April 20th through April 26th is Tire Safety Week. Now, I'm normally not a fan of corporate-created calendar events, but I'm behind this one 100%. I've said this about a thousand times, so here goes a thousand and one: Critical safety features like antilock brakes and electronic stability control can't do squat if the tires on your car aren't up to snuff. And with gas nudging $4/gallon in some places, it's important to keep in mind that underinflated tires can put the hurt on your gas mileage. Want to ruin the handling of your Audi R8 or the fuel economy of your Toyota Prius? Ignore your tires for a few months and see what happens.

Problem is, tires are pretty easy to ignore -- most problems can't be spotted with a quick glance -- so it's important to check your tires once a month. I've outlined how to do it:

Tire safety tips

And when the time comes to replace your car's rubber:

Tire buying do's and don'ts

Our friends at Michelin were kind enough to bring Tire Safety Week to my attention, so I'll be kind enough to plug their latest promotion: Sign up for a free tire rotation reminder at www.MichelinMan.com/rotation-reminder between now and April 30th and you'll get a chance to win a VIP trip to an American LeMans series race. -- Aaron Gold

Photo © Robin Gold