I had no choice, because the sizes I needed were not available up here in Canada. I was totally prepared to pay duties and taxes, but border guard, seeing my innocent, grandfatherly look, let me go without paying anything. I had the paperwork and all. She may have seen the US DOT numbers on the receipt and thought it was made in the USA. It's made in Japan.

Tire Rack's prices are in plain view on their web site. Do the math and see if it's worth it. I had mine sent to 24/7 Parcel and I got charged 5 bucks each tire. Two day shipping, if it comes out of their Nevada warehouse. Shipping was free. I had to pay Wa tax and some tire surcharge. Total with taxes and everything in, came to 245.00 USD. Small tires mind you, but still decent for a set of snows.

Not snow tire related, but I remember going down to Portland for Polynesian Days. My Ridgeline's summers were worn down close to the warning markers. Right there and then I decided to get new tires. No taxes in Portland and the prices were better than up here. Plus, I got the instant rebate. I was gone for three days, so all was good, as far as paying duties and stuff.

Also, as a side note. I am heading down to Bellingham/Burlington tomorrow. I have my Canadian Tire receipt for the new snow tires in the glove box. In case they question the new tires and rims I have on. If you do have snows installed south of the border, you are supposed to declare the labour cost of installing the tires.

send it to 5D packages for tires, its $3/set of tires. I ordered from discount tire direct and they sent me 2 pairs of tires so I only paid $6 for 4 tires package fee

You can easily order steelies from Costco online (no membership required for online) for anywhere from $40-$60 per wheel. If you can't even afford the cost of buying steelies + winter tires then you should really reconsider having a car as an expense.

the 'save wear' argument doesn't quite apply to most motorists in the Vancouver area (some of the shortest commutes in North America)

by the time I hit year 6 and looking at replacements, even running year-round i'm nowhere close to exceeding the warranty parameters (typically 80k)...maybe if you own some high-powered RWD like 911 that chews rubber faster or attend half a dozen HPDE events a year

and there's snow/ice less than 2 weeks a year in these parts, all-weather at best for non-RWD if you don't visit ski slopes is reasonable

the RWD will be garaged under 5 degrees but it's more about no wanting salt/having the lip torn off/others crashing into it

Vancouver being Vancouver and storage and garage being a premium, i can see why many can't reasonably have 2 sets

if it's sucha drastic problem, we would've already been mandated to have snows in the city like in Quebec.

anyways, this thread should get merged already with the existing one

What I’m saying is... winter tires are worth every penny. Not steelies or rims. My post was not about being affordable or not.

just resell the rims when you're done

or better yet, buy used rims and resell when done

:pokerface: it's only when you get euros with weird offset that get expensive and PITA

Well steelies or rims are technically worth every penny... because they are part of the wheel and you can't use the tires without them, lol.

Find used rims on craigslist. You'll get a better deal on those than buying ugly steelies brand new. I wouldn't be able to justify paying $50~ for ugly steelies.

i actually prefer the look of steelies over cheap alloy rims.
steelies says winter wheelset, buying the cheapest alloy rims on craigslist says i'm a ricer and i ditched my nice factory wheels for these knockoff momos

my knockoffs make my car look better :badpokerface:

just get the small hub cap replacements, no one can tell if they are oem or not :lawl: best thing you can buy from ebay

by the way can you get hub rings for steelies? there seems to be debate about it. I don't want to buy a set and find out they only work for mags.

Normally aluminum wheels hubs are chamfered and it’s easier to accept hubcentric rings. That being said I’ve seen them on steel wheels before, but usually just order steel wheels that actually fit your car

I do steelies and then put a plastic hub cap and I think it looks pretty good. Can't really tell the difference unless you really look.

The steelies stand out too much for my liking, having a nice hub cap on makes a world of difference.

These are what I got for my gf's Civic with steelies, and I think they blend into the car versus the ugly black steelies.

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/wc...9_pri_larg.jpg