Q. When and how often am I supposed to have my tires rotated?

A. Most manufacturers recommend that you rotate your tires every 6,000-15,000 miles. That’s a pretty big range, isn’t it? Insert ubiquitous "check your owner’s manual" advice. How you drive and what kind of car you drive can make a difference. For the average driver of the average car, the average (sensing a trend here?) would be about every 10,000 miles.

Tires wear unevenly and this can affect the life of the tire and your car’s handling. Your front tires wear differently and more quickly than your rear tires. Your front wheels do all of the turning and that adds pressure and wear. If your car is front wheel drive, that makes your front tires wear even faster.

The most common rotation pattern is the cross-x where the front right tire is moved to the rear left, etc. But, if you have directional tires (tires manufactured to spin in a certain direction) you can’t use the cross-x. In that case, you’d just move the right front to the right back and the left front to the left back, keeping them on the same side of the car so they can rotate as they’re supposed to.

Some four-wheel drive cars need their tires rotated frequently to keep the wear even. Whatever type of car you drive, rotating your tires regularly can extend their life and save you from dropping dollars to get new ones.