FYI: pricing on my winter tire package (Canadian)

[ham]

If any of you Canucks are interested... after much research and calling around for prices, I just ordered a winter tire package here in Calgary for my Sport GT with 205-55-16 Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50s and basic black steel wheels (they're multifit so I'm sure they'll be ugly as hell, but hey - it's for winter right) and all in (tax, mount, balance, stems, recylcling fee, etc, etc) they will be CAD$1133 for the four corners. About CAD$90 more than ordering online through tiretrends.com but at least I'll have a shop to deal with if something goes wrong. OKTire was the winner with Blaskin & Lane being CAD $130 more and Kal being CAD$180 more.

cheers,
ham

 

[Airman Jack]

Ham, thanks for the update! I'm going to be looking for some winters to put on the stock 17's soon... I've heard varied things about Bridgestone, that they're cheap and no good, but they perform really well.... help?

 

[ham]

Hey Airman

I read A TON of reviews at Tirerack and spoke to techs at several tire shops (without telling them what I was thinking of buying) and these Q-rated WS-50s get great user reviews and were one of the first tires the techs mentioned. If you want a speed rated tire - the Blizzak LM-22 gets similar reviews. I really haven't heard or read much negative about them. Not sure which are available in 17" as I was looking at 16".

Funny story - I was speaking to a tech at Fountain Tire (doesn't even carry Bridgestone) who said he thought the Blizzaks were among the best.

Kal-Tire carries a winter line from Finland called Nokian that are supposed to the the s*** but they were another $60/corner.

The Michelin X-Ice (I think it's new this year) was another tire being recomended by the tire shops (it may be either replacing or in addition to the Arctic Alpin line) and - don't forget - the Toyo Garit is made with crushed walnut shells (yummm).

cheers,
ham

Ham, thanks for the update! I'm going to be looking for some winters to put on the stock 17's soon... I've heard varied things about Bridgestone, that they're cheap and no good, but they perform really well.... help?