Heard a customer say something about tire pressure that stuck with me

I was at the shop yesterday doing an oil change on a 2015 Civic and this older guy in the waiting area was telling his son about how he checks his tire pressure every single Sunday morning. He said "if your tires are off by 5 PSI you're basically throwing gas money away." I never really thought about it that way. I mean I check pressures when a car comes in, sure. But after hearing that I actually did the math on my own truck. I've been running 32 PSI in my F-150 but the door sticker says 38. So for probably 6 months I've been wasting money and wearing out my tires uneven. Anyone else ever had a moment where some random comment from a customer made you rethink something basic?

2 comments

2 Comments

nina1473d agoTop Commenter

Oh wow that's actually a really good point. I never thought about it that way either. I mean we all know tire pressure matters but putting it in terms of throwing gas money away makes it hit different. My own car has been running low for a while now and I bet I've wasted a good chunk of change. Guess I'm checking pressures every Sunday from now on.

mark_cooper2d ago

That throwing gas money away line really hit me too. It's one of those things where someone puts a simple cost to a habit you just never bothered to fix. But honestly I think this connects to a bigger pattern I've been noticing everywhere. So many little things we do on autopilot end up costing us more than we realize. Like running low tire pressure or not checking your filters. It's not just about cars either. I've caught myself leaving the heat on when I leave the house and thinking it's fine. Then I really looked at the bill and realized how much I was wasting. Just one of those small adjustments that adds up over time.