On Fri, 07 Nov 2014 12:06:09 -0800, SMS
wrote:

On 11/7/2014 11:24 AM, Vic Smith wrote:
On Fri, 07 Nov 2014 10:12:51 -0800, SMS
wrote:



I like the TPMS on cars where the driver is unlikely to ever check the
tire pressure.

Is that your car? I don't have TPMS on my car, but I keep a tire
gauge in my glovebox, and occasionally check all tires.
If leakage is excessive I get it fixed. That seldom happens.
If I had TPMS and it worked, I would do the same, less the check.
I haven't had trouble with tire wear.

I have tire gauges in all of our cars (4). Two have TPMS, two don't. But
I'm in my fifties. I grew up doing car maintenance and repairs. That's
no longer the norm. Most people want to minimize recurring maintenance
tasks on stuff they own.

"Rather than pay extra for nitrogen, most drivers would be better off
buying an accurate tire pressure gauge and checking and adjusting
their tire pressures regularly."

Yes, that's true. But first of all, you should not have to pay extra for
nitrogen because the cost of providing it is trivial.
Have you priced a nitrogen filling unit??
Average cost is somewhere close to $8000 for the required equipment.
Not sure what the maintenance cost is.
Second of all,
just because most drivers should buy an accurate tire gauge and keep
their tires properly inflated does not mean that most drivers will do this.

Doubt I'll ever put nitrogen in my tires.
None of the "minimal benefits" even apply to me, or most drivers.
But if it's free I won't turn it down.

I would not pay extra for it. But I have not bought tires anyplace but
Costco for a very long time since it would be very rare for the
out-the-door price to ever be more at another tire retailer than at
Costco. Only if I wanted some specialty tires would I go elsewhere. Tire
Rack is good concept but their partners that do mounting and balancing
are very expensive.