What causes tires to cup, and what's the best way to prevent this?? TIA

here...
 

<ul><li><a href="http://www.autoshop-online.com/cchtml/tire.wr.prob.html">Cupping</a></li></ul>

Thank you sir.

In addition you should..
 

<u>only</u> push down on the inside of the car, meaning, pop the hood a push over the shock tower. The same goes for the rear.

sounds like worn out shocks to me...
 

Cupping is a condition caused by the tire bouncing as it rolls. Small areas of heavy wear are created. Worn shocks are often the cause of cupping, but loose suspension parts or tire imbalance are also possible causes.

Thanks for the info guys.

I don't have cupping, but I have this...
 

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/17150/tire.jpg">
dealer says I drive too hard...

If they are Pirelli, they do it automatically
 

It's the nature of the beast. Otherwise, bad shocks.

Another option is to make sure no run-out problems exist...
 

I had a tire problem that caused cupping, not as deep as with bad shocks though. A "good" tire shop can do a load variance balance test to make sure the high spot on the wheel matches the with the low spot on the tire. Sounds confusing, but a perfectly balanced tire my not be rolling round. At high speeds, in my case only 50mph, I would get a slight vibration, not bad, but bad enough to cause cupping on the front tires.

After I had the shop fix the problem, they remounted the tire on a different location on the wheel, it was AMAZINGLY different. It felt like a different car. I had not realized that it was this bad before.

Note, I had my tires balanced 2 times before that, by a different shop and each time they said they were fine.
Anyway, my 2 cents. Good Luck