jginnane

"If your alignment's good"... is the telling line. You don't know until you get the alignment checked, and to do that, you pay for a 4-wheel alignment. Probably a good idea at intervals, but most people won't spend for it untiul they really feel something's wrong.

I just went through the OEM Advans on this car, 18.5K on the original alignment. The wear was even; the car didn't pull. The right rear wore out faster than the rest, which is typical for an open-differentialed rear-wheel drive car. But I'm paying for an alignment when I put the new tires on -- why?

Well, I'm plus-sizing (245/45-18 front and 275/40-18 rear) in order to get this particular brand tire. So the contact geometry is changing a little. Second, I believe the treadwear rating of 540, and don't want the tires to wear prematurely. Third, obviously, you have to do this for the warranty coverage.

But there's also an anecdotal piece of car knowledge I rely on, namely, my neighbor (who used to both race and own a car service station). His job now puts about 100K on the road every year. So every other weekend, he out there rotating his tires. He wears them down to slicks -- he says the handling is actually better -- and the fronts have modest negative camber for his driving preference.

I don't expect to set the Z up with anything other than pure-spec stock alignment, maybe zero out the toe-in if there is one. But I appreciate my neighbor's explanation that there's a lot you can do to keep your tires alive just by rotating them. The increased wear on the right rear, for example, is completely normal, but you can extend that tire's life by using the left rear as well. Most cars used as daily drivers in urban settings get more damage accruing to the right rather than left, from curbs, loose stuff on the roadway, and potholes.

Hope this helps. If you're running synthetic oil you might be getting around 5K between oil changes, so that's an easy time to rotate. If you change oil at 3K, then do the swap every other time.