Before I begin my latest missive, a note of deep appreciation to the Mayor Of Brentwood, Councillor David Tee, who so graciously attended our Grand Opening. He has generously recommended Skidmarques on his personal website and put his money where his mouth is by visiting us as a Paying customer (no corrupt or sleazy politicians tolerated here) to have a puncture repaired on his personal vehicle.
Nitrogen has been promoted as a superior alternative to plain old air for around five years or so now. The alleged advantages to motorists being better maintenance of tyre pressures, improved handling, road holding and fuel economy, protection from corrosion to the inside of the wheel, increased tyre life, and a smaller carbon footprint. It’s always good to appeal to the collective eco-conscience, although I personally feel that most motorist’s honest attitude is “sod the trees, build the by-pass”. Which is a discussion for another day. All of the above are true to a lesser or greater degree.
The advantages to a tyre specialist, such as Skidmarques, are, according to the companies that supply Nitrogen inflation equipment, mostly financial. I am not saying that this is entirely wrong, because after all, we are a business and if we don’t make a profit we go bust and people loose their jobs. At Skidmarques, we have Nitrogen filling equipment, which is expensive, so we charge for filling tyres with Nitrogen, it is an additional service for which we are fully entitled to make an additional charge.
But, and it is a big but, but there is a conflict of interests for us. We pride ourselves on giving honest, impartial advice to our customers. as far as Nitrogen filling is concerned, the honest and impartial advice is that is only really appropriate in some specialised applications, such as race and high performance cars, especially track day cars. Also, possibly, for vehicles that do high mileage such as taxis or delivery vans. We have found Nitrogen filling on high pressure, multi ply tyres used on car recovery trailers and dollies improves wear rates, primarily because Nitrogen filling lowers running temperatures and reduces pressure loss. The advantages to the average motorist are negligible, despite the fact there is money for us to earn if we fill tyres with Nitrogen.
We know that some tyre centres routinely fill new tyres with Nitrogen, disguising the extra cost in an all encompassing fitting charge, but the truth is that you will be paying for it, as there is a cost to producing the Nitrogen. Try asking for a discount for filling your new tyres with bog standard air.
At Skidmarques, we will always to be happy to offer the option of Nitrogen to our customers, and if appropriate suggest it’s use, but for the majority of new tyre fitting it remains good, old, honest air. Honest
Take Care Daddyskid.
