I was checking Costco online with their 20% off, selections sucks what's left. Looking at swapping new all-seasons on GF car. I think I'm going to go pick up at Canadian Tire, Continental TrueContact Tour (works out to be $784 after tax). Fits right into my $700-800 ish budget LOL

Has anyone bought tires from CT and actually got them installed at CT? It mentions that in order for them to honor warranty the tires have to be installed at CT (mount/balance purchased at time of sale of tire).

In my years of buying tires in the past, never had I encounter after-sale issues with the tires (normally I buy them online where it is cheapest and get a shop to mount/balance).

Ending up picking up michelin x-ice snows for the wifes new car from costco labour day sale. Picked them up in store and got the mount and balance fee refunded.
Not great time for us to be buying new tires but gotta do you you gotta do to save few extra bucks compared to buying later
Costco prices even beat my employee "cost" prices from a dealer

I've done it in the past and it was an average experience. Bought some clearance Contact SIs a few winters ago at the Tsawwassen location and it was drama-free. Not sure about the warranty part though.

If I brought the tires I got from CT to a buddy shop to mount, then a few weeks later say a defect on the tire occurs, then CT won't honor warranty since it was not installed by them. It's an easy money maker for CT when they put a clause like this in their tire sales.

If you do get CT to mount/balance, make sure you tell them to skip the nitrogen BS ahead of time or they'll do it and charge you extra.

CT might not cover it but the tire manufacturer should.

Making winter tires for the X3. :awwyeah:


https://i.imgur.com/FFcEnb8.jpg

Deciding between Michelin X-Ice Snow or Continental VikingContact 7. They're both pretty similar priced at the moment with the Conti's with a slight edge. Any thoughts on these

https://alltyretests.com/continental...7-test-review/

Here's a test out of Europe that included both. I personally went Conti because the price difference vs. performance was more than enough to justify it.

they will find any way to sneak in extra charges.

I bought some winter tires on sale end of season earlier this year and out of convenience, ask them to mount and balance, and was quoted 100. This is for bare steel wheels that I drop off to them with no tires to unmount. When I go pick them up, they try to tag 12$ each tire for wheel weights. Then they put in extra warranty coverage even though I told them on the phone and in person that I don't need any. End up telling them to remove the tires and get my rims back. This is no3 road and capstan way, but I think all CT auto service is just the same.

Another time I go to Marine Drive CT and ask how much they charge to just unmount 4 tires and got quoted 100 WTF.

I don't get why they all seem to work at a fixed price. Bringing in loose tires and bare wheels is quicker than swapping tires with the wheels on the vehicle.

Back in the spring I unmounted and mounted a bunch of tires for my Jeep by hand out of necessity. Once I got the hang of it, it's pretty quick and easy for anything with a decent sized sidewall.

If anyone is looking to save a few bucks for changeover:

https://www.kaltire.com/en/change-early-and-save/

I’m taking my wheels/tires to get swapped over now. Carry in of course but then I don’t have to worry about it come October

I bought the Falken Winterpeak tires from 1010 and had them mounted on my winter wheels last week. Will likely throw them on the car in November.

I run those cheap winters, so I’ll throw them on whenever the weather gets consistently rainy like today. Semi slicks good daily are doable, but the winters are way safer on our stupid water-logged highways.

They’re so cheap who cares if I get one less season

Curious, do you guys keep steelies or a different set of alloys for your winters, or do you just put your winters on your current alloys?

Separate wheels all the time.

Winters on Apex wheels summers on OEM. Can't afford aftermarket summers yet.

Different set of alloys. I went down to 16" on the GTI and 16" steelies are iffy to clear the brakes. Even the alloys have like 5mm clearance on the calipers lol.

Not exactly winter tire related, but does anyone have recommendations on where to buy new Enkei wheels locally? I know there's 1010Tires, but wasn't sure if there is another spot that I could look into.

Pretty sure Speed Syndicate carries Enkei.

FWIW, I find 1010Tires has very competitive pricing and it beats Speed Syndicate every time on price by a good bit. I like their Marine Drive team as well - good service and nice guys.

I always run a set of wheels per set of tires. Mainly because I like to be able to change over whenever I want, I had to deal with trying to get tires mounted during the chaos of the first day of snow once and I never want to do that again.

If you keep your eyes open you can usually snag a used set of wheels for not much more than the cost of getting tires mounted a couple times, so after a year or two you're saving money.

Alternatively, if you need tires as well, PMC will mount and balance for free if you buy wheels and tires from them at the same time. So you can think of it like getting $100 or so off of the wheels.

Yup always have a set of wheels for each set of tires. Theres always people on CL and FB selling super cheap wheels with basically done tires attached to them.

Ditto on this.

The only caveat here is to check the manufacture date of the tires. Never a great idea to drive on super old tires, but that depends on ones risk tolerance so YMMV.

I have a used set of - Michelin X-Ice Xi3 if anyone wants to get ahead of the rush :)

Edit: Sorry wrong size, they should be 195/65/15. Pending sale atm so I'll re-bump if it doesn't go through :)