As with spring every year, potholes can cause more than just a little bump in your ride.

Mark Gamracy, manager at Quality Tire in Regina, said they are seeing a lot of wheel and tire damage due to potholes.

“A lot of tires nowadays, there’s not a lot of rubber on the tire itself. They’re pretty low profile,” said Gamracy. “There’s not much cushion there for you when go to hit those potholes on that part of it. You try to avoid them as much as possible because otherwise you could be doing more damage to them than just the tire, you’d be doing the wheel too unfortunately.”

Gamracy said this year is not particularly different from previous years when it comes to pothole damage. Slowing down and being aware of where potholes are, or where they could be, is a key to saving money on a wheel alignment.

“We definitely know that hitting a pothole accelerates the wear and tear on your vehicle to do with your suspension parts and any steering components… and you can do damage to your wheels as well at the same time,” Gamracy said. “You definitely want to do your best to avoid that stuff.”