Bought a car with winters on - ride it out til spring or swap to summers still?
 

So I imported a car from the prairies which still has its winter tires on (with a good amount of tread left too) - I guess some of them never take them off? Given that it's presently mid-September, would it still be advisable to swap them to summer tires for a couple of months, or just ride it out until next spring? Driving over the next month and a half is going to suck, but so will changing tires three times in the next five months...

If you have a buddy that works at a shop that can do a seasonal swap for a 12 pack, then yes I'd do it. Otherwise just leave them. Since it came from the prairies I suggest you check and see if they are studded or not. Here you are not permitted studded tires

If you have another set of all seasons/summers already on wheels, I'd just swap them.

too much effort...fuckkit

Do you have a set of tires to swap onto the car already? I've never put my winters on before December in Van, so thats still a good 3-3.5 months. Tires are important. Like the most important thing on a car. Swap em out.

swap em, supposedly we wont even see 0° this winter

Snow tires in 26* weather :fuckthatshit:

If you have a set of A/S on rims, it literally take 15-20 minutes to swap them over.

I cringe when I see winter tires on cars in warm weather - such a waste.

+1 for swap. if you got a set for quick swap just spend the 90mins n do it yourself.

This is an excerpt from BC Ministry of Transportation:


Studded tires
These tires may only be used on BC highways from October 1 to April 30, but must have mountain/snowflake or M+S symbols to be considered winter tires. Use of studded tires outside of this period may result in a fine.

Regulations limit tires to 130 studs each for vehicles weighing less than 4,600 kg, or 175 studs each for vehicles weighing more than 4,600 kg.

If you are using studded tires, you should have them on all four wheels for even traction.

About Winter Tires - Province of British Columbia

If you travel north at all for business, like I have to do, then it is almost time for winter tires on every highway north of the Lower Mainland. Leave them on. I'll be swapping my snowies over for Oct 1st

We already had snow on our local ski hill last week. Snow on the ground here won't be to far off. I was hoping for a non snow Halloween but I don't think it's going to happen :(

As for OP, if all your doing is driving around Vancouver, swap the tires Maybe sell them or trade them for a set of all seasons.

Berz out.

Sounds like a good excuse to shop CL for rims & summers for the new ride to me... keep the winters on rims for when you need them.

What kind of car and what is the tire size and specs? Do intend to swap just tires or rims + tires?

Winter is only a few months away, a month or 2 won't do much to winter tires as long as you don't WOT every chance you get.

Also since fall is here, summer / all seasons tend to go on sale now. I would get a spare set of rims and get one of those discounted sets (RFD has a calendar on when Costco's tires go on sale).. and swap them over come spring.. However it depends on what kind of winters you have now, are they modern winter tires which channel water better? or old school clunky winter tires.. also what are the age of the tires?

Good advice with thoughts on either side. It's a 1 year old RWD IS. Tread life is very good and tires are quite new. They are Blizzak LM-60s (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....=Blizzak+LM-60) mounted on 18" rims, no studs. If I do swap, I will get a set of both tires + rims, likely 19" - I don't have the wheels yet, so it's not something I can do in a day or even within a week if I do decide to change them. I definitely do not plan on unmounting and mounting my tires 3 times over the course of the next few months. I suppose could do it myself, but I guess it's pretty cheap to just change the tires if they're already mounted at any shop - it's just a bit of a hassle going in so many times in a short period.

I'm leaning towards getting a proper set of summer tires since that's the prevailing advice / general consensus of most people. However, I do have another car that also has a dedicated set of snow tires, so it may be fiscally a wiser choice to just run all-seasons year round so I can sell the winters which are pretty new and in decent shape, and just not drive the IS when it snows.

Well this is very relevant information that would have been useful in your original post. Sell the winters...