Obama economy - Cash-short drivers forced to rent tires for transportation to/from work

.

Like payday lenders, pawn shops and Buy Here Pay Here used-car lots, tire-rental businesses provide ready credit to consumers who can’t get a loan anywhere else. But that access doesn’t come cheap.

When the tires on their Dodge Caravan had worn so thin that the steel belts were showing through, Don and Florence Cherry couldn’t afford to buy a new set.

So they decided to rent instead.

The Rich Square, N.C., couple last September agreed to pay Rent-N-Roll $54.60 a month for 18 months in exchange for four basic Hankook tires.

Over the life of the deal, that works out to $982, almost triple what the radials would have cost at Wal-Mart Stores.

“I know you have to pay a lot more this way,” said Florence Cherry, 57, a nurse who drives the 15-year-old van when her husband, a Vietnam veteran, isn’t using it to get to his job as a prison guard. “But we didn’t really have a choice.”

Socked by soaring tire prices and short on funds, growing numbers of Americans are renting the rubber to keep their cars rolling.

Read more here: [link to seattletimes.com]

.