I believe tire pressure sensors are a required feature of all cars as of 2006. Most manufacturers have opted to use information from the ABS system to detect when one tire has low pressure because it will rotate faster than the other three (on average). Systems that work on this principle cannot detect when all four tires are low, so don't count on them. A few systems do use real pressure monitors -- anyone know which method the Prius uses?

I also had a nail in a tire after one week. I had my Dad in the passenger seat looking up what the stupid indicator light meant (kind of an exclamation point surrounded by two brackets, NOT intuitive). Dug around in the glove box, found my pressure gauge, prepared to check all four tires, and heard the right rear hissing away. Of course it was raining...

But this led to one (actually two) useful discovery for new car owners -- you can purchase tire hazard insurance from Goodyear for $10 per tire if you have less than 500 miles on your new vehicle. In my case, the $40 fee even worked retroactively and covered the otherwise $23 repair. Lucky me that I happened to drive into a Goodyear store to get it fixed (I didn't even know I had Goodyear tires at the time).

Second useful discovery -- Goodyear will rotate your tires for free. Only problem is dealing with oil changes and tire rotations at two different locations (since I already purchased two years of oil changes from Toyota).

Silver linings?

-Terence