An overview of a tire pressure monitoring system.

Tires are changing to reflect new directions in the drive to make vehicles greener. Area tire dealers are seeing those changes and are helping to educate consumers regarding their options. When looking at tire trends, Jason Evans, store manager at Expert Tire in Fostoria, said many tires are lighter to help vehicles receive better fuel mileage. “Everyone is concerned about that,” he said. “And some of the hybrids require special tires, they have to be made more heavy duty. The batteries they carry are heavier, so the tires have to be able to handle the extra load.” Another change to tires for vehicles manufactured after August 2007 are the valve stems. “Those are TPMS, or tire-pressure monitor systems,” Evans said. “By law, any car that is a 2008 has TPMS; the computers in the car read the tire pressure and tell you if one tire goes low.” Changing your tires, even rotating them, becomes more costly due to the pressure monitoring requirements.