not just used worn tires. They were worn, bald, steel belt showing, may pop at any moment way worn out tires! Wow! Who would drive around on tires like these and why? Not me or my family. Not any of my employees and certainly not any of my regular customers. As new customers are coming in on a daily basis now, I’m seeing a trend in car maintenance that I’ve categorized as “saving over safety”.

The mentality of “If I’m not spending money on my car, then I’m saving money” can be dangerous and irresponsible. Many people are putting off or extending their car maintenance until a crisis occurs. This crisis is usually unexpected, inconvenient and expensive. Auto manufacturers have in many cases extended regular maintenance intervals over a year apart! Not having your car checked over several times a year especially in the event of a tire blow out can be costly and dangerous.

We depend on manufacturers to provide a quality product. But, it is up to us to maintain that product so it performs as it was designed to and not to become a danger to ourselves or others. I personally know of an incident where a rear tire was bald was ignored. The following morning after being warned of the defective tire, it blew out and caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle and became involved in a roll-over accident. Both the driver and passenger were transported to the hospital.

The old saying “You can pay me now or pay me later” holds true many times in the auto repair business
And the “Later” most of the time costs you a whole lot more. For me, keeping my family safe is my priority. I hope it is the same for you.

Brian Bernard

Owner, Automotive Workbench