I really had it down to two places; Belle Tire and Discount Tire. Discount Tire has always treated my family fine and has given years and years of service to my dad, mom, various aunts/uncles and of course myself. Sadly their website is a little lacking. They only offered a couple options for snow tires on my current rims and had no easy way to display which 16 inch wheels that would fit onto my car.
Belle Tire, by comparison, let me put in my car's information and then offered the option of choosing a 'downsized' set of tires and wheels. Now I could have just assumed that Discount Tire would have options available and that I would simply have to visit them to get all the options... but that was more work and more opportunity for me to throw up my hands and say 'whatever' and end up buying something I didn't really want. So... Belle Tire won out. I printed out an order of cheap (but stylish) 16 inch wheels and Bridgestone Blizzak WS70 tires.
In all the research I've done, I can't find many if any at all disagreements with the oft stated fact that Bridgestone Blizzak WS70s are currently the best passenger car tires for pushing through snow. Yes, there are better 'performance' winter tires out there, but those are for getting the most grip and handling on cold dry pavement. Seeing as I don't have any problem on cold dry pavement, I wanted to go with the Blizzaks (besides... I just love saying/writing 'Blizzak').
Anywho... I went to the store with the hope of getting what I had put in my order but by no means any certainty that I would get exactly what I wanted. With all the tire/wheel size combinations available I figured it was unlikely that they would have exactly what I wanted in stock. And I really wanted to drive away with the new wheels/tires.
The attendant that assisted me was great. He admitted that he didn't have what I wanted in stock, but searched his computer and inventory to get me something. He said that the Blizzak's were on backorder and would take weeks to get in (in the size that I wanted). He immediatly offered a set of Mastercraft Glacier Grip II tires that while not as impressive as the Blizzaks would get me great snow traction. The killer though was the wheels... he had NO 16 inch wheels in stock. He did show me some wheels that he could get in a few days. They weren't all that attractive to me (they are glossy black instead of aluminum colored), but they certainly weren't ugly.
Because of the frustration of not having what I wanted he gave me a pretty good discount on both the wheels and the tires (and having shopped their website extensively before coming in I knew that it was indeed a discount... or at the very least NOT sticker price). I told him to hold that order while I called over to Discount. I expected some further push to order now or he'd remove the discounts, but he was cool and let me take a few minutes to make my call.
Discount was no help. Not only did they not have the Blizzaks, they didn't have any snow tires in stock. In any size. Nor did they have any wheels in my size. So while I could have driven over to see what they had to offer and find out just how long it would take to get them in and installed, I decided that I was already making plenty of compromises. I thanked them, hung up, and ordered my tires/wheels from Belle.
Yesterday I stopped in and had them installed.
Here is a close image to what my 17s originally looked like on Fiona:
That's not exact, but ti's close. Here is what my new black 16s look like:
Again.. not exact, but these are the closest I could find using Tire Racks's website that lets you see aftermarket wheels on your car (in Fiona's color!)
I don't think they look bad, but it's certainly quite a departure from the factory look. I certainly won't ever get confused as to whether I have the winter or summer rubber on!
The total price out the door was just over 1200 dollars. That included the winter tires, the wheels, mounting/balancing/aligning, the special lug wrench, and the tire pressure monitor sensors. I could have saved close to $300 by foregoing the sensors, but then every time I turned Fiona on she would scream about me having four flat tires. And even once she stopped screaming, an annoying light would remain lit on the dash.
The last thing the guy said to me as I went out to give my new wheels a spin was that once the temp raised fairly consistently above 45 degrees Fahrenheit, I should stop by so they could throw my other wheels on. At no cost.
That's right... they will change over my wheels every season without costing me a single penny! Needless to say I was pleased. If I had selected to put snow tires on my factory rims, I would have had to pay close to $100 every season to get them changed over. Considering that these tires should last me the five years it will take to pay off Fiona (meaning 10 seasonal tire changes) that easily covers the cost of the wheels and sensors!
Now while I would love to wax poetic about how wonderful the winter rubber makes Fiona, I've only had them on for a single day. There was a little snowfall, but the roads were mostly clear. At least the main roads. By mostly clear I mean that there were areas of full lane pavement, areas where there were two tracks of clear pavement, and areas where the slush/snow/ice still covered the road. On my all season tires this would have meant a nerve wrackingly long and slow drive. On the winter tires... I cruised comfortably at 60mph all the way home without a single wiggle or indication that Fiona was unsure of what to do.
On the back roads near home where the snow hadn't been plowed and was piled up by a few inches.... Fiona was great. I did have the traction control cut in at a few stop signs, but when it did that before it would take a good long time to find ANY traction. Now it just spun a bit, found traction, bit in and got me going forward in no time at all.
I'll hold my opinion on the value of the expenditure until there is a significant snowfall. You see with all these driving conditions I experienced yesterday I still could have gotten to and from anywhere I wanted to go on my old wheels/tires. I just would have had to taken my time and driven VERY carefully. Yes, I can now do so far faster and with far more confidence, but I didn't spend this much money to feel better. I did it because in deeper snow, Fiona was a gimp. She could NOT get me to where I was going. Only when I see that I can conquer that type of situation will I know if this was all worth it.
In the meantime, I'm going to head to work today and not even leave early. I'll get there just fine in the time allotted!
Instead of a new post, I figured I'd add this as a comment.
ReplyDeleteOH MY GOD!! The difference is completely night and day. Slick slushy roads... no problem. Snow covered roads... no problem. Deep (4-5 inches) snow covered... no problem.
We had about six inches of snow at one point and before we got the driveway cleared I got into Fiona and took her for a spin. On the old tires I would have had trouble getting out of my parking spot, let alone down the driveway, out of the driveway, and around the block. This time? I got through without a hitch. It was still driving through deep snow and it was slow to get going, slow to stop, and cornering was a bit of a problem, but I never got stuck.
This last snowfall I hit what was my original problem; getting stuck at an intersection of an unplowed street and a plowed street. When the traffic cleared I hit the accelerator and spun the wheels without moving forward. I got out of the situation by backing up a few inches, then slowly driving through the snowbank and into the street. It was a minor inconvenience instead of a sweat inducing nightmare.
It's hard to ever call an expensive unwanted purchase as 'worth it', but that's exactly how I have to describe the purchase of the winter wheels/tires. They changed driving in the snow from a paralyzing experience to an everyday 'who cares about the weather' experience. They are SO worth it.
I'm now back to my confident/cocky 'the damn snow won't stop me' driving attitude!