California to require mandatory tire-pressure checks at automotive businesses
Keeping your tires properly inflated is a very good idea. An under-inflated radial can increase wear while also decreasing performance and fuel economy. But if the state of California can help it, under-inflated tires may soon be a thing of the past.
California has passed a new law requiring most auto servicing sites to check tire pressure at each visit and add air when necessary. The law will affect 40,000 businesses in the state, although the mandate does not effect body shops, car washes, glass repair shops, or parts stores. The state's government will let the service stations, smog-check stations, oil change places, and so on determine how much to charge for the check, and they must have a high-accuracy pressure gauge on hand. The tire pressure monitoring law will go into effect in July 1, 2010.
California's Air Resources Board says the state-wide law will save 75 million gallons of fuel per year, while also eliminating 700,000 metric tons of greenhouse gasses. That sounds mighty impressive, but if the Sacramento Bee is to believed, that's less than 0.5 percent of what California's greenhouse-gas reduction goals for 2020. Better is the CARB estimate that optimized tire pressure will save drivers about $12 per year (about six gallons of gas at today's prices), along with added safety and tire longevity benefits.Those figures are based off statistics which show that vehicles lose 1% efficiency for every 3 psi a tire is low. Testing by Consumer Reports showed little or no impact on fuel economy when tire pressure is off by 10%, though most agree that low tire pressure will shorten the life of tires. Fewer tires in state landfills figures to be a good thing, too.
Check out CARB's official press release by clicking here, and find more information at the link below. Thanks for the tip, Mark!
[Source: Consumer Reports | Image: Einstein/Getty]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Jeff 8:09PM (4/02/2009)
Communist California at it's best.
Yes checking tire pressures is a good idea but anyone that drives a car should be able to do it themselves. it really is not that hard!
Reply
Big Rocket 8:13PM (4/02/2009)
@Jeff: Anyone living in California can continue to check tire pressure for themselves. According to the source article at Consumer Reports, "Shops will set their own prices for this service, though drivers can decline to have it done."
Cameron 8:16PM (4/02/2009)
Dude, easy on the sweeping generalizations.
This could save lives, not just gasoline. But I guess with a comment like yours I'm sure the lives of those that aren't your friends and family just mean less to you.
Phil 8:56PM (4/02/2009)
@ Cameron
And your friends and family don't??? Come on now, it's not about that. It's about more regulations designed to protect many people that care nothing of personal responsibility. It's about people that can't take care of themselves having to be babied to do the most rediculous things. It's just another justification for more laws, more regulations, and not indifferent to the 10% Sales tax that Ca has. It's also about having to pay $10 for every pound that your dog or cat weighs to have them licensed. What is that, your German Shepard weighs 75lbs? That will be 750 USD to license your animal this year. California has some serious problems.
Will this law save a life? Maybe but as a driver of a vehicle, we should all know a couple of things. How to put gas in our cars, and how to check our tires. Really,,,
KeatMP 10:02PM (4/02/2009)
@ Phil
+10,000
Well said.
Shoeb Khan 10:10PM (4/02/2009)
sure its easy, but people are often stoopid. Case in point: the lady who got locked inside her own car...
R 10:23PM (4/02/2009)
You guys must have missed the part where you can decline to have it done.
James 10:57PM (4/02/2009)
Definitely don't want some idiot "nanny" state law to look over me...just to check the tire pressure. Government intrusion at it's best...
I could and am doing it on my own, CA...thank you very much.
montoym 11:10PM (4/02/2009)
quote: - "You guys must have missed the part where you can decline to have it done." -
So, why the need for the law then?
Seems if a business wants to offer this service and they wish to charge for it, more power to them. But, for the gov't to require it and then state that it's optional just seems to make it a completely worthless law.
How many people do you really think will actually opt to have their pressure checked, particularly if there's a fee involved? For a free service, sure, but to pay someone to check my air pressure, no thanks.
Nonetheless, making it optional is almost as ridiculous as even offering up this legislation in the first place.
2004m3driver 1:30AM (4/03/2009)
Whatever, its just ignorant/forgetful people getting schooled. Who the hell cares. If you check your own tire pressure then decline it like I would be.
"Communist California" that's clever. I am sure everyone over here is a pinko commie. I wish more people had that sentiment and moved to a much more American state.
Darin 3:16AM (4/03/2009)
Phil, it's also about the person who's life is in danger from that person who cannot take personal responsibility. It should be something everyone does, but it takes 2 minutes to do for the shop, I just don't see why this wouldn't be done by shops without the law.
Kitko 8:04AM (4/03/2009)
The fact of life is that MOST of people do not check anything on their cars whether it's tire pressure, oil level or lamps. Walk down a supermarket car park. Any time a manufacturer refuses to honor the warranty, news channels are ablaze with outrage quoting a person as saying "I got this car for ....... (insert any number of months here) and it never required maintanence...."
On the other hand, more often than not people working in those "shops" have no idea how to adjust tire pressure properly on a given car and you can easily end up driving over or under correct tire pressure - it happened to me or my friends in Contintental Europe, UK, Canada or the USA.
Frank 8:58AM (4/03/2009)
2004m3driver
'"Communist California" that's clever. I am sure everyone over here is a pinko commie. I wish more people had that sentiment and moved to a much more American state. '
They are. More people are moving out of Cali than into it.
2004m3driver 1:31PM (4/03/2009)
@ Frank
Hrm I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do with California's high cost of living and the recession. I'm sure its just people leaving because California is turning into a Police State! oh the horror.
Farris 8:11PM (4/02/2009)
Dude, it's "affect."
Also, anyone wanna take bets as to whether or not they'll come out in a few days saying "Just kidding?"
Reply
Big Rocket 8:26PM (4/02/2009)
@Farris: CARB never said anything about banning black paint, contrary to the mistaken myth that CARB had to backpedal from a heavy-handed rule due to public backlash. Here's what Autoblog had to say about the issue.
Autoblog, Mar 29th 2009: To be completely fair, the California Air Resources Board never intended to ban black paint -- or any color of paint, for that matter. When devising ways to implement the Cool Cars Initiative, CARB couldn't find any dark paints that passed the 20% solar reflectivity test, which others took to mean that CARB would be banning them. Not so, says a CARB spokesman: "We are by no means interested in banning or restricting car colors." For now, CARB is sticking with the reflective glass portion of the initiative, which would add a reflective clear coat to windows and $31-$50 to the price of a new car...
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/03/29/follow-up-carb-says-just-kidding-about-banning-black-paint/
Judy Zik 9:52PM (4/02/2009)
The source article also says they found little difference when tire pressure was off "10 psi" not "10%". Which is a huge difference since for most tires 10% would only be about 3.5psi.
Personally I think this is ridiculous. You know that shops are going to misrepresent this and tell people they have to pay for this service and most decent shops already include this as part of their standard check. Now they will try to add on an additional charge for doing the same work. For heavens sake even Walmart does this when they change your oil. I also don't like the idea that people will rely on this instead of checking things out for themselves. I always believe in doing the walkaround before you take your car out on the highway. If you can't see that your tire is 10psi low you need glasses.
Jared 8:11PM (4/02/2009)
If they charge to do this, I'm moving.
Reply
Taglane 8:19PM (4/02/2009)
If it's mandatory I'd think not. Would you really move and spend more money moving out of state than you would for getting your car checked up every few months?
cereal.
Aki 8:41PM (4/02/2009)
BigRocket: just because they say they never meant it, doesn't mean that's actually try. It's called PR.