What's wrong with air? Like a slumbering giant, the passenger and light truck tire industry is slow to evolve and slower to accept new products and ways of thinking. Take the current buzzword going around: nitrogen. That inert gas has the industry and, as I found out, consumers, in an uproar about who and what to believe.

Never mind the fact that small, insignificant organizations like NASA, NASCAR, the aerospace industry and the military have been using nitrogen as an air substitute in tires for decades, with superb results.

Well, it's time to take a look at this from a different perspective - not from the science or equipment aspect, but from the viewpoint of a tire dealer who faces the same type of consumers that you do.

So that I can give you some personal feedback, I decided to have my tires filled with nitrogen. Jennifer Wheeler with Vannoy's Tire in Pensacola, FL, has had some experience with nitrogen over the last year.

"We have seen customers get better gas mileage after inflating tires with nitrogen," Wheeler says. "One customer, in particular, who owns a Volvo with a fuel economy display showed immediate improvement in average miles per gallon."

Nitrogen is dry and conceivably much better over the life of the tire and wheel. This could be a great selling point. I'm sure that most of you have removed a tire and found the bead seats of the wheels corroded or the drop center peeling. Take a picture, and dis...