Buying Winter Tires

[firstmazda]

It looks like most of you are going to buy winter tires which I understand completely
considering safety and saving your stock rims, etc.

BUT for ppl like me on a budget and can\'t buy two sets of tires/wheels (summer/winter), Do you think it\'s good enough to replace my 17\" OEM tires for better all-seasons?
\'cause being mainly in the city doing 75%hwy 25%city driving, most of the snow will be cleared up anyways right?

I\'ve heard and read very impressive reviews on BF Goodrich\'s new Traction T/As (http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/bfgapp/catalog/tires/tractiontahv.jsp).
Has anyone else heard of these?

In fact i found this (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testResultsModel.jsp?tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel =Traction+T%2FA+H) tire test where they compared it to the RS-As and it was quite embarassing to know I\'ve got those on my car.

You and also find more info on the Traction T/As here (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel=Traction+T %2FA+H)

Oh, and for laughs, check this out: Eagle RS-A Review (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Eagle+RS-A)

( The BFs placed 1st out of 25 in the high performance all-season category survey (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=HPAS) vs. 21st for the RS-As :sarc)

Tell me what you all think of it (I trust you :D )

Thanks
Ray

btw I\'ve JUST figured out this whole \"[url]\" thing, I think I\'m having waay too much fun with it!! :p

[hotgo]

If you\'re worried about budget issues, then replacing your perfectly fine 17\" tires with a \"better\" set of 17\" all-seasons is not really going to save you much/anything. You can get an excellent set of winter tires/rims for < $700. How much would a set of 17\" tires cost you? Probably about the same... But instead of having a set of dedicated winter/summer tires, you have 1 set. You can always sell the winter tire combo at a later time to recoup some of the cost if you decide to sell the car.

The only \"budget\" choice would be to try to go through the winter with the RS-A tires... and drive carefully :)

[midnightfxgt]

^^^^ I\'m with HotGo.


Another fact to consider. If you buy winter tires and rims, you will have another set of wheels, and tires, so you wont have to replace the tires as frequently, seeing as how they are on for half a year.

~JOHN

[majic]

i agree with them two..

if you want to stay on budget you just can\'t get best performance.. best wear.. best handling.. u\'ll get budget stuff..

now.. you can alwasy go budget winter tires (ie. hankook W300s :D i\'m getting those b/c i heard great things and they are < $650 with wheels) and then go with a cheaper performance tire for the summer (kumho 712s)

now having said that, i think myself i will wear out the RS-As as i just cannot justify $700 for new tires when these are still new.. and once they wear out spring for soem nice UHP summer tire.

if you want to take the all season route, wear out the RS-As and then cosider these pirellis (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Pirelli&tireModel=PZero+Nero+M% 26S) price is about the same as the BF Goodrich ones in question and performance seems to be better (UHP vs HP tire)

[Titanum-3]

Has anyone tried out the Canadian Tire Nordic Ice Trac tires or heard of any reviews for them? I am looking into these because they have road hazard warranty as well as free tire rotation every 10000km, and free flat repairs. They also meet snow traction performance requirements because they have the little snowflake/mountain symbol on them. Canadian tire has them for $98.99, which is very cheap.

[Titanum-3]

I finally went out and got some winter tires. I actually went to walmart of all places. I purchased 4 Dunlop Graspic DS-1 for $ 96.99 each and it was $10 for installation and balancing. I chose these because they have free road hazard and free flat repair as well as free tire rotation. It came up to $490. I had them mounted on a set of protege 5 rims I bought last week for $250. So it came out to under $750. Here are some pictures:
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/2/web/542000-542999/542663_19_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/2/web/542000-542999/542663_18_full.jpg

[bubba1983]

hah, nice, P5 rims...stylin even in the winter, LOL...
i jus got my ghetto black steelies, LOL