[christofoo]

A couple weeks ago I had the Civic in for service for several issues, one of which was upgrading the rear springs and replacing the struts, which seems pertinent.

Many months ago we had the rear tires wear out a bit prematurely, with heavy wear on the inside tread, at about 2/3 of their 90,000 mile tread warranty (Toyo Eclipse). The Les Schwab tech said the old struts were at fault (also lectured me on rotating my tires once in a while).

My regular mechanic agreed about the struts. I also explained that I installed a hitch reciever and use it for carrying cargo at around 200 lbs tongue weight, despite no tow rating (and thus no tongue weight rating) from Honda, and so he upgraded to stiffer springs while he was at it.

TL $700 ($180 labor, $460 parts, $60 alignment).

Probably there'd be $300-400 on the table if I were smart enough to do it myself, but I'm getting to that point where I just want to explain a problem to the mechanic and let him figure it out. Call me crazy.

(Anyways, even after I factor this and the other repairs in - and the struts were due for replacement anyways - our grand total in maintenance and repair for the last 40k miles (120k - 160k) has been a mere $0.06 per mile... [not including newest little issues though, pending repair...])