Winter Tires?

Cherry

Here in Canada, we had our first snow fall yesterday night - which is awful considering it wasn't even November yet!

Anyway PA, I need some winter tires. I bought a 2010 Hyundai Accent sedan GLS last year. I didn't get winter tires last year since I was told that my all season tires that were new were fine. But even then I found it to be a bit troublesome to drive in the really bad weather. So winter tires it is!

Since this is my first car, I have no idea about tires, rims, or anything. Which makes me ideal to be scammed on. I did a little research and found the site Tire Rack, and it suggests that the best size tires would be for 14" 185/65-14.

But then it goes on to say the best recommended for 15"195/55-15. And for a 16"205/45-16.

Now my question is, which size do I go for? 14? 15? 16? I read that going narrower is easier to cut through snow?

Also, what brands of tires do you recommend? Or does it even matter? As long as they are winter tires? Would it be okay to pick up a random brand of tire from let's say Walmart? Or even Canadian Tire? For example at Walmart there's a random brand called Nexen that has the recommended tires for $62/tire. Whereas there's a Goodyear Nordic for $89/tire. What should I expect to pay for winter tires?

How much should I also expect to pay for the instalment of these tires. Last year I saw a deal for buying the tires and instalment for about $800. This was at my dealership - that seems high to me..but what do I know?

Thanks in advance!

tl;dr: Enlighten a poor girl about winter tires for a Canadian Winter.

Spudge

the 14"-16" is wheel size. Check your tires they should say something along the lines of 185/65R14, etc. That last number is your wheel size and you cannot deviate from that (unless you put different wheels on)

Get the same size as you currently have or your speedometer will be incorrect, tires could rub, etc. If you have them installed on your current wheels, keep the other tires so you can swap back out when it's necessary. As for brands I can't really recommend as I've never used snow tires

embrik

Tire Rack is your friend. Check out their Snow Tire search. Throw your vehicle Make/Year/Model in and look at their Tire and Wheel packages and/or Tire only section (both come up when you pick your vehicle.) I've bought from them before, each tire has user and Tire Rack ratings.
Makes the decisions sooo much easier.

Also, looks like they do ship to Canada. (You pick whether you receive them or they can ship to an installer.)

Edit: You can obviously buy from whomever you like, they rate tires that are available from just about any seller (including them).

LaPuzza

I'm really happy with both sets of Dunlops I've had. RWD+snow tires > FWD+all season tires

mts

ideally you should get a second set of steel rims for your winters, saves wear and tear on your regular wheels and you can easily swap em out yourself

illig

mts wrote: »

ideally you should get a second set of steel rims for your winters, saves wear and tear on your regular wheels and you can easily swap em out yourself

This is what id suggest as well. The extra set can live in your garage all summer, and only be put on in winter.

Cherry

So I spoke to my dealership and they suggested a package of Toil tires (not sure if that's the correct spelling), they'll provide the rims and the installation and everything else. They won't store my all season tires.

They're quoting it for $850 before taxes. Does that sound fair or overpriced?

Spudge

Get other quotes from local tire shops. Cheap steel rims can vary

MushroomStick

Cherry wrote: »

So I spoke to my dealership and they suggested a package of Toil tires (not sure if that's the correct spelling), they'll provide the rims and the installation and everything else. They won't store my all season tires.

They're quoting it for $850 before taxes. Does that sound fair or overpriced?

See what a set of steel rims and tires would cost from Tirerack first. If I recall correctly, when you buy rims and tires together, they can put the tires on the rims before they ship them to you.

Edit: A quick skim through tirerack suggests I did recall correctly and that their suggested snow tire/wheel package for your car is only a little over $400.

Ruckus

Cherry wrote: »

So I spoke to my dealership and they suggested a package of Toil tires (not sure if that's the correct spelling), they'll provide the rims and the installation and everything else. They won't store my all season tires.

They're quoting it for $850 before taxes. Does that sound fair or overpriced?

Probably Toyo tires, which I've heard are a decent discount brand.

I'd say 4x Winter Tires + 4 basic Steel rims + Installation for $850 is pretty decent, but a second opinion is always a good idea.

Spudge

Toyo puts out some dang nice tires. I have Proxes4 installed on my Saab (HELLA good tires) and 10-ply Open Country A/T on the truck. Also worked with a shop that did nothing but Toyo tires on their fleet/oilfield trucks and we rarely ever had any issues.

Zeon

Ruckus wrote: »

Cherry wrote: »

So I spoke to my dealership and they suggested a package of Toil tires (not sure if that's the correct spelling), they'll provide the rims and the installation and everything else. They won't store my all season tires.

They're quoting it for $850 before taxes. Does that sound fair or overpriced?

Probably Toyo tires, which I've heard are a decent discount brand.

I'd say 4x Winter Tires + 4 basic Steel rims + Installation for $850 is pretty decent, but a second opinion is always a good idea.

850 for installation on steel rims of toyos is crazy expensive, depending on where you live i guess. Out west, its probably not bad, but in ontario id never pay that much.

Keep in mind, if you wanna buy locally, most shops are probably going to be overcharging or out of stock on winter tires because you just had your first snowfall. Do you have a job? Ask around your office if anyone knows a good place to get winter tires. Id say 400-500 with rims, installed, is probably a good price to aim for. Again, if youre out west, its most likely going to be more expensive. If youre near toronto id tell you to go to Kipling Tire, down on Kipling just south of Bloor, but we didnt get any snow so i suspect youre not.

Cherry

I've actually been looking around and it seems tires with rims is about 300-500 already without installation. And I live in the Ottawa area, to far from Toronto unfortunately.

I've looked at the Tire rack and the recommended packages. It does come up to $400, but with shipping - which is about $200 plus what it would cost to get the tires and rims mounted and aligned it would cost about 700 before taxes....

And with all the hassle of ordering and getting it to ship to a place Tire Rack works with...eh...maybe the $850 is worth the convenience.

MushroomStick

Tire rack will mount and balance the tires on the rims before they ship them to you. At that point all you should need is a jack and a tire iron to get them on the car. Admittedly not the most ideal tools, but the kit with your spare tire would be enough to get them on the car.

Cherry

Mushroom stick - what do you know about the pressure monitoring system. It says that my model of car is equipped with one. And at Tire Rack they recommend I get one, which is about another $200. My car supposedly has one already and might be compatible with the new tires.

zilo

MushroomStick wrote: »

Tire rack will mount and balance the tires on the rims before they ship them to you. At that point all you should need is a jack and a tire iron to get them on the car. Admittedly not the most ideal tools, but the kit with your spare tire would be enough to get them on the car.

This. Or take them to your mechanic and ask them to do it, with an air wrench and lift it takes next to no time at all (and thus should be very cheap, much moreso than swapping tires onto your stock rims).

MushroomStick

Cherry wrote: »

Mushroom stick - what do you know about the pressure monitoring system. It says that my model of car is equipped with one. And at Tire Rack they recommend I get one, which is about another $200. My car supposedly has one already and might be compatible with the new tires.

I know that you can put tires on the without the sensors, which is what I would do if I was going to put an extra set of wheels/tires on a car for only a few months out of the year.

Donovan Puppyfucker

O.P., you need 4 of these in the size 14x5.5.

And 4 of these in 185/65/R14 to go on the wheels.

4 rims at approx $50 each and 4 tyres at approx $75 each comes to $500, not including fitting and balancing. In Australia, fitting and balancing is about $10/tyre. So all up, you should be looking at around about $550-ish.

Swapping the new wheels on to your car is easy as pie, I'd do it for you if I weren't on the opposite side of the globe. The tyre shop should do it free with the purchase of the wheels and tyres, with air tools and a car hoist it takes about 5 minutes tops...