Clare...

The fact that the cost is small compared to a new set of tires really isn't, and shouldn't be, the issue. The point is that paying $10 for nitrogen in a new set of tires costing $600 is still a waste of $10, and there's nothing good, admirable or even sexy about wasting anything, even a lowly 1.7 percent. I would no more pay $10 to have nitrogen in my tires than I would pay $20 to have a factory racing stripe painted onto my car. In both cases I know I'm wasting my money, and my brain is hard wired to avoid that.

In fact, a good arguement can be made AGAINST the use of nitrogen in a car's tires. Having the driver of the car acutely aware that ordinary air leaks out of the car's tires a tiny bit faster helps to ensure the driver pays attention to his car's tires and their inflation pressure, and that alone is worth more than $10 in fuel savings and longer lasting tires. With nitrogen in the tires, vehicle owners may be more complacent about looking at and paying attention to their tires because with nitrogen in them, they may feel they don't need to pay as close attention.

Bottom line here is that they should change the name from "Nitrogen" to "Racing Air" and it'd probably sell like crazy. After all, everyone knows that ordinary air is 78 percent nitrogen anyway. Racing air, on the other hand, is obviously what high performance cars use, so it might be worth the extra ten bucks in better performance.