Tires: Tire Wear on Altima, yokohama avid touring, nissan altima

Question
I have a 2000 Nissan Altima that seems to cause uneven  tire wear quickly. I try to get good quality tires (currently driving Yokohama AVID Touring...) and take proper care of them (rotate every 7,500 miles, have car aligned regularly, check inflation, etc.) But the last 2 sets I've owned have both started making a thumping noise from uneven tread wear after only a year (they get choppy-looking). I have 98,000 miles on the car and am on my 4th set of tires. The last w sets have still have enough tread on them to go another year or two, but they got so loud I couldn't stand it. Is there something inherent in the Altima that would be causing this? I do mostly highway driving, and am not an overly aggressive driver. Thanks.

Answer
Jeff,

It's obvious there is something wrong with the car.  4 sets of tires are telling you that.  The question is "what?"

My gut reaction is that there is an alignment problem.  I suspect that the alignment places you are going to aren't doing the job.

So try another place.  Here are the keys:

1)  They should know by now that the alignment tolerances as published by the vehicle manufacturers are too wide.  Typically, the alignment needs to be within the inner half of the tolerance, or sometimes there will be wear problems - as in your case.

2)  The fact that there aren't provisions to correct an alignment should be no obstacle.  They should know how to deal with eccentric bolts and camber kits.

If your places don't know those 2 things then you need to find a place that does.