How to Measure the Tread Depth on Your Tires

Published 2010/10/112013/05/16 by G

At the end of every lease, the inspection company that comes out to check your vehicle will no doubt check your tires tread depth. Here is a link that provides some information on how to measure the tire tread of your tires (courtesy of TireRack). If you don’t feel like clicking the link, here’s a quick except on how to do it…

U.S. coins can be substituted for a tire tread depth gauge as tires wear to the critical final few 32nds of an inch of their remaining tread depth.

Place a penny into several tread grooves across the tire. If part of Lincoln’s head is always covered by the tread, you have more than 2/32″ of tread depth remaining.

Place a quarter into several tread grooves across the tire. If part of Washington’s head is always covered by the tread, you have more than 4/32″ of tread depth remaining.

Place a penny into several tread grooves across the tire. If the top of the Lincoln Memorial is always covered by the tread, you have more than 6/32″ of tread depth remaining.

Once you have determined the approximate remaining tread depth in the first location, you can complete your measurement of each tire by placing the coin into additional locations at lease 15 inches apart around the tire’s central circumferential groove, as well as in its inner and outer grooves. This will help detect uneven wear caused by mechanical or service conditions.

The Law

According to most states’ laws, tires are legally worn out when they have worn down to 2/32″ of remaining tread depth. To help warn drivers that their tires have reached that point, tires sold in North America are required to have indicators molded into their tread design called “wear bars” which run across their tread pattern from their outside shoulder to inside shoulder. Wear bars are designed to visually connect the elements of the tire’s tread pattern and warn drivers when their tires no longer meet minimum tread depth requirements.

Common Sense

However, as a tire wears it’s important to realize that the tire’s ability to perform in rain and snow will be reduced. With 2/32″ of remaining tread depth, resistance to hydroplaning in the rain at highway speeds has been significantly reduced, and traction in snow has been virtually eliminated.

If rain and wet roads are a concern, you should consider replacing your tires when they reach approximately 4/32″ of remaining tread depth. Since water can’t be compressed, you need enough tread depth to allow rain to escape through the tire’s grooves. If the water can’t escape fast enough, your vehicle’s tires will be forced to hydroplane (float) on top of the water, losing traction.

If snow-covered roads are a concern, you should consider replacing your tires when they reach approximately 6/32″ of remaining tread depth to maintain good mobility. You need more tread depth in snow because your tires need to compress the snow in their grooves and release it as they roll. If there isn’t sufficient tread depth, the “bites” of snow your tires can take on each revolution will be reduced to “nibbles,” and your vehicle’s traction and mobility will be sacrificed. Because tread depth is such an important element for snow traction, winter tires usually start with noticeably deeper tread depths than typical All-Season or summer tires. Some winter tires even have a second series of “wear bars” molded in their tread pattern indicating approximately 6/32″ remaining tread depth to warn you when your tires no longer meet the desired tread depth.

Now, if you are a more visual learner, you probably want to click on the link since it comes with neat little pictures of how the tire tread is measured using coins. I know that this information may seem somewhat self-serving for TireRack (since they sell tires and all), but we can’t deny the importance of having good tires and not getting hammered with fees at lease-end.

2011 Chevrolet Lease Rates – October 2010

Published 2010/10/092012/01/31 by G

My Take: How rare is this? Since I am trying to keep an eye out on the Travese, I figure I would post some of their numbers for those of you who are actually interested in leasing one. As you can see, this isn’t looking pretty. Then again, I haven’t seen a pretty lease rate for Chevys in the last two years I’ve been tracking lease rates. Hopefully that will change with the arrival of the Volt. Keep in mind that the money factors here are approximations since Ally Bank uses percentages, not money factors.

FIND A CHEVY DEALER NEAR YOU

2011 Traverse LT1
36-month | 15k miles | residual 48% | .00089 base money factor

2011 Traverse LT2
36-month | 15k miles | residual 48% | .00089 base money factor

2011 Traverse LTZ
36-month | 15k miles | residual 48% | .00089 base money factor

FIND A CHEVY DEALER NEAR YOU

Chevrolet Incentives from Edmunds.com

2011 Cadillac Lease Rates – October 2010

Published 2010/10/082012/01/31 by G

logo_caddy My Take: I’m not seeing anything that would make my blood pressure rise over here. It’s a great car, but the residual values are so bad, I just can’t see myself recommending it as a lease.

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2011 Cadillac CTS Sedan Luxury AWD
39-month | 15k miles | residual 50% | .00044 base money factor

2011 Cadillac SRX Luxury AWD
39-month | 15k miles | residual 51% | .00067 base money factor

FIND A CADILLAC DEALER NEAR YOU

Cadillac Incentives from Edmunds.com

2011 Mercedes-Benz Lease Rates – October 2010

Published 2010/10/072010/10/07 by G

My Take: Well that didn’t last very long…MBFS decided to bump the money factor up this month. Talk about short-lived! Not sure what the 27-month lease terms look like on the C300 Sport, but if the MF is anything like we see right now, your payments will be more expensive. Not all is lost however. The ML and CLS still have very good lease numbers right now so it is certainly a worth a look if they fall within your budget. With that said, here’s a shocker for ya….

2011 GLK350 4matic on a 48mo/15k term.
MSRP – $39575
Sale – $35966
Monthly – $480+tax

2011 ML350 4matic on a 48mo/15k term.
MSRP – $50883
Sale – $45036
Monthly – $498+ tax

Sick huh? Here you have a ride that costs $10,000 more leasing for only $18 more than the cheaper model!!! That’s the magic of leasing folks, more car for the money. If you are looking to get into a GLK this month, I would recommend the ML instead.

FIND A MERCEDEZ-BENZ DEALER NEAR YOU

FIND A MERCEDEZ-BENZ DEALER NEAR YOU

FIND A MERCEDEZ-BENZ DEALER NEAR YOU

FIND A MERCEDEZ-BENZ DEALER NEAR YOU

FIND A MERCEDEZ-BENZ DEALER NEAR YOU

Mercedes-Benz Incentives from Edmunds.com

Lease rates provided by LeaseCompare.com

2011 BMW Lease Rates – October 2010

Published 2010/10/062010/10/06 by G

UPDATE: Looks like there are some changes to October numbers after all. There have been some drops (and one increase) on the 1-series. The 3-series and M3s get a nice drop in money factor on select models. The X5 gets a 0.00010 bump in money factor and most other models remain the same. Things just got sweeter in BMW land!

My Take: As expected, BMW numbers remained the same as last month. If you were looking for a BMW and couldn’t pull the trigger last month, you get another month to make it happen. This is an excellent month for the 3-series, so if you like the numbers, I would recommend getting some quotes sooner than later because I expect numbers to change come November.

FIND A BMW DEALER NEAR YOU

FIND A BMW DEALER NEAR YOU

FIND A BMW DEALER NEAR YOU

Lease rates provided by LeaseCompare.com

BMW Incentives from Edmunds.com

2010 Acura Lease Rates – October 2010

Published 2010/10/032010/10/05 by G

My Take: I have begun getting some numbers early this month which is pretty exciting. Looks like the Acura numbers have remain the same so far. This is good news because the TSX was an excellent lease last month and it remains that way this month.

2010 Acura TSX
36-month | 15k miles | residual 58% | .00064 base money factor

2010 Acura TSX Tech
36-month | 15k miles | residual 55% | .00064 base money factor

2010 Acura TL
36-month | 15k miles | residual 54% | .00097 base money factor

2010 Acura TL Tech
36-month | 15k miles | residual 51% | .00097 base money factor

2010 Acura TL SH-AWD
36-month | 15k miles | residual 51% | .00097 base money factor

2010 Acura TL SH-AWD Tech
36-month | 15k miles | residual 52% | .00097 base money factor

2010 Acura RL
36-month | 15k miles | residual 44% | .00100 base money factor

2010 Acura MDX Advance
36-month | 15k miles | residual 51% | .00133 base money factor

2011 Acura MDX Tech, Entertainment
36-month | 15k miles | residual 53% | .00170 base money factor

2010 Acura RDX SHAWD Tech
36-month | 15k miles | residual 49% | .00126 base money factor

2011 Acura RDX Tech
36-month | 15k miles | residual 55% | .00126 base money factor

Lease rates provided by Number1Leasing

Acura Incentives from Edmunds.com

Replacing the G – Round One

Published 2010/10/032010/09/30 by G

I know I am jumping the gun by doing a write-up about my “next ride” considering I have another 10 months left on my lease. However, my wife has began dropping hints about what my next ride should be. “Something practical, something bigger…something that will keep your paws off my Jetta” she says. Sadly, it looks like my G37 has become rather impractical and the wife has finally put me on notice.

I can’t say I blame her because in recent months, her car has become the designated “airport shuttle”. If that wasn’t bad enough, we have also been using her car to haul some furniture from Office Depot and weekly trips to Costco. Unfortunately, it seems that life has finally caught up with me and I can no longer ignore the other “needs” in life.

So now I am faced with a dilemma….what exactly can I get that will fulfill the following requirements…

seating for at least five people
practical cargo space
above average performance
similar or better MPG than the 18/24 I am getting now
costs no more than what I currently pay ($1300/$424 per month), preferably, less!

After careful consideration over the past month, I’ve come up with a general “Wish List” of potential cars/SUVs that may satisfy my needs.

The Large SUV Group

Honda Pilot
Mazda CX-9
Chevy Traverse
Toyota Highlander
Ford Explorer

The Compact SUV Group

Toyota RAV4
Ford Edge
Infiniti EX35
VW Tiguan
Acura RDX

The Wagon Group

Audi A3
VW Jetta Sportwagen
VW Golf TDI
VW GTI
Subaru Outback

The Sedan Group

Acura TSX
Acura TL
Hyundai Sonata
Infiniti G37
Nissan Maxima

For the next few months, I will take the time to do some test drives in order to narrow down the list some more. Keeping in mind the requirements listed above, I would love to hear your opinions and any recommendations you may have.

Monthly Round-Up: September 2010

Published 2010/09/25 by G

Welcome to this month’s Round-Up!

Towards the end of every month, I examine all of the lease data I have collected on this website and present you with the best lease deals of the month. This segment is meant for those who enjoy cutting last minute deals in order to get more competitive pricing. Therefore, this column is posted towards the last week of each month.

Here are some ground rules that I follow (these have been updated to reflect the new rating system):

Participating vehicles will be based on the lease rates gathered on this website during the corresponding month.
Ideally, 36-month/15k lease terms will be examined. If not available, other terms will be used.
A $1500 drive-off fee is assumed for all cars. Since fees and taxes vary from region to region, your drive-off may vary.
Sale Price estimates will be based on Truecar.com‘s sales data in the Southern California region, so your numbers may vary.
All estimates assume you qualify for the base rate. A minimum FICO® Score of 700 may be required.
Sales taxes are not included since different states handle taxes differently. Please refer to “Understanding Sales Tax” to learn how taxes affect your monthly payments.
The rating system used is based on RIDE with G’s Lease Calculator. The closer you are to the 100 rating, the better the deal. Anything exceeding a 100 rating is phenomenal.

So wins this month’s Round-Up? Read on!

Tenth Place

2010 Volkswagen Jetta Sedan TDI
36-month | 15k miles | residual 57% | .00068 base money factor

MSRP – $28,089.00
SALE – $25,952.00
MONTHLY – $304.68

(91.2) The TDI’s lease rates are extremely attractive this month due to a lower-than-usual money factor. Throughout the year, VW Credit hasn’t really lowered the MF on their TDIs, so their leases were never low enough to warrant any attention. That is not the case this month. The trouble is availability, since we are nearing the end of the year, finding the right TDI at your local dealer may prove to be challenging.

Ninth Place

2011 BMW 328xi Sedan
36-month | 15k miles | residual 61% | .00125 base money factor

MSRP – $46,425.00
SALE – $43,180.00
MONTHLY – $502.17

(91.4) The 328xi makes it’s second consecutive trip to the TopTen Round-Up thanks to BMWFS keeping the residuals high and the MF low. The extra savings here is the lack of a security deposit, which will keep your drive-off costs lower than usual, making the lease attractive for those who love BMWs.

Eight Place

2011 Audi A3 2.0T Premium
36-month | 15k miles | residual 55% | .00035 base money factor

MSRP – $29,965.00
SALE – $27,524.00
MONTHLY – $322.16

(91.8) I think the A3 would have easily stayed on this list last month had I had the numbers for it then. I think AFS is trying to move the A3s because a newly-redesigned version is just around the corner. That’s good because I have the A3 on my watch list for next year, when I replace my G37. If the A3’s lease rates remain attractive through the 1st half of next year, I think I could easily get back into another Audi next year.

Seventh Place

2011 BMW 135i Convertible
36-month | 15k miles | residual 63% | .00150 base money factor

MSRP – $48,400.00
SALE – $44,875.00
MONTHLY – $512.58

(92.8) This was a surprise because BMWFS lowered the money factor on the 135s quite a bit. This is a great deal for lose looking for a fast and fun convertible. Sure, the payments look kind of high in this example, but keep in mind that this car is practically loaded. If you are looking for a more stripped down version, you should see payments drop below $500 a month. If I were in the market for another coupe, I would definitely consider this pocket-sized rocket, that’s how much I like this deal.

Sixth Place

2011 Hyundai Sonata Limited
36-month | 15k miles | residual 56% | .00050 base money factor

MSRP – $28,345.00
SALE – $25,574.00
MONTHLY – $290.19

(95.0) Hyundai’s Sonata Limited has stayed on this list for three-straight months! That’s quite a feat! What’s even more impressive is how you can probably get a fully-loaded Sonata with NAV for less than $400 a month with either your 1st month or nothing due at drive-off. That, to me, is a great deal. I also hear great things about the Sonata Turbo and Hybrid, so I can’t wait to see those lease rates once the cars begin arriving at dealer showrooms.

Fifth Place

2010 Infiniti G37 Sedan Sport Manual
36-month | 15k miles | residual 58% | .00089 base money factor

MSRP – $39,725.00
SALE – $35,049.00
MONTHLY – $385.27

(98.8) If you are looking to get into the entry level luxury sedan segment, this car is probably the best one out there. However, you will need to know how to drive a manual because the Journey Sport (automatic) model sports a lower residual, which results in higher monthly payments.

Fourth Place

2010 Acura TSX
36-month | 15k miles | residual 58% | .00064 base money factor

MSRP – $30,170.00
SALE – $26,919.00
MONTHLY – $290.11

(99.5) If you don’t want to spend G37 money and are willing to sacrifice horsepower in exchange for lower payments and higher fuel efficiency, the TSX is for you. 2010s are probably pretty scarce nowadays, so there may not be a lot of choices. However, if you do find one, snag it because it’s one of the finest cars on the road and it’s backed by one of the best lease programs in the industry.

Third Place

2010 Infiniti G37 Sport Coupe
36-month | 15k miles | residual 61% | .00113 base money factor

MSRP – $44,275.00
SALE – $39,281.00
MONTHLY – $415.83

(101.2) Whatever I said about the G37 Sport Sedan pretty much applies here too, except for coupes. The G37 Sport Coupe topped the last two month’s Round-Up list, but this month’s rate change has made the payments have jumped a bit. Despite this, it is still the best bang for the buck for cars in this segment. No luxury sport coupe can touch the G37 right now when you add all it’s features, performance and price. Eat that Car & Driver!

Second Place

2010 Nissan Maxima SV
39-month | 15k miles | residual 50% | .00028 base money factor

MSRP – $37,500.00
SALE – $30,996.00
MONTHLY – $327.93

(106.2) The last couple of months, we saw the Maxima SV eat the G37 Sport Coupe’s dust in this competition. This month, the tables have turned. If you don’t mind driving a FWD, the Maxima is probably the more budget friendly deal compared the it’s cousin, the G37 Sedan. You pretty much get all the bells and whistles, but at a lower price point. Nissan has yanked the bigger cash rebate, but there seems to be a smaller one still around. Dealers are trying to move these cars because 2011s have started to arrive into dealerships, so now is the time to go test drive one of these.

FIRST PLACE

2010 Honda Civic Coupe LX
36-month | 15k miles | residual 58% | .00090 base money factor

MSRP – $18,955.00
SALE – $15,750.00
MONTHLY – $156.18

(111.6) You don’t have to be a near-luxury car in order to be considered a great deal and win this Round-Up. Despite it’s low price tag, it seem Honda dealers are willing to discount the car. Sure, its plain vanilla, but it does get great gas mileage and it’s an excellent commuter car; cheap, reliable and efficient.

Notable Absentees

The following vehicles’ were ranked in the Top Ten Round-Up last month but due to the lack of lease rates this month, their deals could not be confirmed.

Parting Shots

Notable models that barely missed the cut include the 2011 BMW 328, 2010 VW Tiguan S and the 2011 Honda CR-Z. The CR-Z has a high MF, but with it’s super-high residual and some minor discounts off MSRP, this lease can still be attractive. I recommend trying to knock down about 5% off the sticker price if you are interested in leasing this fun-looking hybrid, that should make for a reasonable lease that you won’t lose sleep over.

There is still plenty of time to take advantage of these deals, so I encourage you to contact your local dealer. If you don’t know your nearest dealer, you can request quotes using this link.

Got comments? questions? Disagree with my analysis? Please chime in with your thoughts on what you think this month’s Top Ten should be.

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RIDE with G

For those who lease cars

Author: G

How to Measure the Tread Depth on Your Tires

2011 Chevrolet Lease Rates – October 2010

2011 Cadillac Lease Rates – October 2010

2011 Mercedes-Benz Lease Rates – October 2010

2011 BMW Lease Rates – October 2010

2010 Acura Lease Rates – October 2010

Replacing the G – Round One

Monthly Round-Up: September 2010

So wins this month’s Round-Up? Read on!

Tenth Place

Ninth Place

Eight Place

Seventh Place

Sixth Place

Fifth Place

Fourth Place

Third Place

Second Place

FIRST PLACE

Notable Absentees