h41cyon

I've put on around 52,000 miles in my 07 civic, and it's time to get some new tires. I live out in Seattle and regularly venture up into the mountains where it can snow quite a bit.

I'm looking for some tires that can handle snow well, but won't hinder my usual downtown/freeway driving.

Not looking to go too expensive.

Any recommendations?

h41cyon

from other thread.

h41cyon

the WS60 or the LM-60?

If I went w/ the LM-60's w/ shipping the thing comes to 620, minus installation (Can't do it myself). I wasn't planning on having new tires cost me ~800 bucks.

Anything cheaper?

kc8ktq

Firestone Winterforce is what I went with. My stock size is 195/60/15. Cost was just short of $300 shipped.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

this is usually not possible, snow tires have a much softer compound and do not handle anything like normal all seasons. and they wear out very fast on dry road. so only get these if over 50% of your driving is on snow\ice covered roads. alot of people get em here, even the studded ones, and i think theyre crazy. its already january and we only had one big snow that lasted for less than a week til the roads were cleared. and my cheap $50 garbage tires did just fine. slow down on snow and you will be safer and not need snow tires. not to mention all the hassles of going to a shop to get them mounted and balanced, and again in the summer to change them out.

h41cyon

This sounds a bit more reasonable. If I had to guess, I would say in a year I probably ride in snow about ~1-2 percent of the time. Not much at all.

So now the question is, What year-round tires are the biggest bang for the buck? (in the lower price category)

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

check tirerack reviews for snow traction. there are plenty of decent all season tires that cost around $100 and will last a long time.

h41cyon

Got an amazing deal from Firestone using their 35% off family and friends sales event. Check it out : http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1817261

Got some Bridgestone Potenza RE960A/S Pole Position. I'm absolutely loving them.

Side note: Firestone did a free alignment check and low and behold (surprise surprise), they found out I needed an alignment. The car has 46K miles on it. Here is what they say I'm at:

Camber for the front right: -.6 (range: -.5 to .5)
Toe for front right: -.13 (range: -0.08 to 0.08)

The car drives perfectly straight if I let the steering wheel go. I didn't notice any abnormal wear on the old tires. Think I need to actually get this done?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

the toe may wear the tires faster. its better to just have it aligned and save the tires.

Adam013085

I got some uniroyals at walmart for $100 per tire with lifetime rotation and balance and warrantee. Prob gonna get flamed for buying tires at walmart but they worked great in the snow that i drove through so far this year. They are an 80k mile tire too. I will look when I get home at exactly what they are.