Replace All Four at Once – It can be tempting to buy tires in pairs (front or rear) to save money, but you’ll pay more in the long run due to uneven tire wear.

Rotate Your Tires – Rotating your tires (swapping front for rear and left for right) every 10,000 miles ensures your tires wear as evenly as possible, extending their life. Rotating should take a tire shop about 10 minutes. If you can handle a jack and a lug wrench, you can also rotate your tires yourself.

Keep Your Car Aligned – Ever notice your car pulling to one side on the highway? You car is out of alignment. Most auto shops can do an alignment for less than $100 in 45 minutes or less, which will dramatically improve your tire’s tread life.

Shop Around – Most people take their cars to the local tire specialty store and plunk down top dollar for whatever the salesman recommends. You can easily find your car’s tire size on the side of your current tires – it should read something like 215/70/15 (tire width/aspect ratio/wheel diameter). Use that number to get competitive prices on different shops, and online.

You can save money buy shopping at TireRack.com, which will ship tires directly to you or a local installer. Even with shipping, such a service can save you bundles. While their installation and service may not be as speedy as other tire stores, wholesale clubs like Costco and BJ’s may also offer tires at bargain rates.

Sell Your Old Kicks - If you haven’t completely exhausted the tread on your old tires, you may be able to sell them on Craigslist (or at least give them away); otherwise, expect to pay between $2 and $5 per tire for an installer to dispose of the old rubber.

Why get a pre-approved car loan online?

Auto dealers profit on customer ignorance. Walk into a car dealership not knowing you can negotiate and buy a new car at sticker, the dealer makes several thousand dollars. Take a car loan without knowing your credit score and current loan rates, the dealer makes several thousand more dollars! And who paid him? You did!

These two simple steps will save you thousands on your next car loan:

• Get your credit report and score (get it free now from Experian)
• Get a pre-approved car loan from an online site like Driver Loans

How to get a pre-approved car loan online

Most sites offering online car loans allow you to apply for car loans for free and with no obligation. Lenders securely collect loan application information online, including the price range of the vehicle you want, and return a decision and loan terms within a few hours.

If you like the loan, the lender overnights you a check you use to purchase your car. Though your blank check is in hand, your loan is not originated until you use the check. You can use the loan to bargain with dealers, who may beat the online lender’s rate. Decided on dealer financing? Just toss the loan check and drive away.

Pre-approved online car loans compared

For borrowers with good, average, even bad credit, DriverLoans provides an easy application, fast decisions, and great support for its loans. Apply now »

RoadLoans is our second top pick. RoadLoans approves most applicants and gets you your loan check in as little as 48 hours and provides top-notch customer service via email and phone along the way. Apply now »

For borrowers with poor credit, HaborLoans can provide financing as long as you make $1,500 a month and have been at your job for one year or more. Apply now »

The Car Loan Center accepts applicants of any credit status, features a 60-second application, and pairs you up with the best auto loan option for your situation. Apply now »

Though geared towards an investor audience, Biderman’s article is one of the best explanations of the rising oil prices I have read. In addition, Biderman offers our government and corporate leaders some provocative ways to put an end the stifling gas prices.

Biderman suggests:

• Regulars require investors in oil futures to disclose their oil positions so the public can see exactly who is profiting from a county crippled by high fuel costs
• Government, airlines, and other organizations with an interest in low fuel prices short oil contracts on the commodities market
• Regulars increase the margin rates for oil contracts from 7.5% to 25%, increasing the amount of cash speculators need to control oil contracts

Do you think our government should step in to reduce fuel prices? What steps do propose they take?

So much for the “great American gas boycott”.

Buy why would a gas boycott be a futile effort?

There are two reasons. While gasoline producers like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Shell are enjoying record profits, they are not the reason we’re facing record prices at the pumps. The forces driving our gas prices range from increased consumption in developing countries like China and India, to the prices set by OPEC, to commodity traders speculating on the price of oil futures. Even if every American stopped filling up for a day - or a week, we could do little to impact all these factors.

Secondly, even if millions of Americans boycotted gas (which is highly unlikely), we would only be postponing our purchase of gasoline, not eliminating it altogether. We still need that gas to get to work, and we’re going to buy it eventually, whether it’s today or tomorrow. A boycott works when it targets a particular company and when there are alternatives available. If enough people cease buying brand X and buy brand Y instead, the producer of brand X will feel the pinch. Unfortunately, we can’t all switch over to solar cars overnight!

The good news is that as the price of gas goes up, we make changes in our driving habits and use less oil (whether we like it or not). As that trend continues, the drop in demand for gasoline should ease escalating prices, at least for a while.

However you slice it, the age of cheap oil is over, and it’s high time we start seeking alternatives to burning gasoline as we motor around the country — both personally, and as a nation.

Photo by quiksilver1850.

Car dealers calculate the cost, term, and mileage of leases carefully to ensure they earn a healthy profit.

Their profit depends on you keeping (and paying) the lease to its full term, so you can’t expect a dealer to be sympathetic to your situation if you return with your leased car keys asking to get out.

While most leases include an early-termination clause, the penalty fees for ending your lease early are stiff. It is unfortunate, but sometimes lessees will simply stop paying a lease until the car is repossessed. This ends the lease, but it also ends the lessee’s good credit. Additionally, the car dealer has the legal right to collect termination fees and other costs from the lessee.

The Alternative Way to End a Lease

Some leases (thought not all) allow you to transfer the lease to a new signer. In a lease transfer, a new lessee assumes the car, and the lease payments, and you are released from any responsibility for the lease.

While a great idea in principle, executing a lease transfer is not always a smooth process, and generally can’t be done between two private parties.

There are, however, several companies that specialize in assisting with transferring car leases including the popular SwapaLease.com.

At SwapaLease, sellers pay a fee (around $100) to list a lease for trade. When a buyer bites, the third-party company checks their credit and income to ensure they can afford to take on the lease. Once a trade is approved, the lease transfer company assesses a transfer fee of several hundred dollars. Who pays this fee is typically negotiated between the buyer and seller.

Both parties then sign documentation transferring the lease, and documents are sent to the buyer so her or she can obtain insurance and registration for the vehicle. Finally, arrangements are made for the seller to pick up the leased car, and the former lessee is free of the lease, with good credit to boot.

Proceed With Caution

While leasing a car isn’t the best financial move, terminating a car lease is an even worse one. That’s because most leases have high down payments (called capital cost reduction) which you have already paid, but you won’t get the full lease term’s use of the vehicle. Plus, you’ll be paying more fees just to get out of a car, and you’ll still be stuck needing new wheels. Still, if you find yourself in a car lease that you truly can’t afford, it’s better to get out of it, save your credit, and find a car you can afford than to rack up new debt to continue paying your lease.

And, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need a new car for just one to two years, taking on a transferred lease might be worth checking out. After all, you won’t pay any down payment other than the lease transfer fee.

Of course, for the perfectly penny wise, calculating the total lease cost and spending that lump sum on a reliable used car still makes the most sense.