my car was acting a little funny the past few days. the alignment has been off for a while, and the brakes started squeaking. the brakes quickly stopped squeaking as quickly as they started, and suddenly i was hearing grinding sounds when stopping. i also made note that one of my front tires was completely bald (thats right, just one). i decided then it was time to take my car into the shop for some repairs - just one year after purchase.
the brake pads were worn down to nothing. i was grinding metal to metal. my alignment was all messed up, and the tires needed to be balanced (and more importantly, replaced). so i end up paying about $450 to have a bunch of work on my car, some stuff replaced, and 4 new tires.